PATCHES ON PATCHES

 

The Silas

Mike wears coveralls when performing his dirtiest tasks and rightly so. He buys them used for a pittance from Blue Ribbon Laundry, so they are already on their way to the rag heap when he gets them. Then it becomes my job to keep them serviceable.

I was at a standstill in my sewing room, so I asked myself where the buffalo was lurking. Aha! Mike had asked me to mend his coveralls, and I simply didn’t know where to begin. They had great gaping holes above and below the reinforced waistline.

Now, we have known for thousands of years – Jesus even said so – that you can’t sew new cloth onto old, but Mike entreats me and I try. I just didn’t want to step up to that mending job, but it was standing in the way of progress. Once I decided how to proceed, I accomplished it fairly quickly. I ironed patches onto the back side of the fabric and zigzagged away.

I also had another mend waiting for attention – Mike’s lined cargo pants. This was an even more daunting task. He wears lined pants in winter for extra warmth, but the lining – lightweight flannel – wears out, undoubtedly due to the action of thrusting his foot down the leg, but how else is he to put them on? Well, flannel just isn’t going to last as long as the outer fabric, and that’s all there is to it. This mend was a time-consuming chore, and I served notice that I won’t do it again. (Hmmm. Didn’t I say that the last time?)

Crab stitch edging

At any rate, the buffaloes are now finished, and I’m free to move on with more rewarding work. On that note, in the process of finishing the Silas Pattern Blanket, I ran out of gray, the base color. Searching my favorite online yarn outlets, I discovered that the total cost with shipping for one skein would be $12.00 but that I could buy a pack of three skeins from Amazon for $12 total with my Prime membership. Naturally, I ordered where I got the best deal, and it was on my doorstep the very next day. As sad as it is for the world of retail, it’s hard to argue with that.

So, I finished the Silas Pattern Blanket, and so now I have extra gray yarn which I’m using to crochet an edging on my original “pattern blanket.”

The leftover colors from the Silas Pattern Blanket are now stored for the next project (if there is one), and there’s a rather large bag of them. I tell myself that supplies are an asset in this unsettled tariff-ridden world. KW