Sweater Mending Weather
The dog days of summer are upon us! It’s been hot and humid here in midcoast Maine, and while we wait all the long winter months for these precious weeks, once they’re here, I’m ready for it to be over pretty quickly. I can live off the memory of one blissfully hot summer afternoon for the other 364 days just fine, thank you.
During trying times like these, I console myself by looking to the future, and pulling out my sweaters to give them all a good once-over. Checking for snags, holes, and threadbare elbows so that when the time comes, I’ll be ready!
Made to be worn.
I wear my sweaters every day during the cooler months. Even the most precious ones are worn on a weekly basis. Be it running errands, gardening, doing household chores, or manning the hot glue gun at the kids’ school holiday craft fair, I wear these things. Sometimes I even sleep in them. Ask Kristin about my White Russian. It’s a beautiful, lace-paneled sweater designed by Thea Coleman (babycocktails on Ravelry), that now has countless mends and a very stubborn soot stain, obtained one glorious February afternoon while cleaning out the stove pipe.
(White Russian by Thea Coleman)
“I don’t wear it, I wear it out”.
-My brother, Mike.
In short, I do not just wear my sweaters. I wear the ever-loving heck out of them, and in my opinion, that is as it should be. I expect the time, effort, and money invested in knitting a custom garment to be paid back in kind - with years of hard wear.
This applies to the sweaters I knit for my family as well. This time last year, I was elbow deep in a crock pot of coffee, dying my husband’s favorite sweater (The Knitter’s Dude by Andrea Rangel). If it was going to have coffee stains, it might as well all be coffee-stained, right? I’ll spare you the photo; he wears the thing to work at a boat yard and has for years. It shows. But that’s why I made it! To be worn!
Nothing makes me happier than seeing the things I’ve made keep my people warm and cozy, year after year. So when the inevitable hole appears, I do not despair, I mend!
Types of mends for knit fabric.
(Iris's elbow darn.)
Darning.
Darning is a traditional mend that can be used on woven or knit fabrics. It’s a technique of weaving new yarn or thread over a hole or thread bare fabric.
Darning is usually a visible mend on knits, you can really lean in and have a lot of fun with shapes and colors.
Supplies needed:
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Darning needle
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Thread or yarn of lighter or equal weight to that used in the original fabric.
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Darning loom, egg or mushroom, or an embroidery hoop.
(Rachel's beautiful embroidery.)
Embroidery.
Embroidery can be a beautiful way to visibly mend your knitwear! Stabilizing the damaged fabric with embroidered stitches is a fun and creative way to hide or highlight imperfections in your garment.
Supplies needed:
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Embroidery or darning needle
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Embroidery thread or yarn
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Embroidery hoop
(Duplicate stitch mend on a threadbare elbow.)
Swiss Darning/Duplicate Stitch Mending.
Swiss darning and duplicate-stitch mending are both invisible mending techniques where the fabric is re-knit, either with duplicate stitch over a threadbare area or with support threads or pins over a hole. This technique can be made visible by picking contrasting or complementary colors. With practice, you can invisibly repair all types of knit fabric this way: colorwork, textures, cables, and even lace!
Supplies needed:
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Yarn of equal or lighter weight than the original fabric
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Darning needle
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Crochet hook
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Fine double-pointed needle
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Straight pins
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Embroidery hoop, darning egg, or craft foam.
(Iris's reknit cuffs.)
Reknitting.
Frayed collars, cuffs and hems can be pulled back and reknit. All you need to do this is gauge appropriate yarn and needles!
(Iris's adorable elbow patch!)
Patching.
Just like with any other fabric, you can stick a patch on there! A wool patch is best, of course, but we make do with what we have! Take care to reinforce any hole first, so dropped stitches don’t run.
Supplies needed:
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Patch fabric
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Sewing needle
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Thread
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Straight pins
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Embroidery hoop
Mending is an art in itself, and mending a garment shows that it has not only been worn, but loved. Each mend is a piece of its history, a badge of honor, and a symbol of your love and care.
If you’re interested in learning more about mending, keep your eyes peeled for the announcement of our upcoming Duplicate Stitch/Swiss Darning workshop this fall, and check out these great books:
Mending Matters by Katrina Rodabaugh
Make Thrift Mend by Katrina Rodabaugh
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