Darn it
I managed to get a funny hole in my sock. It's on top of the toes (not a spot where I usually get a lot of wear), and closer examination revealed that it's just one popped strand. There's no sign of wear (the fabric around it isn't thin), so my guess is it just got caught on something (kitten claws are a distinct possibility) and snapped. This is easy to fix... I started by securing the freestanding stitch with one of my very favorite safety pins/stitch markers (as always, amazon links are affiliate links). The strand that broke is directly [...]
Stopgap
So I had this necklace (and earrings to go with it too). I liked it rather a lot, but I never ever wore it. Why you ask? Because of the clasp. This clasp drove me insane. It's meant to make the necklace adjustable and be lovely and decorative. But there are two flaws with that. Even at the longest setting, it's still about an inch shorter than I'd like (I cannot stand short necklaces, they make me feel like I'm strangling). Also, that lovely chunk of decorative rock dangling back there gets all snarled up in my hair. Now, the [...]
Recovery
Remember the other week when the sock and The Boy and I all trooped off to the railroad bridge? The unfortunate incident? The dreadful dark, sticky goo all over the sole of my pale, delicate sock? Yes, yes it was rather traumatic. The good news is that, with a bit of careful work, things are somewhat salvaged. Here's where we stand now. The transition was made with the help of several thorough soakings in goo gone, an awful lot of blotting with paper towels, and some judicious scraping with fingernails. It's certainly not perfect, but it is a whole lot [...]
Rhymes with Yarn
So I have a confession. I've been playing a game of chicken with the laundry. I somehow decided it would be much more efficient to wait to wash knitted socks until I had a whole load full. Have you looked at a sock lately? Even for the big footed among us, they're pretty small. It takes a lot of socks to fill one washing machine up. Still, I've knit a lot of socks, so I'm getting close to that point. But, in working my way down to the bottom of the basket of socks in the closet, I've come across [...]
The Venerable Tweed
My father has a sweater. Well no, he has lots of sweaters. But our tale here concerns one sweater in particular. It is a rather well aged sweater. As far as we can tell, it's a few years older than me (and I am shockingly old, it surprises me more or less every time I think of it). This sweater has fared amazingly well. Alas, this winter, it seems to have finally started to show a bit of wear around the edges (I know the feeling). A few stitches at the collar wore right away. Once those stitches blew, the [...]
Housekeeping
After my shameless whinging about sock blow outs, someone asked how I wash my socks. It's a totally valid question. There is a special washing regimen for fancy socks at Chez Violence. (Fancy socks are both the hand knit ones and the cashmere/alpaca/angora/generally spiffy ones from the store that I buy The Boy to make up for my inability or unwillingness to knit him work socks in the quantity he needs. The first hand-knit socks got him addicted to awesome socks, and this is a quicker way to feed the addiction than actually knitting a whole sock wardrobe. Yes they're [...]
Because Just Knitting Them Isn’t Enough
You have to darn them too... I mentioned the other day that three pairs of socks had worn thin in the heels. I considered just chucking them, but The Boy professed a fondness for his, and I (grudgingly) acknowledged that it was far less work to darn them than to make new pairs. It's true it was less work, but it wasn't exactly a quick process. Let's have a little before and after. First, the damaged sock: You can click on the picture to see an alarmingly massive version of it if you really care. The sock is stretched over [...]
They Come in Threes…
Over the past week or so I have had three, yes three pairs of socks wear out at the heels. One of them is an early pair of The Boy's (made during that period of deeply unsuitable yarns I mentioned earlier). The other two are mine and were made a bit later and with more suitable yarns. Alas, even with appropriate yarn, socks are not everlasting. In all three cases I caught the damage when it was just a thin spot and not a full-fledged blow out. This means darning them isn't actually all that hard, and I have very [...]
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