Still more Shenanigans... Earth Day challenge

Another Shenanigans has arrived in Franquemont University, with some recurring themes, and some new ones. In typical 'me' fashion, it's going to be a bit of a jumble - hopefully, I can sort it out by hammering the words into something coherent.

First up, the challenge I hadn't planned on doing - the one that I started last, and so far, the only completed item.

We were tasked with finding a way to work the usual '3 Rs', Reduce, Re-use, Re-cycle, into a project. I had _no_ idea where that would lead - so I skipped it... and then came the phone call...

Someone had contacted my Guild, searching for a repair on a much-loved baby blanket. The person who made it had passed away before they could give it in-person to their grandchild - who is now 6... making it extremely special.

The child has been sleeping with it EVERY night, for their whole life, and it's showing some signs of 'becoming Real'... It's been literally loved to tatters, and the wee owner is inconsolable without it.

It could not be replaced - because it wouldn't be 'the one from grandma'... It could not be binned, because the child isn't SLEEPING properly without it... It had to be repaired.

To add to the adventure, some of the loose threads had been cut, by a well-meaning parent, in an attempt to halt the progression of the damage. 

(this was not, in fact, helpful... we think that's the cause of the larger hole)

*slight* signs of damage...

...The 'fun' begins here, because I am _not_, and have never claimed to be, a crocheter. I generally dislike the drape, and don't care for how much more yarn it takes to cover a given area... I *have* used a crochet hook for knitting repairs, and have even occasionally added a bit of embellishment to things - like the spines on knitted toy dragons, or shell edging on a knitted item.

I'm not a 'hooker' - and don't play one on TV...

...but this is a very real child, in crisis over a beloved comfort object - and the 2 people I would recommend to attempt this repair... either don't do more complicated work, or have _never_ repaired their crochet. (I may have made some interesting faces when I learned THAT one!)

That meant it fell to me - because I could not simply say 'no' in this situation.

First, I had to figure out how to 'zipper' the ravelled row back together. It took a bit of trial and error, because it works more like Tunisian/Afghan stitch... you need live loops, so you can pull them through the base of the row above.

...I ended up doing the first bit slightly wrong - but my instructions were to get it to a point where it could be used again - not to get it perfect... They didn't even care if it was never square again - it hopefully only needs to survive another year or two at the current level of use... 

...I wanted to do better than THAT.

First tentative steps, figuring out how to patch the pattern so it was relatively similar to the original.

I got into the swing of things, and reached the area where the original yarn was missing. I'd been given a similar yarn, in a different colour, that also belonged to that grandmother's stash. It worked up tighter, but part of that is the degree of wear on the blanket - it may well be the same yarn, but 6 years of heavy use later, the blanket seems close to one size finer.

Nearly done with the BIG hole.

Still square! I declare tentative win... 

Then came the part I was really concerned about. That center hole was so worn-through that the yarn couldn't easily be picked... and I was hoping to preserve as much of the original yarn as I could... That meant doing another thing I had NEVER done.

I had to make a granny square. (nope, never did that, EVER - and I foolishly decided to simply leap in, and fudge it) With no pattern, I grabbed my replacement yarn, and fiddled a bit - I have a pretty good idea HOW they work, I've just never wanted to make one.

First try - other than not climbing out in the right spot, not bad...

With that hurdle out of the way, I needed to turn it into a STURDY center, that kept all the original yarns, to the best of my ability.

The best course I could come up with was to put my square underneath, as a support, and chain the remaining tatters of yarn more-or-less where they should be. It's very thick, and doesn't drape like the rest of the blanket - but visually, it was the best I could do... and the chain stitch set me up for the next phase of repairs.

Not a hole! Success! (but THICC)

There were several areas that were worn to the point that they'd need support, or there will be holes within a wash or two... Shoring those up was next.

I grabbed my trusty thrift-store Q-snap, and FINALLY used it for the first time...

Center finished, preparing for the first chain-stitch add-on.

I tried to keep the worst area relatively square, but it pulled in a bit...

Then I added some zigzag squiggles on the thinnest spots. The culprits were the columns of holes - where a single exposed stitch was subject to more wear. The zigzags were fairly easy to do - and they don't get too much in the way of the drape or hand of the fabric.

I fixed the most-worn areas, but finally decided I had reached the stopping point. The goal was NOT, after all, a complete reconstruction - and at this point, I declared it repaired, to the best of my ability.

Final result, same orientation as original photo.

Closer view of the repaired areas.

close-up shot of the center - I left a few stray tails, because clipping them seemed wrong, and they can't really go anywhere.

Back view

I delivered the completed blanket to the person who contacted me, and am looking forward to hearing what the tiny owner thinks when it arrives back in their hands.

Three steps forward, two back...

 ...or, just use the right tool for the job, already!

When I started the #SMAL (that's the SpinTogether group's Selfish Make-along), I was feeling lazy, and used the wheel that was closest, even though it wasn't ideal.

It was working - mostly.

Only the Thumbelina is a low-ratio, double-drive wheel, that pulls like a small pony, even at a tension low enough to make it occasionally throw the driveband... so my hands were crampy and unhappy, and the yarn was a bit undertwisted in places... and I was concerned it might drift apart if I wasn't super careful with handling it.

...So I took a deep breath, grabbed a handy spice jar, and gently rolled the contents of that bobbin onto it. 

It only drifted apart twice at that stage, but there were some dodgy bits, and I expected it to be... interesting. It was! In all the ways implied by the old curse. I know it doesn't look like much, but the process of winding it off, and adding twist as I ran it onto my Lendrum (joining it together a few EXTRA times, of course) - took several hours. I was being fussy about trying to get a good foundation on the bobbin, so took more time than I could have - but the first couple layers are the most crucial to how a bobbin fills.

...Ended up with this:

 My Lendrum is OLD - like, it has a bolt holding the footman on, old... and I'm at least the 4th owner - I haven't invested in the newer fast flyer - so I'm using the ancient, hooked (rather than sliding hook), 'fast' flyer - with ratios of 10 and 12:1. This makes it about twice as fast as the previous wheel - which should help. It also has offset hooks on both sides, so I have more control over how to fill the bobbins.

I also own the Very Fast Flyer, but I'm spinning this for a shawl, and figured I would get as much of it in one piece as I can - the VFF bobbins are comparatively tiny. 

With that done, I settled in to my second Zoom meeting of the day, and got this far before I needed a break. My hands were still tired from the work of spinning everything on the wee pony, and I was getting sloppy with my technique.

I'm hypermobile, and I got into the TERRIBLE habit years ago, of rolling my thumb back when managing twist. I'm working on changing that habit, but it's always gotten me results, and it became somewhat ingrained.

I stopped for the night because my thumb knuckle was getting grumpy, and I wasn't having a lot of success focusing on NOT hyperextending it, because my hands were fatigued. Making it worse wasn't going to help things proceed. (it's a part of my process that needs to change, because it's going to be harmful in the long run)

Now I get to see what sort of progress I can make on a better tool. I hope there's time to do what I want - this will be a lovely yarn when I'm done. (most of the credit goes to SweetGeorgia Yarns though - it's one of their old Club Braids)