Darn that hole part 1

Time wears away at everything, including our hand knitted items. During a snow storm this winter I was starting up my snow-blower and discovered a hole in the thumb of the very first mittens I had ever made, and saw that the thumb on the other one wasn’t far behind. I frowned contemplated the task at hand and put off the task that was to follow. Now I would not recommend that. If you discover a hole or it wearing thin fix it then because the bigger it gets the longer and the harder it will to be repair it in the end.

This week and next week I am going to teach you how to fix such a task and help you keep those hand knits a little longer. First I will address the thinning one since this is the easiest to repair.

You will need.

• Darning egg
• Yarn of equal weight, color and material as what was used the first time (I am doing contrast to see it better but also since the thumb was already contrasting.)
• Darning needle
• Crochet hook
• Scissors

1. Cut a length of thread and thread your needle
2. Place your darning egg into the thumb so that it is lightly taunt around where the thread is going thin
   

   
3. Follow the thread pattern as close as possible to the original stitching. Make sure you start a few stitches over and a few stitches lower then where it starts and go beyond the thin parts in every direction. The more you strengthen the surrounding area the better off you are in the long run.
   

   
4. Trim excess yarn or pull it through the work with a crochet hook.
5. Wear it out and be proud of your work.
   

   

Nailbinding

I am a Northern European Mutt. I have always felt closer to my Irish and English culture but there was a side of me although I knew it, it always felt distant. The image I have used for my profile picture on this blog, my etsy page, and my facebook page was always a hint to that part of me but it wasn’t until recently that I felt any connection to my Swedish side. My Grandma K, died when I was little and I never knew her parents, My Great Grandma and Grandpa N. That image is the only one I have found of the whole family. Until recently the only remaining member of that picture was her older bother but I always had a hard time talking to him. I would ask him things but I all too often got the short answer so eventually I stopped asking. The only connection I felt was to making my Grandma’s glug and her peparcorker cookie and my uncle’s term for me, the little Viking. In fact, when it comes to my Scandinavian culture I feel closer to the Vikings.

The strangest connection I have found though was not in the culture but the arts. Their knitting is glorious, filled with beautiful patterns and colors. I haven’t tried knitting with more than two colors yet, but maybe after my next sweater and some hats I will grapple faire Isle knitting. Yet in my research I found something new. It dates to be older than knitting and even outdates the Vikings, appearing in other locations around the globe. There are a lot of textile techniques that show up in Viking sites, lucet cording, which I have talked about before, woven cording, weaving techniques but this one caught my attention because of the interesting texture it creates.  It is called nailbinding.

A mitten in the National Museum of Iceland

To the untrained eye it can be passed off as knitting but in reality it is done with short burst of thread/yarn and a needle. It appears to still be practice in parts of Scandinavia though like many fiber arts has its seen its rise and fall through time. While I was looking this up more and more seemed to becoming at me but a few years ago when I was looking up the history of knitting I found nothing mentioning nailbinding.  It appears in all sorts of places all over the world though, not just Scandinavian. The technique appears in Egypt, Iran though most discoveries of it appear in Scandinavia. It looks too that while knitting picked up speed in other parts of the world Nailbinding stayed strong in Norway, Sweden and Finland until the rise of those colorful, decorative knits they have become so well known for today. 

My own attempt at the art was not so pretty. The top is riddled with holes big enough for my finger to go through.  I haven't figured how to make it wider as I go but don't worry I will figure it out.  It also appears to go faster than my knitting as I work but it is still to early to say for sure.  Just adding more to my repertoire. (What I need apparently is more hobbies.)

My first attempt got smoother as I went.

Make a mistake

I want to show you something.

Take a look real close, can you spot the mistake that I made?

It started when I cut it out. Still can’t see it? Then let me tell you this no one knows or even cares when you make a mistake. All they see is the final product. They complement you, say it is so nice, so well done so go ahead make a mistake. When you do that is when you think it through because there is no need to panic. Think around it and see if you can come up with another solution.

These jeans provided the solution to my goof.

For me this mistake started when I cut it out. I had finished cutting out everything and realized I had only cut one of the back yoke, and 2 of the cuff and completely forgot the button hole strip. Yep it was a bit of a dozy. To top it off I was out of fabric. This people is why I save fabric so I went on a little adventure and dove it to the scrap pile and found tons of denim fabric from the jeans I made last spring that was just the right amount of what I needed for the shirt. I cut out the one more section of the back yoke, two more of the collars, and the button hole strip. I then thought and cut out one of the neck collar. Can you spot my mistake now?

These shorts are a little flipped but thats alright I needed a laugh.

We all have that moments of aww (insert expletive) but if we stop and think it through we can come out with something better and no one will know that your end result was based on one big mistake. So go ahead, save your fabric and make a mistake. It may be the best thing for the end result.

Fry bread

One of my favorite treats is fried bread. It is super easy and delicious.

Oh so yummyand this is my dinner most nights.

It is from many early 16th and 17th century cook books. For the average house wife you never ate bread you baked on the same day. You also didn't bake bread everyday. You would usually bake enough to get you to the next baking day. For some families this might be every 5-15 days. This is partly why they made a hard crusted bread, to help preserve what was on the inside. However if you are baking every 8 to 15 days you are still going to have a very stale bread, or even spoiled bread by those last few days. Here is how they would use that bread to the very last stale bit.

1. Melt butter in a frying pan and place your bread in the pan. Let it fry until it is golden brown and flip it.
2. If needed add more butter, and a little bit (or a lot of bit) apple cider vinegar. And let fry until it is golden brown again.
3. Plate it and sprinkle with salt or sugar. You can also top it with tuna, sautéed onions, spinach, sorrel, chicken salad, ham salad, or whatever intrigues you and enjoy.

Or just sprinkle with sugar or salt

Easy, delicious, and good way to use bread even if it is stale. Our Ancestors hardly wasted much.