Monday 27 January 2014

Reviving Past Frugality

Yesterday I darned a pullover. It was a knitted pullover and had a little hole that would have grown rapidly without action.

I've got into the habit of throwing clothes away as a soon as I notice serious dilapidation, but it struck me that that is very wasteful, so I darned the pullover. At one time most garments were darned or patched a few time before being discarded, and superannuated knitted garments would be unravelled and the wool preserved for knitting something else.

Nowadays it is rare to see darns or patches even on the clothes of people who consider themselves poor. Perhaps we should re-define poverty as needing to darn one's socks.




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