Long time...

Well, hello there. It is quite dull hearing a person who frankly was never a regular blogger, witter on about why they have not posted. Much has happened. The key thing to know is I'm not making and selling any more. I may talk about it another time, but I was not making a living and my mental health was suffering.

I have not had as much time for knitting lately, but I've been quite into repairing clothing. 

In the seaweed green cardigan below, you can see that the cuff on the top sleeve is threadbare and frayed, and the elbow is worn out. 

I cut the cuffs off, and threaded the stitches onto the thinnest needles I had, knitting two together with thicker yarn. Then I knitted it up on the round with a corrugated contrasting colour rib. 

You could describe the method used on the elbows as embroidery, something akin to chain stitch but more knit-like. 

For less haphazard approach, check out Tom of Holland's visible mending blog and Amy Twigger Holroyd's stitch hacking.

I also knit this jumper for my Dad, back in 2011. I traced the pattern from a jumper of his (edit- I wrote a post on how to trace existing garments), and I wrote a database to handle converting into different gauges. He was really supportive while I was making and selling, driving me to markets and sometimes manning the stalls. He was keen to model the VW commission (did I even blog about that?). He loved this jumper, and when he got ill and the neck hole was too narrow, I made him another jumper with more of a boat neck. I have both jumpers back now Dad is gone. 

I do think there is something emotive about making clothes for someone, knitting for someone. Perhaps it is a way of silently ensuring another person is warm, and knows they are cared for. Maybe it is simply a hobby. Probably a bit of both