Eastburn Adventures

Most of my faithful blog readers know that I only learned to knit because my sister, the blogless Kathy, asked me to find someone to teach me, and then I could teach her. However, her beginning lessons were less than stellar. She became frustrated, and determined that I could cast on for her, and that she would only knit, because "purling was too hard." However, determination and patience paid off, and now Kathy can churn out stockinette with the best of 'em.

She decided she wanted to make a felted purse. Keep in mind that I've yet to felt anything. Brianne had a pattern; Kathy picked out yarn. The problem was that the yarn she picked was a worsted weight wool instead of the bulky weight that the pattern called for. We did a test strip and felted it, and Kathy took off knitting the base of the purse. The problem was, I've had limited time available to help her with the pattern and picking up the stitches to start the bag part. This is an excerpt of an e-mail she sent to me:

"I really want to fit the knitting in somewhere soon. Are you going to be around in the morning? If you're not busy could you run down here with the pattern and show me what to do next? I can't leave the garage (she was having a garage sale), and I hate to say it, but I'm afraid the knitting thing is making me crazy - I'm enviously looking at the part I've done every time I walk by it in the kitchen, and feel sorry for it just laying there alone and neglected." (Note to Kathy: this is why you should have more than one project going at a time.)

Isn't that great? She's one of us! How could I turn her down? So this morning I headed on over to her house where she showed me this:

Like I said, I've never felted before, but I kind of thought this was a little overboard (this is just for the bottom of the bag, remember?). Our test felt only lost about 30%, so unless she was planning on a huge tote bag, there was no choice but to rip it out.

Kathy said, "Rip it out? But I worked so hard - it took me so long to do this much! But, I want it to be right" - so right then and there - whoosh! Off the needles and that yarn went back into the stash. (We went shopping tonight for a bulky weight wool to start over.)

I'm so proud.