Handwork - Darning
After investing all our time and skills in the making of our clothes we want those items to last the distance. Learning how to fix them is a valuable skill to extend the working life of these items. In this workshop, learn how to maintain and care for your hand knits so they last for years through the age old art of darning.
Teacher: Adele Moon
Workshop Duration: Half Day
Description: In this half day session you will learn a variety of darning techniques, from basic to more advanced. You will have an opportunity to master Swiss darning, the genius knit and graft method and have a go at woven darning while we discuss the uses and applications for each one. We will also look at ways to make a feature of your darning through visible mending techniques or how to disguise your holes invisibly.
Materials to bring:
Blunt tapestry needle
4mm double pointed needles
The swatches detailed in the Homework below.
Takeaway: You will have some swatches of darning to take away with you to use as a reference for all future mending.
Level: Intermediate
Prerequisites: No darning experience required.
Homework: 3 x knitted swatches in a plain colour non superwash dk wool on 4mm needles - 30 stitches by 38 rows
So I wrote last week a post asking “Is my making fast fashion?”. And then I did a video on Instagram discussing similar topics in a slightly different way. And as always, you lovely humans have helped me clarify some of my thinking with your thoughtful, clever commentary.
And while I think there is so much more to discuss, here are four key possibly-more-meta ideas that have come up for me out of those conversations.
In using the quote last week that suggested that there was no single answer, and suggesting that this was freeing, I really did mean that we should sit in the grey. Not that the lack of “an” answer to this question should mean we get to ignore the question but rather that the lack of “an” answer means that we need to keep asking bigger more beautiful questions. And keep asking them.
Is my making fast fashion?
Am I living my values or merely thinking them?
And how can I make those two things a little more aligned in this moment?
These are my big beautiful questions.
Yours might be different.
And importantly this leads to point 2.