Repair ...

So over the last few years I have become more and more interested in repair as a practice, and I have to say I am becoming more comfortable about repairing and been seen to repair. I grew up in the 1960’s and 1970’s in New Zealand, where for political and economical reasons there was a pretty much a closed economy. You could buy anything, as long as it was made in New Zealand, or that possibly could be made in New Zealand. That meant that when the rest of the developed world had tv, we were waiting for someone to make the components and then make the tv ...cause technically tv's could be made here ( even if they weren't). The same kind of logic applied to all sorts of other things, electronics, cars, toys, shoes, carpets ... pretty much everything one wanted and saw in the media that those overseas had. I know now the media painted a rosey and unrealistic image of a world of plenty - but then I didn't know that. And this was post World War Two, and economically and culturally New Zealand aligned with England, who had a rather slow economic recovery from the war. My parents were children of the war, so their experience was pretty much the stuff you had was the stuff you could afford, and the stuff you could make. My dad was a mechanic, so fixing things was what he did at work, and at home, our house was a fixer-upper, our car old and repaired, and then repaired again, both the motor and the body. My mum sewed, and when we grew the clothes were altered and let out, always in such a way the adjustment was concealed. When the electric kettle died a new element was bought, when a heater, lamp, or radio stopped working a repair was made, either by dad or he took it to a repair shop. My childhood radio was 1960’s white plastic, with valves, two white knobs and one unmatched 1970’s black knob as that as what the repairer had to hand.

None of that bothered me, that was how we lived. Fixing stuff was just what was done. What did bother me as when china broke, plates or cups, and they were glued together, and continued to be used. I have to admit that was my grandmother not my parents. There was something uncomfortable about a visable repair, a patch, a line of yellow glue oozing out of a mend, a criss-cross of sticky tape across a rip or torn cover or page. What bothered me more was when the repair decayed, the glue yellowed, the sticky tape came unstuck, and the item was worse than before. So recently my hand felted slippers started to wear, and life was busy, too busy to make another pair, but the more I wore them the larger the holes got. I still live in New Zealand but the economic and political climate is very different, I could have stopped and bought any number of replacement slippers ... cheap, mass produced and on the whole ugly. I could have searched out more expensive slippers ... Lambskin lined with soles, but it loved the idea and the feel of my hand felted ones. Then a few days ago I gave in, and darned an hole closed,

It looked good, I used sock yarn and liked the effect, so I added a darn to the instep, where another hole was forming.

And the. I decided that I would try chain stitch over the darn, and I liked the effect, the darn looked like knitting. I added a band of chain stitch around the top edge and another around the edge of the sole. I began to see that this kind of repair could be ok, not ugly and very much not making do.

 

Ther was just one problem, the inside was as worn as the outside, maybe more so. The only thing that stopped the holes in the felt was a layer of leather, the sole. I knew that stitching over those holes wouldn't be as easy, they were inside and I'd feel any lumps and bumps.

Enter my knitting library, and a book I've had for ages. Icelandic knitting using rose patterns by Hélène Magnùsson. This book explores the garter stitch colour work found in shoe-rags or inner soles and applies the designs to outerwear. I was a little surprised not to find a shoe-rag pattern in the book, but there were heaps and heaps of clear photos of historical examples. After a few false starts where I overthought the process and tried to make anatomically correct innersoles with left and right toe shaping and a narrower heel than the ball of the foot I gave in and knit some as pictured. And these work, surprisingly fantastically so.

Somehow the pointy garter oblong fits into a slipper and moulds itself to fit, garter stitch is magic - beginner knitters don't appreciate how forgiving it is. The innersole adjusts to the shape of the slipper with no wrinkles or bumps. I'm already halfway through the second one ...

Pattern to follow, if there is interest, for those who like warm feet, have worn out slippers and like me are coming to terms with repairing things that take so long and so much knowledge and effort that replacing them isn't an easy option.

