The Clapotis (pronounced “clap-o-tee”) was first published in Knitty’s Fall 2004 issue. It took a while till people noticed it, but soon the pattern was on the needles of almost every knitter with an internet connection. As of September 2024, there were almost 24,000 versions logged in Ravelry’s database, and who knows how many more have been knit, unlogged?

This is the 20th Anniversary of the Clapotis, and so we wanted to celebrate this wonderful, versatile pattern, the woman who designed it – Kate Gilbert (more on her below) – and the work of indie dyers who toil over hot, wet yarn to give us the colors and textures we love so much.

In this compendium of beauty, we feature 63 indie dyers located all over the world, each having knit up a Clapotis in their favorite combination of yarn and colorway. They’re featured here in the order their photos were received; our cover photo was the first entry! Every page shares their gorgeous Clapotis, who the dyer is, and what yarn and colorway they used. And you could win some of this yarn! See contest rules below.

Flip through the book and enjoy the pictures of these gorgeous Clapotises. As you browse, you can click in the flipbook to get right where you need to.

• Clicking a picture will take you to the yarn in their shop.
• Clicking the Instagram username will take you to their IG feed.
• Clicking the dotted square icon will let you see the flipbook full screen.
• Clicking the cloud/arrow icon will let you download the book as a PDF so you can browse at your leisure.

 

Kate Gilbert. It’s hard for me to express the gratitude I have for Kate Gilbert and her work. This event is my best stab at it. Thanks to Clapotis, the (arguably) first-ever viral knitting pattern on the nascent Internet, Knitty gained a huge following early on. We still have countless readers 22 years later who found us back then because of Clapotis. Back in 2004, Knitty wasn’t making much money. Our only revenue was a little advertising. We paid Kate what we paid everyone for their patterns in 2004: $50. A pittance. Meanwhile, Kate moved continents, became a single mom; and created and operated a super-successful online magazine – Twist Collective – which eventually closed due to factors beyond her control. Now that we are properly celebrating Clapotis, I want us to celebrate Kate Gilbert, too. I call upon knitters everywhere to drop some financial thanks into Kate’s ko-fi jar. More than 24,000 Clapotises have been knit, and it's time that us knitters send Kate a proper fiscal thank you for the immense contribution her work has made to the online knitting community at large and for the joy this pattern has brought so many of us. Take a minute, please, click on this link, and leave a fiscal thank you. Amy Sadler editor, knitty.com PS Yes, Ms Gilbert knows about this and has given her blessing.

Contest rules:

Readers of Knitty could win their choice of a Clapotis worth of indie-dyed yarn, generously and kindly provided by each independent yarn dyer! Here's how to enter the contest:

• To be eligible to win, knit a Clapotis in the yarn of your choice and submit ONE (1) stellar photo to this page. We encourage you to use indie-dyed yarn, but will accept any yarn of any description for your contest entry. Your Clapotis entry/ies must have been handknit after September 17, 2024.
• You may enter as many Clapotises as you are able to handknit by the deadline. Only one (1) entry per Clapotis will be accepted. (ie you may not send in multiple entries of the same Clapotis.) You must knit a new Clapotis for each entry. It's kind of the whole point of the thing.
• Your photo and entry form must be received by December 6, 2024, at midnight, EST. Entries received after this date will not be eligible to win.
• Entries may come from anywhere on the planet. Even Québec.
• All entries received by the deadline will be assembled into a flipbook like the Clapotisfest book shown above, which will share the knitter's first name, general location (ie State/Province and Country), yarn and quantity used. This flipbook will go live in the Winter '24 Knitty Surprise, along with the Surprise patterns, in mid-January 2025.
• 50 photo entries that receive the most votes are considered winners. The respective knitters of each winning Clapotis will receive their choice from the prize pool, with the Clapotis that received the most votes having first choice. We will then work our way down the winners list until all the prizes have been claimed. We feel the knitting of the Clapotis is the equivalent of a skill-testing question, so no math will be required.
• We will post the list of winners and which yarn they chose in our Spring+Summer 2025 issue, which goes live in March 2025.
• You may share your Clapotis contest entry(ies) in progress or complete on social media as much as you like! We'd appreciate it if you'd use the #clapotisfest hashtag, and link to this page if you can. Thank you for helping get the word out!
• To stay on top of contest deadlines, and see when the entries and winners are posted, join our little respectful mailing list here.

Editor's note: Indie dyers did not pay to enter their work in Clapotisfest, and Knitty is not profiting off this promotion financially, though we are happy to welcome any new readers who may have found us this way. Our goal with this event is to publicize the work of indie dyers, celebrate and thank Kate Gilbert, and bring new readers to us. Thanks for reading.