I continue to be imaginary, but the blanket repair is sorted. Once I had all the live stitches picked up, I just bound them off with a nice stretchy bind off. It's tedious, because it's long, but not hard.⁠ And yes, fine, it probably is ridiculous to fix a blanket I paid thirty bucks for ten years ago. But also, now that it's fixed, it should last several more years. And repairing the One True Blanket is certainly easier than trying to find another one that meets the exacting blanket criteria. So since I can, why not just do it!

I am currently imaginary. I do not exist. I am not doing work. I am not checking email. I am not being productive. I am napping. Or watching a movie. Or napping. Or possibly cooking something...or at least eating something. But probably napping. But, while on my nap-fueled, doze-filled bender of middle-aged debauchery, I'm also doing a bit of mending. Because you know how sometimes you have that One True Blanket that has just the right texture/feeling/size/drape/vibe? And so it is the preferred blanket, no matter how old it is or what it looks like? Yeah. My partner has one [...]

Yeah. It's not that the sweater doesn't fit. It's that flat fabric (sweater) over a not flat surface (me) held together at just a handful of spots (buttons) is gonna gap. But it's super fixable! Also yes, someone is about to say "this means you can't undo the buttons," but I'm totally cool with that! With the way this sweater is cut, I never want to wear it open anyways, and this makes me much much more likely to wear it, so it's a good choice for me. If you like to be able to open your cardigan that's not [...]

And there we go. Knitted patch sewn down atop the stabilized bit of the sleeve. This elbow will outlast the whole rest of the sweater (admittedly not hard, as the sweater is made of fluff and spite and bad intentions). I am, as usual, pleased with the mend, and quite displeased with the absolutely abysmal quality of the garment Madewell sold under the guise of being 'better for the planet.' Wander back through the previous mending posts for more on that. This has turned into a combination art project and bullheaded display of stubbornness. I'm kinda outraged that I've spent [...]

So while the patches are in the wash and drying, I'm building up the hole and thin area by more or less weaving new fabric over it. I rolled up a blanket and shoved it in the sleeve to hold everything open and flat and stable. Then I just went back and forth first one way then the other, making sure I was making it big enough that it went out to where there was solid fabric. This wouldn't be a suitable mend all by itself (it's not dense enough), but I'll be putting the knit patches over this once [...]

Still fixing the craptastic sweater from Madewell that has fallen apart after less than a season of wear! Quick recap. I bought three of this sweater this fall. I have about five sweaters I rotate through to wear around the house most days (always over a long sleeve t-shirt), taking them off and putting them on over the course of the day as needed.⁠ All three of these sweaters started developing thin spots and holes right away. That's because they are made out of shoddy material. Madewell calls it 'recycled cashmere' and claims it's 'better for the planet.' In reality [...]

Wander over here if you want to watch how I actually did the darning on this one (because look, I do not feel like figuring out how to put videos on here, and instagram is making us all make videos anyway, so they can host the damn things). This is, alas, an individual enough process that I can't give you a one size fits all process to just walk through. So think of this more as generalized encouragement and cheerleading and an example rather than as instructions. But sometimes that's useful too! And folks will ask, so no, I haven't [...]

Another day, another shoddy sweater from Madewell that fell apart way too soon. This one has a massive elbow blow out after three wears.⁠ Clothes shouldn't do this. A competently made sweater should last longer than this.⁠ Someone is for sure going to ask why I have so many of Madewell's sweaters if they're such crap. It's because I bought a bunch of the exact same sweaters at the beginning of the winter before I knew they were trash.⁠ I do this a lot because I have a wobbly brain that is Very Fucking Particular about clothes (fabric content, cut, [...]

See, it gets cooler the more you fill it in. Good taste suggests I show a modicum of restraint and call this bit finished. Wouldn't want to overdo it...⁠ Though there are a few other holes on this sweater, so I suspect the absurdities will continue for a bit yet.⁠ If you want to watch me stitch a few of these and talk about how I make them, I did a bit of that over on patreon.