First up is for my local fibre friends: the KW Knitters Guild show is on Saturday September 9th!
We're looking forward to seeing you. We'll have our full suite of darning looms and accessories, and I'll be continuing my tradition of demonstrating Swift Darner mending on hand-knit pieces brought in by fellow vendors.
AND THEN... Very exciting news. My pal Nakita and I are road-tripping through Appalachia. We have two events planned along the way, so if you're in the Pittsburgh or Asheville areas I'd absolutely love to see you.
...but would still like to support us, I'd be so grateful if you could make a donation to our hosts Old Flame Mending or make a donation/buy a book from Firestorm Books and Coffee. They're doing allllll of the organizing for me, I'm just crashing their wonderful spaces!
My last event for September is back in Kitchener at the KW Library of Things. We're covering basic sewing skills and I believe registration is limited to KWLOT members – their sewing machines are highly sought after and they are always getting questions about how they work. We're looking forward to filling in some gaps that your YouTube searches cannot!
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hi friends 💘
No, Worth Mending is not shutting down! Sorry for the scare. In fact, we're scheduling a shop update for the end of this week – I'll send another short note when that's ready.
BUT - I have had a silly stressful few days that culminated in me stupidly losing a couple of my favourite garments.
Someone stole my mending bag off my bike :( I'm kinda crushed about it, so figured I'd write up a little blog post to document the end of the era that this marks.
Read all about it: End of an era
First up is for my local fibre friends: the KW Knitters Guild show is on Saturday September 9th!
We're looking forward to seeing you. We'll have our full suite of darning looms and accessories, and I'll be continuing my tradition of demonstrating Swift Darner mending on hand-knit pieces brought in by fellow vendors.
AND THEN... Very exciting news. My pal Nakita and I are road-tripping through Appalachia. We have two events planned along the way, so if you're in the Pittsburgh or Asheville areas I'd absolutely love to see you.
My last event for September is back in Kitchener at the KW Library of Things. We're covering basic sewing skills and I believe registration is limited to KWLOT members – their sewing machines are highly sought after and they are always getting questions about how they work. We're looking forward to filling in some gaps that your YouTube searches cannot!
I'm so grateful for these crafty community opportunities – more to come! Thanks for being here and there and wherever you are :) chat soon.
-elysha
but someone stole my mending bag off my bike :( I'm kinda crushed about it, so figured I'd come here to document the end of the era that this marks. And, of course, the beginning of new garment and mending opportunities.
This one was a self-drafted project inspired by the Sunday Sweater by Petite Knit and it was incredibly cute and I am so devastated it's gone, sigh sigh.
I used mohair yarn taken from a thrifted sweater that my family helped me unravel, which added an extra layer of "special" to this piece. I only finished it in April, so it didn't even live to see a full season of wear, but it was certainly cherished.
It was in my mending bag because I was lengthening the sleeves. No pics, but I was at the step where I needed to graft the cuffs back on, and I was putting it off because I find Kitchener stitch so confusing and I always mess it up!
This one you'll know well, if you've been here a while.
Yep, my beloved Arenite pants are gone too!
I made them from linen I traded for quilting cotton during the mask-sewing frenzy of early 2020. The delicate fabric positively fell apart which made for a wonderful mending canvas. Most recently, I was reinforcing the front thigh using straight and curved running stitches and my favourite vintage rusty orange cotton thread (which, yes, was in the stolen bag too).
To be honest, they were at a point where they needed mending after every 2-3 wears 😂 so perhaps they were close to retirement, but I would have loved them to retire in my care rather than in a ditch somewhere.
I'm sure I'll make this mistake again, my combination of "forgetful" and "trusting" is certainly one to behold. It's just so heartbreaking to think that hundreds of hours of my labour and care are now en route to landfill.
I can't let it stop me from cherishing every garment I have and mending them as long as I can, even if the end doesn't come on my terms.
So it goes.
happy mending anyway:)
-elysha
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hi friends 💘
Thanks so much for your excitement and kindness over last week’s newsletter about my Kingfisher bags. There are only two left, and I was honestly shocked to see that you (my eternally supportive newsletter-readers) picked up six of them.
One of the two still available is the twin to my own personal bag 😇 in our very retro “Dijon” fabric (pictured above "in the wild" of downtown Kitchener).
Next up I’ll be working on a sewing pattern so that you DIYers can make your own!
I’ve also had a lot of questions lately about our Swift Mending Migration, and am very excited to announce that all three looms are en route (or have arrived) to their second destinations! We’re still working on updating the blog but here are some sneak peeks at what our first three hosts got up to:
Sharon @sharon.elisabeth added a knee patch to her kid’s jeans ✨
The crew at Yonge Street Mission @doubletakeysm played around with weaving and darning during their Monday drop-in mending nights 🪡
Rachael @minimalistmachinist darned a sweater in coordinating colours that disguise it to be almost invisible 👀
If you’re new to #MendingMigration check out my intro blog about it here. The Swift Mending Migration is an ongoing, slow-burn of a project and I am so excited to see where it ends up next!
Do you have any questions for our Mending Migration hosts? Reply to this email & I'll pass them on. Answers will appear on the Mending Migration blog 💌
For anyone curious about a shop update (I know stock is running low for many of our bundles!) we’ve been prioritizing camping trips and sleeping in a lot more than staying on our production schedule. September will be here soon, and then October with all the “I told you so’s” I’m sure. But for now we’re enjoying summer and chipping away at our next batch of darning looms. They should definitely be online before the end of August.
Thanks for your patience & I hope that you too are enjoying your little life out here on this spinning rock in the universe 💫
Take care, chat soon.
Elysha
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