Moms' Tea - Butterfly Garden

This past weekend, I hosted the 3rd annual "Moms' Tea" at my place - my mom and MIL come over for some appetizers and lunch, followed by tea. I always look forward to this soiree because it's fun to plan for a ladies afternoon, and the moms get to catch up. I really love to entertain, so it's perfect. I prepared goat cheese tarts, some cantaloupe and prosciutto hors d'oeuvres, a cheese platter, & some lemon and blueberry cookies. The moms brought a salad and some individual blueberry cheesecakes, as well. And - the piece d'resistance were my butterfly cupcakes. They came out great!

I had a butterfly theme for the day, and the genesis of this idea is pretty ridiculous: A couple weeks ago, I was sitting in the food court at the mall, eating my Chik-Fil-A kids meal (what can I say, I wasn't really that hungry). The meal came with a toy, which happened to be a packet of trading cards with different animals on them. I was going to give the toy to a co-worker's kid, but I'd already opened the toy bag to see what was in it. Mainly cards with creepy, crawly critters, but one card had a photo of a beautiful monarch butterfly on it. And I actually though of my Monarch Handmaiden Yarn that I'm knitting the clapotis from! I thought that I could make these monarch cupcakes and wear my clapotis for tea!

I don't know why I quite often times set these ludicrous expectations on myself! I calculated that I'd need another 20 knitting hours to finish the clapotis. There's no way I can finish it anytime soon! But..... it did motivate me to progress on it, and make the chocolate butterflies, and the menu for the tea! So it all worked out! I had a great time at tea, and I think the moms did too!

The recipe for my tart is here, along with a little butterfly poem below!

I've watched you now a full half-hour;
Self-poised upon that yellow flower
And, little Butterfly! Indeed
I know not if you sleep or feed.
How motionless! - not frozen seas
More motionless! and then
What joy awaits you, when the breeze
Hath found you out among the trees,
And calls you forth again!
~William Wordsworth, "To a Butterfly"

"Thou shalt not drop a stitch...unless knitting a clapotis"

So..... I've been working on the clapotis. I've finished the increases and am well into the body of this wrap. The pattern isn't difficult, but calls for a droppped stitch to fall and propegate to create the parallel bars between knitted columns. Yes, that's right, an intentional dropped stitch that you let run down the project. This wasn't intuitive at all, since in knitting, a run-away dropped stitch is generally the kiss of death to a project. The saving grace here is that the pattern has built in yos at the bottom of the dropped stitch row that protect the run-aways from spreading beyond the column. Plus, the knitted columns are bordered by a "K tbl" stitch that keep them intact, as well (I'm not sure if that's fashion or function, but I'm not taking any chances). Droping the stitch is kinda like watching a run spread in a pair of stockings, except this actually is intentional and has a positive outcome. A close-up of how the dropped stitch creates a ribbon-y effect is shown above.

This weekend, I knit a good amount of this clapotis while watching "The Ten Commandments". I love those religious epic movies, and this one is the grand-daddy of them all. I just realized this is a Passover movie, even though watching it is an Easter tradition for me. True, there's no mention of Christ since this is an Old Testament story, true they mention the plague PASSing OVER the blood-sealed doors, and true Moses liberates the Jews from Rameses. But I didn't put all the pieces together until discussing it with DH. Better late than never! It is a great film, and I got a lot done in those 5 hours I spent watching and working on the clapotis.

Speaking of timing - I have to say with this project, I definitely underestimated the time I'll need to finish it. I was thinking of trying to have it completed for "Moms' Tea" this weekend, but no way. Not even my sweatshop-knitting pace could crank it out that fast. The portion of the scarf that I'm on calls for 12 set of repeats, with 10 rows per set (and 107 stitches per row). Yeah, definitely delusional to think I'd have it done anytime this month. But that's ok! The yarn (Handmaiden yarn) is beautiful to work with, so it's been a pleasure to knit it. Here's where the project is now:

Oh Happy Day!

We're in a recession. Unemployment is going up. The stock market is coming down. It's raining out. BUT MY HANDMAIDEN YARN JUST ARRIVED IN THE MAIL!!!

2 skeins arrived, neatly packed in a ziplock bag. What a pick-me-up! I purchased the Seasilk yarn - 70% silk, 30% sea cell (a cellulose fiber made with seaweed...). I only ordered this after doing a good amount of research on it, since it is pricey. But everyone on-line and on Ravelry said this was amazing to work with. I hope to be able to agree!

The color I chose is called "Monarch" - it's got lots of golden tones. I'm going to make the clapotis scarf with it. The clapotis pattern involves a lot of intentionally dropped stitches to make a ribbony effect in the scarf. Click here to see a finished one!

One interesting thing I've read about this yarn is that it smells like the ocean. There was the faintest smell of salt water when I first sniffed it! But now that I've had it out of the bag for a couple hours, it seems to have gone. I'm amazed at all the beautiful colors and the silky (yet strong) texture of this yarn. I can't wait to get going on this project!