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March is for Mending

I was really good and actually spun (or plied) for 20min every day in February. As a result, I have some singles and have completely finished my Ocean Rain yarn before the end of the day Saturday:

One skein of pale peachy/tan yarn and two skeins of deep teal hanging to dry on a bathroom towel rack with a grey towel behind them.

I think it looks lovely, and I promise even better pictures in daylight eventually. It’s got great drape and the prettiest bit of shine to it. I also finally washed the light rainbow skein. I tend to wash skeins in batches, from lightest to darkest, to reduce the amount of water I am using.

I also finished the body of my Twisted Lines top and am blocking it before sewing up the sides and adding the collar.

A blue/purple knit tank front and back attached at the shoulder seams pinned out to dry on a bright blue towel.

I’m a little concerned that my gauge got tighter over time as I got used to the knitting belt, so I feel it is important to see the final measurements and to get the sides to stop rolling up long enough to pin it together and try it on, before finishing it. If I did end up with a smaller than planned top I’ll add in some little side panels to increase the circumference if it’s not too much rather than ripping out the whole thing.

Having done a fair job of meeting my February goals, I decided that maybe a March goal was in order. I have a slowly growing stack of repairs to various items I need to make, and I have done little nothing to reduce this stack in months. I like making more than mending, and this shows. So, March is for Mending.

Now, the stack isn’t so bad I need to do one a day. Right now I believe I have seven or eight things, so if I tackle two a week, I should be done before the month is out. To kick things off, I got one out of the way on March 1st:

A folded pair of wool grey pants with one cuff turned back to show the hem inside, sitting on a red and cream ottoman.

Neither TheEnabler nor I are what could be described as “tall”. So, we both are faced with having to hem up pants regularly. He less than I, since most men’s pants actually come in “short”, but this pair came unhemmed entirely. With fine wool pants (as opposed to jeans), I do the hem by hand so that it’s nearly invisible. I don’t have a fancy enough machine to do an invisible hem stitch, and frankly I’ve done so many huge skirts by hand (both for my own costumes and while working in my college’s costume shop), that a couple pant cuffs is really no big deal.

Technically I suppose this isn’t mending since it wasn’t broken to start, but in my mind if falls in the same category of stuff – an item of clothing that needs a small bit of work to be wearable. My sacrifice of crafting time for making new items was appreciated though, since he is wearing them today.