Na Stella

 

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Gaining ground

Look progress! I've been knitting, dealing with the outstanding WIPs, and mending. Mending and I have an odd relationship, I make things, and I do believe that things should be mended, where practical and where possible. But when it comes down to doing mending i find it rather boring, I'd rather be knitting some new project than mending an old worn project, even when the item in question is a favorite hand knit, and I can't wear it as to do so would create more damage.

My Owl cardigan had holes in it, and a few weak spots, like this. Just where the arm and body join, at the back armscye. I noticed this at the end of last winter, and this internist upon us here in New Zealand. I diligently dug out my left over yarn and set the cardigan aside for mending. And there it sat gathering dust ...for an entire spring, summer and into autumn.

Here it is post mend, not the same hole as above, but a similar one. All mended. Part of me wanted to celebrate the repair, to follow in the footsteps of Tom of Holland with his visible mending program, or Otto van Busch, or Amy Twigger Holroyd and make a clear statement of my mending. Part of me was awa that for much of recent history in the west mended garments have been interpreted as statements of poverty and need - I wasn't sure I wanted to go there just yet. Plus I wasn't sure I wanted to subvert my Owl cardigan into a political statement about mending and repair just now ... I liked it as it was. The mends are not perfect, but are near invisible when worn. I had wondered a out darning the mend but ended up working a swiss darn/grafting style stitch over the thin areas and the holes.

With darning needle in hand, and a start made I continued on to mend the second cardigan in my mending pile. My tangled yoke cardigan, I had left over yarn, and this one had worn in exactly the same places, where the body and arms join.

Again the mend was a combination of swiss darning and grafting. Again I ended up either mending or reinforcing all four areas where the sleeve and body join. Turns out that a stitch in time is easier than a full repair! Turns out that those who came before us and did all this first are worth listening to.

I've also dug out my unfinished knitting projects, the ones that I feel guilty about. I've made progress on two. The sanquhar mitts on teeny tiny needles have grown, as has my pi shawl. I'm over half way through the second to last lace band - except it might not be second to last. I choose to knit this on finer needles and so the shawl will be denser and smaller than designed. Knowing that, and knowing the mathematics of a pi shawl I wonder if I should just add a lace repeat or two more? I have plenty of yarn ... I have four more repeats of four rounds (16 rounds) to make a decision.
All in all it seems like I am gaining ground against the mending and the WIPs that lurk around the edges of my hobby time.
Take care, na Stella

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Enough - maybe , probably.

I think I have enough yarn, I think I do, I think I do, I think I do. Do you think that if I repeat this mantra as I knit there will be enough? And sorry, seems I am having a flashback to the little train that could. Today I have progress of a good kind on the  Rosebuddie blanket, the dress is nearly finished and I am loving the vintage details in its construction, there is an actual finished object with photos, and a new toy was loaned to me. Now I want one of my own.

Here is the 'first' corner on the Rosebuddie blanket. I say first in a slightly tongue in check way as I have knit the edging up to and around the corner once if not twice before on this very same blanket, so there have been corners before. Last time I realised I would finished the blanket with an enormous amount of yarn left over. At which point I frogged the edging and added a few more repeats of the next-to-last lace panel. I had weighed the yarn I had left just before I began the lace edge, and had 49g. I weighed the yarn again after I reached the first corner, and I had 38g left. Now to me that means a side takes 11 grams of yarn, and if I have three sides left to knit I will use 33g. The celebrations consisted of me sitting in my knitting chair, smiling to myself and checking and rechecking my maths just to make sure. Inside I was all happy and warm, even more so this morning when I layed out the corner for a photo and noticed how pretty it is.

 Wednesday went well, I sewed the vintage dress pattern as planned. I made minor adjustments as my waist is not in the same place as the waist of the pattern, and oddly had to shorten the skirt as the hem was nearly to my ankles. That felt a bit frumpy so the hem now sits just below my knee. I loved the little construction details, like seam binding. In a recent Opp shop purchase I had found a wheel of vintage cream and orange floral seam binding so bought it for the princely sum of $4. The vintage pattern provided three options for neatening the seams, pinking, hand overcasting or seam binding. Seam binding isn't used here in New Zealand, or sold but as I had this to hand I decided to use it. I did practice some economies and over-lock the skirt seam allowances. I loved the effect of the seam binding so much I didn't want to use it all up in the one garment. I also like the weird mix of modern overlocking with vintage seam binding .... some historian somewhere will be very confused by that mix.

