Keeping Busy in Winter
Saturday, February 4, 2023
I have a hard time sitting still. As such, I made a bargain with myself that during the cold months, I would rest, and that rest didn't have to be sleep, necessarily, and that I could keep my hands busy with knitting or crocheting.
I had a favorite sweater. It was one of those magical garments that saw me through pregnancy and postpartum and never stopped fitting. It was like the sisterhood of the traveling pants but with non-maternity maternity clothes. One homeschool cooperative day, we were in a hurry to leave on time, and I went out to the barn to pitch the goats some hay. One of Honey's horns caught in the sleeve of my sweater and I didn't notice until she pulled away to chow down on some hay and ripped a 2x2 inch hole in favorite sweater. Well, favorite sweater got demoted to jammy sweater status and stopped leaving the house with me, until today!
I had some time during nap to mend it using a Swiss darning technique. For those not familiar, basically, I found a yarn with similar color palette, and sewed in the horizontal bars of the knitting over the hole, leaving enough slack on the left hand side to cover the width of the hole. Then, I just started at the bottom and picked up stitches with a crochet hook as I would if I'd dropped stitches in a knitting project. As I look at it now, I ought to have started at the other end, because the repaired stitches are pointing the opposite direction of the other sleeve stitches. But, it's on the under side of the sleeve, so I'm not terribly worried about that bit of continuity. The sleeve is in a k1p1 ribbed pattern so there was a bit of challenge in working from the back side to mend the purl stitches through the tiny sleeve opening, but overall, I'm pleased with the end result.
On cold days like these, I'm thankful both for progress on my fiber crafting skill set as well as a mended favorite sweater.
I had a favorite sweater. It was one of those magical garments that saw me through pregnancy and postpartum and never stopped fitting. It was like the sisterhood of the traveling pants but with non-maternity maternity clothes. One homeschool cooperative day, we were in a hurry to leave on time, and I went out to the barn to pitch the goats some hay. One of Honey's horns caught in the sleeve of my sweater and I didn't notice until she pulled away to chow down on some hay and ripped a 2x2 inch hole in favorite sweater. Well, favorite sweater got demoted to jammy sweater status and stopped leaving the house with me, until today!
I had some time during nap to mend it using a Swiss darning technique. For those not familiar, basically, I found a yarn with similar color palette, and sewed in the horizontal bars of the knitting over the hole, leaving enough slack on the left hand side to cover the width of the hole. Then, I just started at the bottom and picked up stitches with a crochet hook as I would if I'd dropped stitches in a knitting project. As I look at it now, I ought to have started at the other end, because the repaired stitches are pointing the opposite direction of the other sleeve stitches. But, it's on the under side of the sleeve, so I'm not terribly worried about that bit of continuity. The sleeve is in a k1p1 ribbed pattern so there was a bit of challenge in working from the back side to mend the purl stitches through the tiny sleeve opening, but overall, I'm pleased with the end result.
On cold days like these, I'm thankful both for progress on my fiber crafting skill set as well as a mended favorite sweater.
