Patches

Being a DIYer, I love the mentality of 'make do and mend'. Why discard something that I love, simply because it has a hole in it? Since adopting this philosophy, I've gotten pretty handy at darning knits. Darning is my go-to solution for holes, but I admit that darning can sometimes be unsightly. That's when I fall back on my second favorite strategy: patches.

Patches are great for covering up a darn and for adding more fabric to a high-stress area. For me, this is often the elbows of a much-loved sweater. I've patched one sweater with 2-mm felt, but this time I am trying something different: using woven squares from my handloom.

It turns out that a 4"x4" handloom is the perfect size for elbow patches. To patch the sweater, I simply darned the holes in the elbows and then used a blunt darning needle to sew a square directly over top. As the squares don't take to long to make, I was able to freshen up my sweater rather quickly.

I will note--for anyone who wants to follow in my footsteps--that you should pay attention to the yarn weight. I used KnitPicks Palette for my patches, as that was what I had on hand that coordinated best, but most handlooms aren't designed for fingering weight. I tried the yarn held single and double (above) and, while the doubled yarn matches better with the loom gauge, I decided I liked the drape of the single yarn. In the end, I wove with a single yarn held taught, so the squares pulled together when I took them off the loom and the weave was not too loose.

I'm very happy to have finally hidden the unsightly darns on this sweater, though I wasn't entirely satisfied with the patches at first. It looked too much like a mend instead of an intentional style. To this end, I decided to add a front breast pocket to tie everything together. It was simple to make one more square and I love how the sweater now leans more to "colorblock" than "mended". So hooray for weaving and adding new life to an old sweater!

Wrapping Up the Holidays

I hope you all had a very happy holidays. Husband and I enjoyed some wonderful time with both of our families over Christmas week and are now back home enjoying our last quiet day before going back to work.

The time off was great and I got some crafting done, mainly playing around with my Arbor loom. Between a skein of handspun and some leftover yarn from my Gretel hat, I whipped out over 20 squares (though I don't know what I'm going to do with them all yet). I even learned to weave a twill, which is so beautiful that it makes me excited to learn new weave patterns.

The other craft time I had came with Mom, when we hand-felted a shawl together. Mom wove the shawl for me out of wool and tencel, with a pattern that would create a lot of texture when felted (as the wool will felt while the tencel won't). The finished shawl is beautiful and textured and awesome. I can't wait to wear it.

Speaking of Mom, she gifted me a set of blocking wires for Christmas. After blocking my lace shawl and her lace scarf together in the last year, she realized how much they will help. I'm looking forward to trying them out the first time on Ysolda's mystery knitalong.

Needless to say, I had a great Christmas. I hope your holidays were just as wonderful!

A New Toy

As if knitting, spinning, and crocheting aren't enough, I have taken up a new hobby; weaving. My mother is the weaver in the family, with enough looms, yarn, and other equipment to fill up an entire room. But I'm getting started on a little smaller of a scale:


This is the little Arbor loom my Mom got me for my birthday this year. Due to its size and simplicity, it only does one thing well: it makes 4x4" squares. So far I've made a small handtowel and bag, but with a little imagination, you can do a lot with 4" squares.


And another reason I like this little loom, is that I can create fabric quickly. It takes just under 30 minutes to make a square, and in the 2 weeks since receiving this loom, I've made about 20 squares.



I don't think that it will replace knitting, but it's fun to have a new toy in the meantime!