Nope I haven’t been sick, but I am looking to mend!
I am going to learn how to mend my clothing. Well, I am teaching myself how to mend my woolens mostly.
I have been a sewer, (sewist?) all my life. I started with Barbie clothes and I have made my own and my children’s clothing, at various point of my life, with varying levels of success. I have designed and created costumes for live theatre. And I can mend many of of clothes, as in hem, fix seams, adjust fit and play with anything fabric. But I have seldom mended my clothing, as in fixing actual holes in the fabric! That needs to change.
I also knit. And I have knitted steadily for the last 40+ years. Like most of us knitters I have a stack of woolens to mend. I hate to throw things out, especially now, when we are talking of sustainability and slow clothes and making everything count. So I have been looking at my own pile of clothes that need saving. From woolen undershirts (sorry, they are not pretty enough to be called camisoles) to fine merino sweaters to my handknits – I have things that need mending.
So, over the last few months I have been collecting books and tools to start teaching myself the basics. Okay, not just the basics, in some cases the more interesting and artistic ways of doing things!
I am also going to learn how to use a tiny punch needle, really a needle for tambour bead embroidery. Beads as mending! you can see that this is a whole new rabbit hole for me! For mending you are supposed to forgo the beads and just use a fine wool to punch through your knit fabric. And I have just purchased a Speedweve style mending tool. A small one (14 hooks), with a bigger one (21 hooks) on the way.
Tambour beading is a technique that developed in Europe in the late eighteenth century. A small hook (tambour hook) is used to attach the beads to the ground cloth, rather than a needle. The word tambour is French for ‘drum’ and is named after the drum-shaped tensioning frame that was originally used.
Plus there are the traditional means of mending as in swiss daring, patching and overdying. Overdying is a great way to recover sweaters that have been stained by life. I have used this method a few times! I would also like to try some leather patching for sweaters, especially hems at neck and sleeves. So, lots of things to explore!
This is going to be so much fun!
And then, this fall, there will be a class at Mad About Ewe Fine Yarns in Nanaimo. After all, there are not many things better than sharing an interest!
Happy Mending
Lynette
