On Monday it was a balmy 80 degrees where I live, and this morning I woke up to find it hovering around 50. We have officially entered sweater season, you guys.
For what it’s worth, my husband is not a big fan of sweaters. A few years ago, realizing that I had never knit a sweater intended for a man-shaped person, I kind of just declared I was making him one. (He objected at first, saying that no sweater looks good on his body. I guess he had extra limbs I haven’t noticed or something IDK.)
Anyway, when I finished his sweater, he put it on, declared it very warm, and wore it around the house for the next few winters. I don’t remember the name of the pattern, but I know it was knitted with Fisherman’s Wool by Lion Brand. (Which I have to say, has aged beautifully and has become quite soft.)
Towards the end of last winter he handed me his sweater and pointed out two holes that had been growing near the back hem. I can’t explain how they got there. It’s possible he snagged it on something, that I had split a yarn during construction or maybe there was just a weak join and it didn’t hold up to wear. I can’t say. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t moths, since I haven’t ever had trouble with those elsewhere.
Since the temperatures were warming up, and not wanting to darn a sweater that wouldn’t get used for the next six months, I packed it in with my unfinished WIPs, put it on a shelf, forgot about it and then moved across town. Yesterday, he asked me when I was going to mend it so he could wear it around the house. Conveniently, I had the time.
If it were just one hole, I’d likely have opened up the stitches and re-knit the portion of the sweater using intarsa and fair isle techniques. Unfortunately, there were two. I think some stitches were dropped somewhere along the line. It seemed like it would be more work to fix the two holes by reknitting them, and hoping that it didn’t happen again. For something that rarely gets worn outside the house, it seemed like more effort than it was worth. So I decided to darn the space, reinforcing the area around the holes and creating a stronger fabric around them.
Materials needed:
- Garment to mend
- Matching or coordinating yarn
- Tapestry needle
- Darning egg (a plastic Easter egg would work in a pinch, but I’d advise against using real eggs for this purpose.)
- Turn your garment inside out. Position the darning egg behind the holes to emphasize them. Begin weaving the yarn in and out of the fabric, against the direction of the stitches, until the entire area is reinforced with at least one inch of mending from the outer edges of the holes. Leave yarn floating across the missing fabric, but don’t let it be too loose or too taught.
2. Do the same thing in the opposite direction. Continue until entire hole is covered.
3. Weave in the ends. Turn it right side-in, and take pride in knowing that you’ve extended the life of your garment.
