In addition to grading, I spent the morning mending a second moth-eaten sweater for a friend. It's a tedious job, but I actually really enjoy it, when I'm not having a massive allergic reaction to the wool, which causes me to sneeze uncontrollably for several hours and causes my eyes to swell shut.They are good friends.
What really stinks about clothes moths is that they tend to munch away vertically, while knitting happens horizontally. I think the moths just tuck themselves into the little V of a knit stitch and start chewing their way up. What looks like three to five nibbled stitches actually requires a fairly large patch.
First, I freeze the sweaters for about two weeks to kill any invisible beasties. When it comes time to patch, I use a duplicate stitch to work in the ends of my patching yarn and try hard to make the patch invisible. For one of the sweaters I even had to use a lightbox to do the work. I couldn't make out the thin spots otherwise.
My friend asked me how much I would charge to mend the sweaters, but I honestly don't know. The first sweater had 14 holes and took over 3 hours. It was in a sport weight nubby lambswool. I also replaced 3 buttons on it. The second sweater was a black fingering weight lambswool. It had six holes and took about an hour.
I asked them to take us out to dinner as a fair exchange. I know there are places in Clayton that will reweave wool for you, and I know it isn't cheap.
You can hardly tell where the mends are for the most part.
Folks, take care of your sweaters.
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Current backlog:
- 4 10-page research papers
- 9 5-page proposal papers
- 24 3-page position papers
Incoming:
- 12 3-page papers on making a memory quilt
- 1 house guest
2 comments:
Wow! Those must be really good friends!
I think sweater mending would make me want to poke me eyes out with my needles.
Wow I think that must be major talent doing that....you should have taken before and after pics! :)
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