The Chair: Before and After
I finished one of my projects today. Quite a few months ago, I bought a chair for several dollars at a thrift store. It was such a good price because it was missing its caning. Of course, someone had set a board on top and stapled some padding with wild leopard print fabric to it. But clearly, it had Potential. So I bought it, and had good intentions to learn to re-cane it. But then I realized two things.
1. By the time I got equipment and supplies to cane the chair, it would no longer be an economical undertaking.
2. Some of the wood where the caning should be inserted was broken.
What to do? Happily, I came across instructions for knitting a chair seat for chairs in just such sad circumstances in the book Weekend Knitting, by Melanie Falick. I didn’t actually use her pattern, but did use her recommendation for nylon twine, and the hints for blocking the newly installed seat (pour hot water over it to shrink into place, repeat if it ever starts to sag). I used mason twine that I got from Lowe’s and a stitch pattern chosen from my knitting stitch encyclopedia. I’m pleased with how it turned out! So, here, for your viewing pleasure, is ‘The Chair, Before and After’.
