Victory from the jaws of defeat

 This is a terrible tale, dear reader, a tale of accidental and wanton destruction.  Otherwise known as:  I've been shrinking things again.

The victims of the accidental destruction were two pairs of lovely woolly socks this time.  The pair above were quite cheap but relatively new and I liked them, so very annoying.  The pair below were most certainly not cheap and very new and I loved them and.... well, swearing might have happened.

The whole thing is doubly frustrating as I always collect up my woolly things and do a special, separate delicate wool wash with them, with separate, special detergent.  This time, I had collected my precious wool load, added my special wool detergent and then completely failed to set my machine to the wool wash - aghh!

(To add to my woes there was a Cath Kidston cardigan in there too, which has shrunk from fitting me perfectly to fitting Little Miss Perfectly.  So, I try not to dwell too much on the upsetting fact that I no longer have that lush, pretty, perfect shade of pink (sob) cardigan, because at least it still has a use to somebody.)

After a suitable mourning period were there would be occasional sorry attempts to try and force the sadly shrunken socks over my feet, I began to accept that they were no more and should leave my life forever. But, not so hasty, a brain wave suddenly came to me!  My cozy woolly sock obsession might have suffered a terrible blow, but it could be a gain for my cozy woolly mitt obsession!

Now we're talking.

So, from accidental destruction, to wanton destruction.  It was going to be tough love for these socks but if it worked I could breathe new and useful life into these limp and wretched things.  I got the idea (and the bravery) from taking my scissors to a failed pair of wrist warmers a last year.  So out came the scissors again and a few snips later my socks were just tubes.... tubes of lovely, fluffy, warmness that fit very well indeed on my arms.  Happiness begins to return.

From here the plan was simple, add a little bit of crochet to the cut off edge and hey presto, two nice new pairs of lovely warming wristies to wear.

I tried sewing blanket stitch along the edges first but wasn't very happy with the results.  Not neat enough against the raw edge and far too bulky if I folded in a seam.  In the end, I made a row on slip stitches below the raw edge by just forcing my hook through the felted material.  It worked like a charm and after a bit of jiggery pokery to get an even number of stitches on each glove I was away with my crochet edgings.

I just kept the crochet fairly simple, just a little something to finish them off and then tried out 2 different finishes for the raw edge.  The one where the edge will be on my arm, I simply trimmed down neatly and left raw.  The other, which will have the edge against my hand, I folded the edge down inside the glove and whip stitched it to the insides.

They both work well I think.  The raw edge is fabulously easy and the folded down version is just that bit neater and smoother against my hands.  So, I may not have my socks but at least they aren't completely wasted.

I like to think it's a small victory.

S x

♥

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