A few days of cold winds last week encouraged me to mend my hat with ear flaps. Mr Snail bought this hat for me about 20 years ago, before I had rediscovered the joy of knitting and ages before I learned to crochet. Since then it has served me well – it must have accompanied me on many hundreds of miles of dog walks each winter. One day a few weeks ago, however, one of the cords started to come unravelled. I managed to catch it before it was completely undone, but wasn’t sure how to mend it. Happily, once I came to examine it, I realised that it was simply a crocheted chain made from several strands of wool. The red strand had broken and somehow that had started the whole thing coming apart. I decided that it would be stronger if I used cotton yarn to mend it, so I simply crocheted a new chain, adding the cotton to the mix. In addition, in order to make all the cords stronger, and reduce the risk of them coming undone at a later date, I threaded a couple of strands of the red yarn along the length of each of them, and anchored the tassels more firmly.
Not just a mend, but reinforcement to avoid future mends too.
The Snail of Happiness 
Nice Piece of Work
/ January 10, 2022A true pixie hat! No wonder you want to prolong its life 🙂
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The Snail of Happiness
/ January 10, 2022And it’s so warm too!
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nanacathy2
/ January 10, 2022Thereby proving that a stitch in time saves nine! It’s a snazzy hat well worth saving.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ January 10, 2022I’m hoping for many more years of wear.
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Rainbow Junkie
/ January 10, 2022A good save. Looks like you will have years of wear to come.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ January 10, 2022I hope so.
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Wild Daffodil
/ January 10, 2022What a great hat!
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The Snail of Happiness
/ January 10, 2022I do like a silly hat!
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katechiconi
/ January 10, 2022Great hat, ad still looking good after all that use. Well worth expending a bit of time and energy to fix it.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ January 10, 2022It’s one of those things that just gets worn and worn, and I certainly haven’t found another that is as good at keeping my ears warm!
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Nikki
/ January 10, 2022Beautifully done! Can’t believe you’ve only been knitting & crocheting for the last 20 years (feels like it’s in your DNA – it’s such a good fit for you). Hope we get to see you wearing this fabulous hat one day : )
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The Snail of Happiness
/ January 11, 2022If you came to visit the shop at the moment (not actually open yet, but people are calling in to say hi) you’d see me wearing the hat… we haven’t had the boiler serviced yet, so there’s no heating and it’s really cold in there!
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Nikki
/ January 17, 2022Gosh…no heating in January?! Hope the shop boiler is fixed soon. In the meantime, enjoy lots of warm tea & do insulate & draught proof the shop as much as you can – it’s a great low carbon money saving option!
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The Snail of Happiness
/ January 17, 2022Someone is coming to service the boiler on Thursday – hurrah!. Amongst other things, I will be putting up curtails at the windows to keep the heat in. One good thing, though is that the shop next door is the bakery. They were closed for a couple of weeks, but now they are open again, we are benefiting from some of their heat through the wall!
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Going Batty in Wales
/ January 12, 2022One of my early memories is of helping my Mum ply knitting wool into cords using a pencil each and twirling it. I was quite diappointed to learn that the cords on your hat were crocheted! Here’s to many more years of wearing it (but not in the shop because the heating isn’t working!)
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