 Because the dress was designed in a time when seam binding was common the instructions were written to allow very precise and neat finishing of the inside edges. I didn't quite know how this edge would work out but followed the instructions and I'm pleased I did. Look so neat, the way the seam binding fits together where the button fly at the front and the neck facing meet. There were also instructions for hand stitching a button hole, something I can do and have done, but this time I went for machine button holes, I wanted to wear this dress this month, and hand stitch button holes take forever to work.

 This is one more project off the needles, Dark and Twisty. Little wristers in sock yarn, cabled and ribbed. Little cub has been wearing these most days, despite it still being summer and warm, so these should get a lot of wear come winter.

 Now this is the toy that I was loaned, a wee darning aid. At first I didn't quite understand why this would be any better than darning by eye, and hand and using a mushroom or egg. But I love playing with knitting and sewing toys so I dug out a old knit swatch and pretended it had a hole in it.

 Wow! I love this, I want one, I really do. I dont' darn, much or often or even like this but I want one of these. This little gadget make darning a very even square patch easy, I was impressed by the clever little hooks that lift and turn the warp so you can just slide the darning needle across instead of weaving up and down through all the threads. Now this darn breaks many of the rules given in old books, especially where they suggest staggering the edges so the darn blends in better, but I like it. I have all sorts of ideas about using this to decorate knit or not knit things. The back is neat and tidy to, but didn't photograph well. I imagine if there was a hole I could either neaten the edges by stitching them to the darn, or trim them away, or both.

Tomorrow the cubs go back to school and Bear and I both return to work, until now one or the other of us has been at home for childcare purposes. Tomorrow is the first standard week of the  working year for all of us. That means today is all about making sure the cubs are clean, tidy, washed, and ready to go to school. There will also be baking as things are prepared for lunch boxes, and books are labeled, shoes polished, bags emptied of the fun holiday stuff and filled ready for school. Excuse me as I go and be a parent, instead of a Knitter.

na Stella

Mending ...

Mending, one of those chores that I tend to ignore and put aside. I'd much rather knit new yarn into new things, or frog a project and knit it into something new and exciting than mend. That said usually there isn't much around to mend, most of our clothes tend to be buttonless nowadays, tee shirts and stretch tops, so replacing buttons is not a weekly event, yearly perhaps but not weekly. The same with holes or worn bits, clothes are just cheaper and more plentiful than in days gone by .. for lots of reasons, economics of production and scale and trade, and expectations and standards of living, not to mention use of hard wearing synthetics to add durability to things. There are a few times when I will mend things, and more and more the things I take time to mend are the things that I've taken time to make. This week I sat myself down and mended smallest cubs sock, the one with the hole in the toe, and I checked the blanket was all done by piecing it all together (it would be easy to miss a square, cast off prematurely and delude my self), and I started three new projects (two with charts galore). Yes it is official - I have no self control when it comes to keeping the pile of knitting projects beside my chair in check.



So mending, a few weeks ago I posted about the hole in smallest cubs sock. One thing I have realized about kids is that if something is uncomfortable they won't wear it - but they will sit playing on a cold hard floor in the most uncomfortable position to play ... go figure. I just knew that if I darned this sock there was a risk that the slight bump of the darn would mean the sock was rejected. Oh in the old days, when socks were mended as a matter of course I doubt a child or adult would have dared mention the discomfort of a darn least they be told how ungrateful they were and left with holes or had to mend their own. But I live in a modern world so my kids, well when I said they were works in progress that includes the part where they say what they think instead of stopping to consider the consequences. I could just imagine my youngest telling me 'it feels strange'. So I decided to reknit a new toe, first I snipped a stitch just above the hole.
Then I raveled stitch by stitch one row of stitching, you can see the hole more clearly here. It was a good size - large enough for a toe to poke out. Because this was a worn sock, one that had been washed a few times - the stitches behaved beautifully, and held around waiting for me to pick them up.


