But notice I didn’t invite him in for those five minutes, and I’m pretty sure he was on his way to work at the university anyway.
What I didn’t want him to see was, yes, I can do a pretty good job of mending a small hole in his sweater–but often after several passes at it. Take matching yarn and dissect one ply from the rest to have a thin enough strand. Thread needle with it (is there any question that I’d have yarn?) and weave up and down, recreating the missing stitch while connecting it to the still-existing ones. Pat self on the back for doing a good job, check it from the right side to be sure, grumble, carefully undo work so as not to make the hole bigger in the process, rethread needle, try again. Have the single ply shred due to lack of twist from having been freed from its mates–undo, try again. And so on.
That’s the part I would just as soon skip having an audience for. So.
The sweater looked in good shape otherwise, and I was surprised when I looked at the inside to find I’d mended not one but five holes the last time he’d brought it by. I finished mending today’s and held the thing up. Right side out again, you really couldn’t tell; I was pretty pleased with myself.
And then I saw it. Oh, *that’s* going to leave a mark! About half a dozen stitches and rows’ worth of a mothbite, probably a carpet beetle’s at that size. I tried. I really tried. Hey, Jim, did you know that you can throw an old sweater in the washer and dryer several times and then cut it up into really useful hotpads? In green, to match your Christmas decorations!
No, I’m not ready to tell him that yet. Writing this gave me my required five minutes of throwing up my hands at it, and now I’m ready to dive back in. Undo, ditch the baby alpaca–it has too bright a sheen to it for the wool for that big a space, it calls too much attention to itself–go find the cashmere/cotton that I used last time that’s a closer color match, and go try again. I can make this work.