Red reconstruction

Thanks to the charity shop at Hampstead Heath, a red cashmere cardigan came my way - the price reduced because of "small hole in sleeve". I'd been walking along thinking about my loss-of-language project and holes-in-the-brain, so it seemed a good idea to take the cardi home in case it could be part of my project - I imagined adding holes to it while sitting around at the final show. Perhaps it would become a sort of performance.  I was thinking about Yoko Ono's "Cut Piece", where the audience cut away her garments - but as my work isn't about crossing boundaries in that way, I wouldn't be asking visitors to the show to snip away at the sweater. I was thinking about making holes and then darning them with invisible thread ... an idea for another time perhaps....

I started wearing the cardigan (we're having a cold spell this midsummer) and now am even more reluctant to destroy it. So cosy! Such a warm colour! But those ruffles ... and the pearl buttons ... they gotta go ...

The next step in this rescue mission is to cut off the ruffles, machine stitch round the edges, and add some 1/4" bias binding. These silks, printed with my journeylines last year, will look quite different as bias binding -

In the surgery and reconstruction, the little hole will disappear and the sleeves will become the right length.