Once I had separated the end of the sock with the hole from the rest of the sock I picked up all the stitches onto my standard sock needle (2.25mm). One advantage of mending ones own knitting is having a record of needle size and stitch counts to work with.


Then I headed off to the stash of left over sock yarn and sorted out one that would work with the pink.


Blue it was, I started to knit, decreasing 4 stitches as per usual every second round until I had the same number of stitches I had cast on for the sock.


Then I grafted it closed from the outside, over a darning mushroom. Handy things those darning mushrooms even when one is not darning.

On the inside the new section is a little less fuzzy than the original section of the sock. I wove in all the ends, the one from unraveling the sock, the one from starting to knit with the blue, and the tail from the grafting the toe closed.

And all done, possibly a bit weird to have one blue toe on a pair of socks - but a successful mend. Time taken - less than one hour all up including a cup of tea and stopping to hunt for a suitable yarn to use. I briefly thought of replacing the second toe 'just-in-case' but a quick examination showed no sign of a hole forming. It probably was as I said, unkempt toe nails that caused the wear and tear.

So the blanket is all there, I've checked as did Yo-yo the cat. I half expected to have her curl up and sleep on the blanket .. but no the end of the hallway was in direct sunlight so she stretched out and sleep there. My next step on this project is to locate a yarn to seam it with - odds are there is something in stash, when that is done I have a wheel of white ready to use as an icord edging - then it will be ready to block.

Knitters Study Group was Saturday(yesterday). We have two sessions on Estonian knitting, the idea is a small sampler type project ... I've started an alpaca scarf. This is loosely based on one in Nancy Bush's Lily of the Valley Scarf in Lace of Estonia, but I'm planning to work the body of the scarf in the Greta Garbo Hearts Number 3. My scarf will be wider to allow 3 repeats of the hearts across the width of the scarf .. and so far so good. I've worked the edging -and thought I'd work the other edging then work the two ends of the scarf at once ready to graft together in the middle.

And then there was knit night, where I needed a project with no chart, one that could handle conversation, distractions and stop start knitting. I was tempted by Heart of Glass by Vintage Purls, and I have the pattern but seems I used the yarn in the sock kit as the contrast in my Nightingale. Nothing else in stash seemed right for Heart of Glass ... so I started Spiral Bound instead. Its fun .. a nice straightforward knit at least for now - that might all change as I get to the heel which like all her heels is nicely planed to fit with the stitch pattern.

There is a third new project on the needles .. but that one is a secret project .... one I can't blog, yet .... but it has a chart and colour and is soft and squishy.

So with any luck this week will be clearer, with less time allocated to meetings and marking - except I have only 4 weeks of work left this year so my time will be full of meetings and marking. But it is spring, it is warmer and the evenings are lighter so there seems more time to do things in. Take care .... hope your knitting basket is full of fun stuff

Stella

There is a hole in a sock in my house!

Yes a hole. Yesterday my youngest cub announced that there was a hole in her favorite pink socks so she solved the problem by putting a pair of commercial socks underneath. Clearly while she knits she is not yet a knitter who recognizes that holes are bad things and must be fixed. Darning that sock has now been added to my to-do list, along with knitting the grey band around the sheltand yarn blanket, finishing the cat mittens for elder cub. There are new toys in my house .... some fibre from a scrappy swap which I totally forgot to photograph, and a new vintage mechanical pencil that is so pretty I want to write every thing in pencil, and a neat magnifying glass.

Socks with holes are not allowed. This is a fear of mine, that if I use yarn with no reinforcement there will be holes, so I tend towards yarn with nylon in it to avoid this very thing - and so far my strategy has worked. Oh there have been holes, perhaps 2 others to date, one in a bamboo-wool blend sock, and the other in the first pair of socks I ever knitted. These socks date from January 2009 - so I guess I should be happy they have lasted so long on a growing 8 year old. The problem may just be long nails - trimming those with this cub is always a battle involving cajoling and bribery. I can't blame the yarn totally, and they are as she said her 'favorite socks', so have been worn often.

