Knitting
When I cleared out my father's home in December I found half a dozen jumpers that could not be donated to charity as they had been attacked by moths. All of these had been knitted by my mother. This blue jumper must have taken her hours to knit. In retirement she tested and corrected knitting patterns for Cleckheaton so was recognised as an excellent knitter. I found I could not simply throw these jumpers away as rubbish so brought them home with me. There is only one that I might be able to repair without the hole being obvious.
So far I have pulled apart two of these jumpers to reuse the wool. If you have never seen this done it is a very old practice. After unpicking the seams each piece of the jumper is unravelled and wound to make skeins. I used an upside down chair and wound the wool around two legs. These were then washed and left to drip dry to help stretch out some of the wrinkles. When dry the skeins are wound as balls of wool ready for knitting.
It is years since I did any knitting so I am retraining myself by doing simple projects. These are two scarves I have started. I have also bought wool for a complex cardigan involving many colours but won't start that until I feel more confident. The blue scarf knits up quickly as I am using large needles and doubling the wool.
For most of today we have been spring cleaning and continuing with our home maintenance jobs. There are 26 hinges and other fittings on our bifold doors but so far I have only cleaned 6 so that project will last a few days. Scraping off the old varnish and paint that shouldn't be there is time consuming. We are progressively removing blinds and fly screens to clean windows. We are occupied and feel a sense of achievement as jobs are completed. The tragic COVID-19 news continues to be broadcast on TV most of the day. Tomorrow I might turn off the TV for a while and play some music instead.
So far I have pulled apart two of these jumpers to reuse the wool. If you have never seen this done it is a very old practice. After unpicking the seams each piece of the jumper is unravelled and wound to make skeins. I used an upside down chair and wound the wool around two legs. These were then washed and left to drip dry to help stretch out some of the wrinkles. When dry the skeins are wound as balls of wool ready for knitting.
It is years since I did any knitting so I am retraining myself by doing simple projects. These are two scarves I have started. I have also bought wool for a complex cardigan involving many colours but won't start that until I feel more confident. The blue scarf knits up quickly as I am using large needles and doubling the wool.
For most of today we have been spring cleaning and continuing with our home maintenance jobs. There are 26 hinges and other fittings on our bifold doors but so far I have only cleaned 6 so that project will last a few days. Scraping off the old varnish and paint that shouldn't be there is time consuming. We are progressively removing blinds and fly screens to clean windows. We are occupied and feel a sense of achievement as jobs are completed. The tragic COVID-19 news continues to be broadcast on TV most of the day. Tomorrow I might turn off the TV for a while and play some music instead.
