Oh this poor cowl. I’ve been a really distracted knitter these last two weeks. I’m not sure what happened exactly, but on Monday I went to pick up my knitting, only to discover it had a hole very similar to the one in the yellow afghan. The more I tried to fix it (going back to a row that was undamaged) the worse it seemed to get, and I eventually ended up pulling the whole thing off. I almost didn’t post today, but then I thought with all the expertise floating around Yarn Along, perhaps someone would know of a Youtube video or a visual help for how to fix it next time? I know that the two afghans aren’t knitted, they are crocheted, but perhaps there is a fix for them? I hate to lose them. The yellow one my Grandma made for Ellianna. The other one is much older- it’s been in my family forever and a day. I’m pretty sure my Oma made it. Thoughts?
I finished Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good this week. It was so so good. I’ve always loved the Mitford novels, but this one has got to be one of my favorites now. As much as I’ve loved all of them, the last three that she has written-focusing on Fr. Timothy after retirement- have been the books that have spoken to me the most. I also finished the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire. I am definitely Team Katniss. There is something about Gale that makes me feel really uncomfortable, but I can’t put my finger on it yet. And Peeta, bless his heart. I know it’s all going to be resolved in the last book, but I confess I’m almost afraid to read it! I know it won’t end well. If you’ve read it, no spoilers! I tell you, there was a huge dichotomy between the two books I read this week. What happens with a good, deep, abiding love, and what happens when love is a twisted, movable thing…so fascinating.
Sharing with Ginny.
6 Comments
Laura
Oh dear, it looks like you’ve had a rough week with afgans!
It’s hard to tell exactly, but it looks to me what’s happened with both of those is that the end of the yarn has come loose and unravelled. It might not have been fastened off securely, or it’s just given with age.
On the yellow one, you can see where the bottoms of the stitches are still looped – they would originally have been anchored on the row below. I can’t tell how many rows you’ve lost without seeing the whole thing, but I think you should be able to put them back. It would be fiddly, but as you made the centre stitch of each bobble, you could take the loop off the hook, feed it through the bottom of the stitches, then put it back on the hook and keep going. It would take a while and a lot of patience, but would be totally doable. You might also want to do it with a matching yarn, rather than the original. It doesn’t look like you’ve got an ‘end’ for the yellow yarn, so using that would be tricky, and I always thing there’s something to be said for not hiding repairs to these things anyway.
For the blue one, I think I would re-do the light blue row, and then sew the dark blue one to it with matching yarn, rather than try to crochet it back together.
Hope that helps! I’m happy to help more if I can 🙂
Donna
I have a couple of old afghans that look like that too. I keep saying I will look on YouTube but never do! Good luck with your cowl.
elizabethroosje
to new to offer knitting help (have you asked Kate/Willfulmina of blue stocking?) … I need to look for that latest Mitford book… I have a cowl that was too complicated for my liking but have not yet frogged it (ripped it back) yet. I need to but yet, it sits….
Martina @ snapshotsandwhatnots
Oh no! I struggled to fix holes in two afghans I’d made (it was really tedious and not a perfect fix my any means) but they weren’t heirlooms so I figured it was worth the attempt. If you don’t feel comfortable trying yourself you could call your local yarn shop and see if they have/know of anyone that would be able to do it.
significanttrivialities
Just a suggestion…if they are too far gone (or too difficult) to fix, consider un-knitting them, re-winding the yarn and reuse it. Perhaps save all the yarn for each piece together to make one such item. It will still be your grandmother’s, but this time it will also be you. I just bought a bunch of yarn from a lady on ebay who does just this. She un-knits and undoes good pieces (that is not too worn or dirty), made of good fibers and washes and re-winds them. It is the kind of recycling I’m happy to get behind. It makes me think, maybe this is something our grandmothers would have done. They wouldn’t have thrown away good yarn. They would have fixed it, patched it, or re-used it. I can’t wait to have my bundle of recycled yarn show up so I can turn it into something lovely.
karen sue
i bought this book, but have other started ones that I need to finish first. I have tried not to look at it until I can read it, but it just might have to be next in the rotation! Thanks for the thumbs up. I really enjoyed the Mitford books, but recommended them to someone who I’d never really swapped book ideas with before and she didn’t get through the first one! To each their own. Sorry about your yarn problems…