In those times when I need to knit and not really focus on my knitting - and there are more of those than I'd care to admit, I have been knitting on the blanket shawl in shetland yarn. The grey garter border grows - slowely, but this is a nice peaceful mindless knit.

Last night I finally returned to my other wip's, or at least one of them, the Cat Mittens by Jorid Linvik. At the end of last night there was most of the third cat, sans tail. Some how charts such as this with different patterning every round seem too difficult for busy times - but then as I knit I realize that charts are not as demanding as i think they will be. Now I have reminded myself of that I should continue to work on these and have them done soon - except we have a weekend away. We are to visit my brother in Christchurch and as we are driving up and back I will need car knitting, portable knitting, and this is not that project.

Monday when I arrived home I found a lovely surprise, well three surprises on the doorstep. A vintage pencil to match my Burnham fountain pen, it isn't a perfect match - but close enough for me. These vintage pencils have 1.1mm lead which is stronger and seems smoother than the modern 0.5mm pencils, and the vintage one has a nice heft and smoothness which feels nice to use.


The second parcel was 140g of spinning fibre, an amazing mix of colours, as the result of a scrap swap I signed up for. I totally forgot to photograph the fibre - but I will next time. I'm curious to see what the others in the swap do with their mixes, singles, two ply, or Navajo ply. The third parcel was a little back ordered item from the Auckland Map Centre. Some time back I found a Lumagraphy magnifying glass in a second hand shop, and it was fantastic but the light was a little unreliable. I googled and found modern versions and ordered one, this is a 6x magnifying glass with a powered light which just makes things easier to see. The light also functions as a torch. I bought 3 of these, they were so cheap, that I figured they would be in use and claimed - and I was right. Bear has already taken one to work and asked for one to give his brother as a gift. This one is mine - I'm not letting it stray far from my work basket.

so ... no post this weekend,
enjoy the sun - or what ever your climate brings.
knit some ... rest some ... laugh some
na Stella

I've lost a sock ...

not in the washing machine, and not one of a pair, but a sock that I have knit. Worse is that is has gone AWAL whilst I'm knitting its mate. I have no idea where it is .. but I do have proof that it existed, proof that I did knit it and complete it. This is maddening, for I'm well aware of the lost sock syndrome, where once the laundry is washed, dried and folded there is a sock or two lonely and without a mate. But this is different, this sock should never have left the house, it should never have left the room, it should never have left the end of the sofa where I sit and knit and should be happily waiting for its mate in my work basket .. but it is not. Today I present the second sock ... without its pair, I repaired the cuffs of one of my favorite cardigans (Owls) and it was surprisingly straightforward, and I'm making plans.....travel knitting plans. It has been busy week, I was away Monday and Tuesday .. and teaching all day Wednesday, and out Thursday .. so the week flew by without a blog update.

I guess I need to advertise, my missing sock looks like this,

Lost - One sock, Theodora, purple, size ML, knit in Vintage Purls Sock, Sock Club edition Theodora. If found please return to me ....


Here is the second sock, nearly done and because the first is lost I can not finish this one. I keep a workbook, a knitting journal in which I write the important things, how many stitches, what size needles, any changes to the pattern .. but what I have not recorded is how long I knit the leg of the first sock before I worked the ribbing. Looking at the photos I guess I could estimate how many lace repeats there are .. but I'd rather line the two socks up and work out the length that way. I have no idea where the missing sock is, I meant to take it with me on a work trip to Wanganui on Monday, but when I got there I couldn't find it in my bag so assumed I had not packed it, When I returned home I realized I couldn't find it here either.... I have no idea where it could be. Are there sock fairies and gnomes? Do they take things sometimes? Can any one help?

