Seeds and holes

[igenlode]

Another shirt comes out of the wash with holes in the armpits -- it's not worth patching, as the cuffs and neighbouring seams are going as well, so I may as well keep on wearing it until it gets indecent.

This morning I was busy attempting to darn the sleeve of the shirt I was wearing -- easier said than done, even when it's the left arm :-(
It had a hole in the sleeve seam I didn't notice until I got it home from the charity shop, and I think this is the corresponding place on the other opening. This time I just did a rough darn over the surviving threads rather than attempting to take a tuck in the seam, which requires two hands. Which requires undressing in the morning chill...

The good news is that the seeds I planted from a red chilli I bought actually seem to be germinating on the kitchen windowsill, when I had completely given them up as a bad job in the absence of proper growing conditions. Also the ancient and worm-eaten coriander seed I dumped thickly in some seed trays a couple of weeks ago on the off chance that one or two of the seeds (maybe the ones without visible holes in) might be viable. Presumably when the weather is right then plants will grow, provided the seeds haven't rotted in the interim; I thought my saved dill seed was germinating too after a long delay, but having put out pale roots the seeds now seem to have died before really getting started.

And the squirrels decided to dig up my poached-egg plant seeds just as they were starting to sprout; I'd actually managed to forget all about the threat from squirrels, as it seems so long since last year :-(

Comments

[igenlode]

Another shirt comes out of the wash with holes in the armpits -- it's not worth patching, as the cuffs and neighbouring seams are going as well, so I may as well keep on wearing it until it gets indecent.

Well, that didn't last long -- the very next time I put it on, I managed to rip the sleeve on the springbolt of a lock when walking through an open door...

[watervole]

It's so annoying when that happens. I tend to catch clothing on door handles, especially shawls and the like.

[igenlode]

I used to catch and rip the armholes of sleeveless garments on the lever handles of old-fashioned doors on a regular basis (one of the drawbacks of being short enough for your armpits to line up with high-level handles).
Not so much of a problem now that I have low-level knobs, but it turns out that my forearm is on a level with the sharp edge of the latch, and it's a lot sharper than you realise until you snag yourself on it in passing. Not that the fabric would have ripped if it hadn't been rotten to start off with... unfortunatly it has now got to go back into the wash in order to make clean rag, which means I need to remember *not* to put it back in the wardrobe when it next comes out!

(I have the same problem with holes in socks; either you darn them sweaty, or you have to remember to mend them after washing them, which I tend to forget to do. Then you pull a pair of socks out of the drawer in a hurry and discover that your big toe is sticking out. On the whole the only practical thing to do is to darn them while you are still wearing them -- sadly that approach really isn't practical for holes in pants!)

[watervole]

I find a darning mushroom helps with socks. I sometimes pre-darn the heels of new hand-knitted socks.

[igenlode]

I don't have trouble with heels -- it's always the toes that go in mine, and at an early stage, after only four or five wearings and at a point when the rest of the sock is perfectly sound. All my socks get mended multiple times during their lifespan; I couldn't possibly justify buying new ones every time a hole appears in the toe.
(I can see that darning heels in situ *would* be a problem!)

[watervole]

I have part of an old shoe stretcher, a wooden former for the toe. Very useful indeed for darning toes.