Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Mending My Ways

Circumstantial convergence really is the strangest thing. To wit:
 
Last night I watched this fascinating TV program on TVO which profiles the real experiences of some modern people who live as if in wartime (WW2), farming in the English countryside, conserving to protect their resources and to promote their country’s ability to beat the Nazis. (Note: This is the third in a series, the other 2 timeframes covered were Victorian and Edwardian – which is all a bit gaslight and misery for me.)
 
Then this morning, when I got to work, a colleague pointed out that my (expensive) super-slender, machine knit Ca Va de Soi cardigan had some little holes. Perhaps they're the result of moths – we don’t have a big moth problem and I do use cedar in my sweater drawers, but occasionally these holes appear. (Sidebar: These holes appear less and less now that I’ve stopped going to the drycleaners. Hand washing all sweaters of all yarns in Soak with a few drops of lavender or eucalyptus essential oil in is a fantastic way to a) actually clean b) reduce chemical exposure and c) protect from bugs all one’s much loved knits.)
 
You’ll recall, on the weekend, I swore never to darn anything – which seemed a bit brutish to me, even as I wrote (and meant) it. I’ve lingered over the claim ever since.

Today I found this (fab and very inexpensive) pdf for download on Etsy. And this darning egg. And this thread.
 
Here are a couple of links that show you how to darn knitwear and other garments, I found online in 30 seconds:


So, it seems, I take it back. (Man, I’ve been wishy-washy lately.) I’m going to darn things (maybe even homemade socks?!?!) rather than taking them up to the seamstress or letting them languish.

It occurs to me that the biggest limiters of all activity are lack of knowledge and the proper tools. Why have I threatened never to darn a hole or build a telescope or reupholster a couch? Sure, there’s a part of me that hasn’t the time or interest. But there’s a much larger part that hasn’t the knowledge. I wear sweaters every day of all gauges and many textiles. Why the hell can’t I spend a few minutes – which is really all it will take once I know the method and have all of the materials ready and waiting at my access – to protect them for future generations. Isn’t this ground zero for environmentalism (about which I am hardly extreme, just ask the people who know me).

I wonder if, were we find ourselves (horrifically) in another wartime scenario, could we manage with the grace and capability that so many of the English did during the second world war? Sure, there was much less industrialism at that time – so a large part of the general population had actual subsistence skills. But that aside, citizens attended government-organized classes about the conservation techniques they’d be required to know and apply. They learned so they’d have the means to undertake risk and to function in circumstances we likely cannot imagine. An entire country came together in, perhaps, the most organized, large-scale show of community that ever there was, and it thrived. Would we?

Five years ago I had never heard the term Make Do and Mend. (I know! I lived in post-war England and I studied history in high school yet I’d never actually heard it said. Really, I am a child of the 80s.) When I started reading blogs, particularly the craft ones, the culture of self-sufficiency amazed and, truthfully, amused me. How crazy, I thought, that people make stuff and then they fix it. To add to this rich mix, my husband has always been profoundly "handy" (his people are engineers) and he’s a first-wave environmentalist of the most irritating order. As a result, I’ve had 20 years to acclimate to a philosophy that seems increasingly second nature: How can I respect and protect what I have because it’s worth having?
 
I guess I can learn to darn a freakin’ pair of socks.

Thoughts?

14 comments:

  1. I wonder how much your new-found willingness to darn has to do with your understanding of how the knit (and purl) stitch works? An understanding you didn't have a couple of years ago.

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    1. That didn't occur to me (partly cuz I haven't actually read any of the instructions yet - in any real detail). I wonder if kitchener stitch and darning are kind of the same... Guess I'm about to find out. I also wonder how well it works with very small-stitch machine knits.

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  2. So interesting that I just read a post on darning at And She Knits Too -- I learned to darn when I was a child, although I haven't been moved to refresh those skills yet. I have thought of it, though, with socks I've knit myself -- and perhaps this is part of your motivation as well. Once you recognize the effort a sweater represents, usually obscured by the cheap cost of offshore labour, you begin to respect the garment enough that you are willing to work a bit to extend its life. I was impressed, in rural Portugal, to see families out for Sunday lunch, and realize that the "women of a certain age" were wearing sweaters that had probably been carefully looked after for decades (frugality having been a way of life there throughout the 20th century).

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  3. That's totally bizarre because I've never even heard of that blog (that I recall). Off to do some reading.

    And I completely agree with you about the old school European ladies with their well-cared for, vintage knits.

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  4. I would (probably) never darn a store-bought pair of socks, but I love my hand knit ones. Certainly, I could just knit a replacement pair, but that would take at least a week (compared to no more than an afternoon to mend), so it makes sense to mend them if the holes are manageable.

    Similarly, I would absolutely patch elbows and whatnot in well-loved sweaters and think nothing of it. I suppose that's about the same thing.

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    1. On that topic, my crazy husband expects me to start darning his store bought socks. Hilarious.

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  5. I'd like to think I have some useful skills (sewing, gardening, basic construction, butchering chickens, etc)... but I guess none of us know our limits until we have to push them. I wonder how prepared British women felt in the late 1930s?*

    *probably quite confident - they'd just dealt with the Depression. But still...

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    1. You do have some useful skills! And you raise a valid point. I'm probably idealizing this in a big way. But is there really harm in that? :-)

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  6. My mother made little mention of her attire during the war (except for her black dresses for work as a secretary) but my godmother had beautiful clothes as she sewed up her stash (and possibly her mother's!) during the war years. I've always used that as justification for my own fabric collection.

    In London there is an invisible mending service that charges a fortune (well £35 for a small hole) to mend holes in woven items. I only use it for anything extremely expensive in the first place.

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    1. Gotta love a woman who managed to be chic during the second world war!! I guess, if you've got money to burn, the mending service is a great idea.

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  7. There is an old Yankee saying that I like: "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" and while I love to shop as much as the next person there are times when mending something is the better thing to do. I did a blog post about this recently because I have a barn jacket that I really love, it's a style that isn't made anymore and so I decided to mend it so I can keep wearing it.

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    1. That is a great saying I've never heard before. I saw your post! It is so on the same wavelength. Fortunately, you are so talented that you'll have that jacket for a hundred years :-)

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  8. I watched one of those shows, the 1900 House maybe, it sure was a reminder that I should appreciate my washing machine. And tooth paste. There was one done in Canada on settling the prairies "Pioneer Quest". Crazy people.

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    1. I think that's the same idea with a different cast. I tried to watch that one but I just couldn't. SO depressing and dark. I would not want to go back to 1900.

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