I distracted myself by repairing the cuffs of Owls, one of my favorite cardigans. I knit this way back in January and February of 2009 so it has done well. The cuffs were worn so repairs were needed. Last post I wrote about repairs to elder cubs cuffs, but that was a top down gansey and seemed easier to plan the repair for. When I posted that Owls needed repairing I also posted I had none of the yarn left .. but M came to my rescue with a part ball of the same yarn. I had forgotten she has a cardigan in the same yarn - that made me happy and solved the what with problem and only left the how problem.

First I removed the cuffs from the cardigan. Because the sleeves were knit cuff up, I couldn't unravel them. Knitting only ravels one way .. the opposite way to the direction it is knit in.

So ... I snipped a thread one round past the ribbing and gently removed the yarn one stitch at a time. I was surprised to find that it hadn't felted enough to make pulling the thread difficult. I'm keeping these as spare yarn should I have to repeat this repair in a few years.


With the cuffs removed I picked up the stitches on 3.25mm needles and knit up new cuffs. The original cuffs has stretched somewhat larger than I liked. As part of this repair I had opportunity to work the replacement cuffs smaller. For the original I had used 48 stitches in 2x2 rib and increased for the cables by adding 12 extra stitches, this time I increased only two stitches and worked a P2, K2, P2, K4 rib. It was nice having details of the stitch count and needles sizes in my knitting workbook (why oh why didn't I record the same level of detail for the missing sock?). I used the original cuff to gauge how long to make the new cuffs, the same number of cable twists.

I think this worked quite well, the transition between the cuff up sleeve and the replacement sleeve down cuff seems smooth and not really noticeable. I wasn't quite sure what kind of cast off would be best, I wanted something durable and hopefully more durable than the previous edge.


In the end I chose my favorite cast off, i-cord, a two stitch i-cord cast off. I worked this on 4mm needles - the same as I used on the body of the cardigan.


The i-cord works well, it provides a clear edge, and seems to echo the rib and cables in scale.One of the reasons for selecting this edge finish was it was used to edge the front bands and the neck of the cardigan. The edge on the cuffs seems larger in scale .. but perhaps will settle a little with blocking and wear. I didn't want to pull it in, so worked the cast off on larger needles and loosely.


Now that my repairs are all done and Owls is in a fit state to travel to with me, I've been thinking about travel knitting. I'm away next weekend to the In the Loop 2 conference in Shetland ---- which is pretty exciting stuff, to have funding and be going to a 5 day conference all about hand knitting. I'll be away 2 weeks, so need knitting to keep my hands busy. This is plan one, Annis from Knitty Spring Summer, by Susanna IC. I'm planning to knit it in lace-weight 100% cashmere. I'm going to feel so special and luxuriant knitting this, and once the lace is done I should be able to just go back and forth easily. I might just cast on before I leave ... peace of mind as I count all those stitches and place stitch markers.


This is travel plan part two, the large yellow cake is hand spun fingering perennial. That I plan to knit into a center out baby blanket, just round and round .. perhaps a pi shawl in celebration of EZ's 100th? Or square with a mini lace cable up the corners between the increases ... I'm still planning and thinking about that so suggestions are welcome. The Orange is Road Cone, and was to be put with the green to knit Elder cub a pair of space invaders mittens, but I've been asked to trade .. and the green is vibrant enough on its own so I'll pair it with the navy-grey instead.


And part three of the plan involves these two skeins, which I think will make a neat pair of colour work mittens for smallest cub ..... probably out of my new book Selbuvotter or Cats by Jorid Linvik from the shop but the dogs are cute as well as are the fish and the Zebras and the frogs (how can one decide with offerings like that?), or Wintergreen by Kate Gilbert, or Deep in the Forest by Tuulia Salmela which are just really really cool. Bother all the things I want to knit are cool .. which makes deciding all the harder. And I need to take a sock to knit .... two weeks with no sock knitting seems just plain wrong, but what sock .. and what yarn? There are still decisions to make .....


take care
na Stella

One done, another one done, .. two to go.

Today I've got something finished, and something mended, but it leaves the 'other-one' to finish and the 'other-one' to mend. There has been mending, and knitting and sometimes it has been the same thing. I'll explain.
I've finished the first Theodora sock, it is a nice sock, one I'm looking forward to wearing, so I'm keen to knit the other one asap. I have cast on and completed the toe .. so should be done soon. I've not managed to get photos during the winter daylight - so I'll post images next time (promise).


