Mending

As close to "exquisite" as mending can come. This is a quivet toque I am mending for a friend.



Most mending is hardly worth doing. Mending takes time, a resource that many people don't have an abundance of, then the mended item never looks quite as lovely as the original did anyways. Now-a-days most items are easily and cheaply replaced. This however is handspun quivet ($$!), knit by hand into a toque for a loved one. The toque was then loved so much that it was worn and worn and worn......until it was finally worn out. An item that loved deserves a second chance at a useful life.

I had wanted to use a Swiss darning technique that would be virtually undetectable, but ran into difficulties because of the thick/thin nature of the homespun, and because time and wear had blurred many of the stitches together. In the end I had to use a more traditional woven type of mending. Still, I think it turned out quite well. The bumpy yarn does a pretty good job of disguising the exact nature of the mend anyway. In this "after" photo, the mended parts appear a bit darker. The yarn I used to do the mending was spun at the same time as the original hat, but then spent decades tucked away not subject to the abuse that the actual hat experienced and therefore was protected from fading.