In at the deep end

 Go on, I said, let me fix it for you ... I really would love to. You'll be doing me a favour - I need my hands to be busy and I love doing that sort of thing....

It took a couple of weeks of gentle (ok persistent but gentle) persuasion to be able to prise this jersey (well you lot would call it a cardi but a jersey is a jumper is a cardi to me!) and bring it home. It is a well loved lamb's wool super soft favourite of a dear friend of mine and I'd seen that she'd already made a couple of repairs and that another hole had begun to appear.

I brought it home and started to un-pick the stitches so that I could see what I was working with and soon found that there were many mini repairs all over the body of the jersey. It was like doing textile forensics with the differing coloured thread revealing many layers of repairs to this beloved item of clothing.

Every time I turned the garment over, I found another mend or another hole. So, I decided to start with the smallest wounds and work my way up the the major one on the left under arm.

I kept going, building up my courage and practising different techniques - good old fashioned darning, Swiss darning, boro-esque stitching, patchwork, applique, freeform, pseudo-Dorset buttons and 'wing-it'.

Each evening, after we'd eaten, I'd switch on my anglepoise lamp and stitch another hole closed, avoiding looking at the large one on the arm until apart from a worn thin area that I was going to weave over, I had no choice but to tackle the arm. In the end I took the scissors to it and just cut away all the threads and wool then picked up each tiny stitch and sewed them to prevent any more unravelling.

It was then a matter of finding a soft but strong fabric to patch from the inside and applique stars and tiny stitches to strengthen the knitting. Strangely enough, once I'd got over my reluctance to repair this particular gaping hole - it turned out to be my favourite mend.

This afternoon, after three weeks, I completed the final mend - the woven section on the left front, took the photographs and folded up the jersey. Both relieved and bereft it was now completed. It can return home tomorrow. I shall miss it's company!

This was an act of rebellion against the tide of the throw-away-society as well as an act of kindness to a friend who does so much - thank you x