I've also made myself mend Toby's gansey , I say made myself because I really don't like mending but know when I settle down and mend things it is always easier and quicker than I thought it would be. Having mending a top down knit sleeve I now totally buy all the oft repeated folk lore about things knitted from the top down, particularly sleeves being easy to fix. Of course being me I had made that a little harder by finishing the sleeves with a sewn bind of, but it was fairly straightforward after I unpicked that one stitch at a time. This is the worn edge that I had to start with, its not very worn .. but a stitch had gone and it was laddering up slowly.

First up I snipped a thread along the sewn bind off and one by one un-threaded the bind off yarn thru each stitch. Usually I love working with dark fine yarns and 2.5mm needles ... but when it comes to unpicking those don't make it easy to see which yarn is the stitch and which is the bind off. At some point I realized that if I unpicked in the opposite direction to how I has sewn it the process would be much easier, and so I worked the other way and it was easier.

Once I had the bind off removed I ravelled the sleeve cuff back to just before the garter stitch edging. That seemed to removed all of the work yarn. I was slightly surprised at how little yarn was involved. Then I picked up the stitches all around the cuff and reknit the last section of the cuff with yarn from the same cone I had knit the gansey from. I was happy that I had written down notes in my workbook about stitch count and needles size and how many rows of what where and if I had started the cast off following a knit or purl round. That made it so much easier than peering at the other cuff and trying to make them match.

And because I like the effect of the sewn bind of, I worked exactly the same edge again. Yes it is a pain to unpick .. but as the whole process took less than an hour, I'm game for another repair if its needed. Here is the finished cuff, it hasn't been blocked or washed or steamed. The underneath cuff is the one that didn't need a repair, and the top cuff the repaired one. I imagine it will settle down and blend a little better with a block or wash. There is a slight dimple in the cast off that I didn't noticed until I'd woven in all the ends. I'm sure it will even out with blocking and wear .. and if not it is a gansey for an 11 year old ... it is for wearing not for competition.

I've still got the Owls to fix, and was the lucky recipient of a part ball of the exact same yarn it is knitted in. I'm dragging my feet over that one, I want to take it away with me at the end of the month ... but it will need repairing. That one is cuff up, not top down, and both cuffs are worn. I suspect that means I will have to remove both cuffs entirely, frog them and reknit them from the top down. The stitches won't line up exactly but if I frog the cuff back to the transition from stocking stitch to cabled rib it should look ok.

That is pretty much all I've been up to .. this afternoon I've been plying the yellow 160g of fine single perendale, so now I am off to sit and ply the last of it. I'm away for work Monday night and Tuesday .. so I'll miss spin night and felt like I needed to spin today so I would have some spinning in my week.
Take care
na Stella

ooooo mitten book

yes, I have a new book, on mittens, colour work mittens. Yes I know a knitter like me can only wear one pair of mittens at a time and I already have two perfectly good pair. Well actually I have books that detail traditional mittens with over mittens - but that is more than is needed in our part of the world. This is a book that I've wanted for a while, and a very welcome and surprising Amazon gift voucher made it possible (thank you!). So I have a new mitten book, and there will be new mittens soon. The rest of the post is themed around slow, I've been switching between reading Slow and knitting the slow project, the last bump of fibre that I started spinning in the Tour de Fleece 2010 is finally ready to ply, and Theodora grows slowly ... and I have mending. Mending is something I've been writing about and reading about for my conference paper .. so it was a little bit of a discovery to find my own knitwear was in need of just the kind of mending I had recorded in the museum garments I'm writing about.

