Patching up

“Where are those gloves with the leather?” asked Michael when the weather turned a couple of months ago. We searched in all the usual places but came up empty handed. (Yes, that was intentional)

Last week, during a fit of New Year’s decluttering, I found the gloves — in his brother Kevin’s room (or should I say “former room” since he no longer lives here?) Regardless, the gloves were located, and it was immediately apparent that they’d been found by some moths during their time under a pile of stuff.

Michael was delighted and not at all concerned about the multiple holes. He was confident I could fix them and even suggested that the mending could be a design feature — even going so far as to suggest I use some “warm colors” for the patching.

I love a knitting challenge, and I love learning a new technique, so I started searching my stash and the Internet. Over the past several years, I’d seen articles and posts about “intentional mending,” incorporating stitches and patches into a garment rather than doing invisible mending.

I found a tutorial from Edmonton’s River City Yarns most helpful, in part because it demonstrates how to knit a patch to cover a hole while also securing its borders. Other tutorials were for knitting a small patch (basically a swatch) and then sewing it onto the piece — not as clever, in my opinion.

So I dove in. Along a worn-out thumb, I did some cross-hatch “weaving” since there didn’t seem to be space for a patch. I also figured it might be too lumpy. Further down the piece, I created a little patch over six stitches.

“That’s lovely, but those aren’t warm colors,” I hear you say. That’s exactly what I said to myself. So for the next patch, I snipped a length of more appropriate yarn leftover from a pair of socks and got to work.

Apologies for the blurriness.

This is really fun. There are quite a few more holes and gaps, so I’ve got plenty of chances to practice. I’ll keep you posted.