Mending Lesson

Yesterday a coworker came my room with this wrap:

She had bought it the day before while in Asheville because she got cold and needed a jacket. She didn't realize it had this...

...a hole on the front near the pocket. She wanted to know if I could mend it. After telling her I might have some yarn that would match in my stash at home, I reconsidered my options.

Digging into my classroom wool stash, I found some black and white roving.

As I monitored my students drawing I blended it to create gray...

...adding bits until I was able to match the color of the wrap.

Using one of the classroom drop spindles I spun and plied a short length of lightweight yarn, which I threaded onto a darning needle. Duplicating the matching stitches as closely as possible, I closed the offending hole.

And here is the resulting mend. It worked out so well I had to put a pen on the wrap to locate it in my lens. This was a challenge, but I enjoyed it. And, it was good for my students to see that mending is a better option than tossing out things that have minor flaws. Little by little I am trying to teach by example...make, make do, reuse, recycle...hopefully they are learning something.

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