Selbuvotter, a book that I've longed for for ages, but for a knitter like me, with apparently 126 knitting related books cataloged on Library thing ... and a limited budget ... well I have to prioritize my book purchases. I just can't buy all of them when I want them. Some times I miss out, I didn't buy History of Hand knitting, nor did I buy Treasures from the Rag pile for myself while they were still in stock/print and before prices escalated beyond belief (but I did make sure the schools library has a copy so I have ongoing easy access). I have a bit of a wish list, and when there is 'book money' that is free and clear .. I look at the list and prioritize. After knitting Squirrels, and patrolling around Ravelry being inspired by other colour work mittens .. I knew that this windfall needed to be spent on a mitten book ... Selbuvotter it was. I've borrowed this book and lovingly looked thru it at knit night .. but now I have my own copy. I arrived home a few hours ago to find it waiting for me .. so I've only just enjoyed the first few pages before I had to do homework parent duty and set the table and other domestic tasks, but tonight I plan to sit and read and plan mittens with it.

The knitting this week is less exciting that past weeks, I'm still working away on the large grey garter stitch blanket. This will fit a single bed when done and is knit in real 1980's vintage 6 strand loosely spun Cowichan yarn. Soft, warm and thick on 15mm needles. This is the third of this kind and second of this size blanket I've knit, and passion has cooled a little. I'm interspersing rows with reading In praise of slowness by Carl Honore. I like this book, right now it fits the way I'm thinking about how I want to be in the world, a little more relaxed, a little less rushed, and a lot more enjoyment in the moment without rushing to the next thing. This is a library book, so the irony is that I can't read it too slow as I have to give it back soon.

And spinning, during the second half of the Tour de Fleece I started spinning 160g of yellow perendale, it is sunny and warm and I knew that I wouldn't finish it during the tour but that was OK. Now I'm at the end of the singles and I'm ready to ply. I love this yellow, in the midst of cold clear grey and blue days it is warm and that is nice .. I'm thinking baby blanket for the next baby whenever or whomever that is needed for.

Theodora grows slowly, I've been spending more time on other things and we have had a few visitors drop in. Usually I'd just sit and knit while chatting .. but these were family on Bears side, ones who only come to town every 6 years as they are part of a longitudinal study and this time there was much busyness when they visited, photos of new children to admire, restored cars written up in magazines to admire (theirs), changes to our house and garage (their grandma's house) to examine, smaller bears than mine to keep out of trouble. I don't mind .. but I realized that I do usually get to indulge my knitting more than I could this week. Upshot is Theodora is perhaps only one or two rows longer than it was at the last post, but this time I have a better image of the bold lace that runs up the center front of the sock.

As I wrote in my introduction I'm working on the paper for the upcoming conference. It is on knitwear in the local museum, pieces knit and donated by a local. Unusually for pieces acquired by a museum recently these all show much wear and significant mending ... they really do. My paper looks at what the construction, style, techniques, fashion, and wear can indicate about the knitter. The mending shows I think frugality, one of the much written about hallmarks of early 20th century knitting, depression knitting, world war knitting, and post war rationing. I have taken many many images of the worn edges, the careful yet almost clumsy mending that the garments have, but I don't have permission from the museum to share them here(sorry). It was with some slight surprise that I noticed garments I had knit had similar wear. There was an odd and rather nice connection spanning time with the knitter of the garments in my study when I recognized the same wear patterns and considered some of the same repairs and methods for my own knitted works. Unlike that knitter - the elbows have not yet worn thru on my garments, for now it is just the cuffs.

Toby's gansey, knit last winter is worn at the cuff. Nothing too major, I have yarn left over and can easily frog the cuff back and re-knit it. In traditional Gansey tradition the sleeves were knit from the shoulder to the wrist, so I can effect a perfect repair here, in fact I may only have to re-knit 3 or 4 rounds.

Owls has the same fate, it is without doubt the sweater I have worn the most. The soft grey and slightly modern styling seems to work well with many things in my wardrobe ... and the result is both cuffs have worn. The repair here will be trickier ... for these were knit cuff up so can't be easily raveled from this edge. The other complication is I have no more of this yarn, but the mill might. I don't even have the swatch .... suggestions for repair are most welcome ...and as it is a cast on edge .. well it won't ravel far upwards will it?

take care - and look at your cuffs :D
na Stella