See Eunny Knit!

We all have to be good at something. I happen to be the clumsiest person I know or know of, including the gawky 14-year-old making my latte and the neighbor-guy who set his house on fire two weekends ago. Most people have a basic command over their limbs by their twenties, wouldn't you say? Not so your friend Eunny - yesterday, I was walking, minding my own business, when my legs just decided to suddenly buckle and I hit the ground like a Hefty bag full of vegetable soup. Not tripped by anything - not a misstep into a crack - just not having a handle on that whole locomotion thing. Anyway, my chin and cheekbone are a lovely shade of ground beef, and my hand is raw enough to be terribly stiff all the time.

The point is, not much knitting going on, what with The Claw, and all. But I've been busy! Remember the too-small felted vest? I blocked it with some gentle stretching, and got another couple inches out of it:

Now that it's completely square and even, I'll get around to making the cut one of these days.

And here's a design I like for the lace scarf, represented very poorly with my truly lame lace-drawing skills:

I was thinking three "strips" of print o' the wave, surrounded by a narrow edging of bead stitch and finished with a plain garter stitch border. It would be very simple, but all the more modern for that, and I do so dearly love the idea of taking a very old pattern and making it look new. I'm looking into doing River, too (thanks, Annie and Angela), but everyone who's made it says it can be monstrous boring. So...if you can visualize the print o' the wave scarf beyond the heinous drawing, or if you've made River, what do you think?

Postscript - I was freaked right the hell out yesterday when a woman stopped me in the grocery store to ask if I had a knitting blog and if my name was Eunny. Hi, Rachel!

Posted by Eunny at 09:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (28)

Ashley and Laura - brilliant idea about the adding of side panels to the felted vest. I'm kind of ashamed I didn't think of it myself - thanks, you guys! It remains to be seen how successful the operation can be; the patient is young and otherwise healthy, but a rigorous and exhausting round of soaking, stretching and blocking will have to be undergone before surgery can even be attempted. Then, we have to worry about cutting straight and then creating holes to knit up with the trim yarn. In any event, I don't believe we'll be able to save the armhole trim; it'll have to be sacrificed for the greater good.

Homestretch on the shroud for wrapping the spawn of unholy unions Fir Cone Shawl. The next image will be an FO...that is, if the finished piece doesn't suck the breath out of my chest or smother me in my sleep, once it's free of the needles.

New acquisitions:

That's Dale Hauk, a sportweight 4-ply wool treated with Teflon to make it water resistant. I've never worked with it before, but thought it would be mighty keen for making a pair of convertible gloves for Jeff.

I have yet to swatch it or start playing with it, but in the ball, it feels only a bit strange. It's not plastic-y or crunchy; rather, it feels almost a little oily, like raw wool full of lanolin. Odd; we'll have to see.

And that's the pattern for the Heartstrings Flared Lace Smoke Ring, which I bought because the lace rib was so interesting-looking. Maybe I'll actually knit it some day...I think I have a slot opening up right after the next ice age.

Will the felted vest survive the operation and make a full recovery? How will the shawl block out? Is the Teflon yarn high tech, or highly unpleasant? When in the next millenium is the smoke ring going to be knit, and what in blazes prompted the purchase of the pattern?

Find out all this, and more - same bat time, same bat channel.

Posted by Eunny at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Any felting gurus out there? Or felting surgeons, or maybe even a felting undertaker?

I made this vest for my mom last year, out of Beverly Galeska's wonderful book Felted Knits.

It's just the kind of thing she likes for cold weather; something warm that leaves her arms and hands unencumbered to fly about, taking care of her own business and everyone else's. Unfortunately, it's about four inches too small in circumference.

The item is knit all in one piece, with a short-row collar and edgings knitted on with superwash wool after felting.

Does anyone know how I can add some width to this thing? I'm thinking that there's no reason why a soak in warm water and some judicious pulling and stretching would hurt it, but I know you guys know better than I do. The felt is very thick and sturdy - do I have to worry about tearing it or pulling it apart?

The fir cone is reminding me of that old vaudeville act, the one where a performer would carry a potted tree across the stage behind his oblivious partner. It would be a little larger and more mature each time, until he was eventually lugging an enormous piece of greenery across the stage, dripping oranges and leaves.

Yeah, think of it exactly like that.

Posted by Eunny at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)