Monday 31 October 2011

The Cardigan of Doom (again)

On Saturday evening, I was booked to baby sit for a family we know. They had a dinner of spectacular proportion to go to (17 courses or perhaps 29), and I knew that I would have a long evening to entertain myself. The plan was this: to seam the cardigan of doom and continue with the knitted edging which goes on for several hundred yards seemingly. I got my bag ready in good time, and when the time was right, I set off to supervise someone else's children into bed (with an obligatory story or two) and then settle down on someone else's sofa for the evening. After reading the paper and spending some time trying to work out which combination of FOUR remote controls resulted in a tv with both sound AND picture, I picked up my bag to begin. I hauled the sorry nicely blocked pieces out of my knitting bag and set them aside. Then I reached in for my scissors and needle case. And, it was at this point that my plans for the evening broke down. Neither scissors nor needle case were actually in my bag - and I believe scientists have established beyond doubt that those two things are fundamental for sewing up anything you might care to mention. I was stumped. I was flummoxed. I was completely bojangled.

Fortunately, before leaving my own two chiddlers at home for the evening, I had stuffed the boy socks into my knitting bag, just in case.

Just as well. Sock two progressed from just started to more than half done, just like that. I finished it last night, and tried it on my sleeping son to make sure it wasn't too small. Save for one small detail (some blocks of duplicate stitch on the sole to indicate the approximate size of the sock- I'll show you sometime) - they are all done and in the (very smug) Christmas box. And the cardigan of doom still mocks me from the knitting bag...


3 comments:

  1. I'm secretly thrilled to read about your cardigan of doom because I have a mending/alteration pile which I call the 'pile of doom'...(a pair of Mr TH running shorts that need the elastic replacing, a skirt that needs lining because it's itchy, a pair of lovely trousers inherited from my sister that don't fit properly- you get the idea- they just sit there & look at me & make me feel guilty as I reach for something/anything else to do instead...)

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  2. Even worse than the cardigan of doom is the sewing box of hell. I have been trying to rationalise/organise my fabric stash - and put a few things into a crate that I thought I would quickly finish/get out of the way. But, as soon as one thing comes out, another one goes in.... The *ONLY* thing to do, I have discovered, is just to make time to deal with it. I spend at least one evening per week at the sewing machine. At least it means I dont feel quilty the rest of the time when I'm blithely knitting socks....

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  3. Ha, ha - I've just seen that I've written quilty rather than guilty!

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