Friday, June 26, 2009

Snazzy (and Snag-Free) Sweaters

Do you know what's unfortunate? I have to get on a plane and leave beautiful sunny California today and fly back to rainy and cloudy New York. Do you know what else is unfortunate? When your brand new sweater gets caught on your engagement ring and gets a nasty pulled thread or snag in it (how do you like that for a segue?). Luckily for all of us, one of these unpleasant occurrences can be easily remedied, with no airline change fees or automated call center required. I am talking about leaving California. Oops, I mean the sweater. Shoot.

Here's what you do:
1. Take a needle-threader (they come in most sewing kits from a nice hotel room or the drugstore), and stick it from the inside of the sweater out through the hole created by the snag.
2. Carefully thread the snagged yarn through the metal wire loop of the threader, and pull the thread through to the back of the sweater.
3. Pull the knit area around the hole in both directions until there is no more noticeable puckering.
4. Turn the sweater inside out, and tie the extra thread into a knot to prevent it from working its way back out to the other side, or getting caught on your hands as you take the sweater on and off.
5. Turn the sweater back right-side-out. Done and done.

So go and dig out those sweaters you thought were hopeless from the goodwill pile and fix 'em. You'll have plenty of time while I'm crammed into seat 18A, enjoying minimal legroom and maximal free bloody mary mix.

Sailor sweater, $94, from Boden USA

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Only 4 days in California? Too short!

Lily said...

I know. Parting is such sweet sorrow. But I spent the day at the beach on L.I. today, so I accomplished swimming on the Pacific on Thursday and the Atlantic on Sunday. Bets on whether I can hit the Arctic and Indian Oceans before the week is out?

Anonymous said...

The Indian Ocean is absolutely divine! You would love it.

Water Damage Florida said...

I have always wanted to go to California! But I can never find the time or money!

<3 Linds

Anonymous said...

Which ocean swimming experience was better? Warmer? Cleaner?

Lily said...

I'm not sure I can definitively choose between the two ocean swimming experiences because the implications of that choice have way more deep-seated significance (am I a west coast person, or an east coaster now?) than I am willing to delve into in a single blog post comment. These were far from my first dips into either ocean, however, I can say that, this time, the Atlantic was warmer and the Pacific cleaner. The Atlantic had all kinds of seaweed (it was kind of like swimming in a bowl of miso soup) whereas in California there are those big kelp boas floating everywhere. What's the seaweed situation in the Indian Ocean? I've made very little progress in getting there this week.