1/17/2024 0 Comments Duplicate stitch on ribbing![]() Embroidery stores carry small amounts of yarn in different shades, and often you can get quite close in color and fiber content. Think outside of the box by considering other sources of yarn.Find a plied yarn in a heavier weight and pull out plies to get the correct gauge.Find a yarn in the same color and fiber but a lighter weight, then double or triple it to get about the same weight.Some Strategies You Can Use to Find Repair Yarn However, having the original yarn to make repairs doesn’t mean that it still matches often wear and tear or exposure to sun and soap has faded the garment compared to the original yarn. For important or high-wear items, I like to keep several yards of the yarn tucked away in a drawer for a just-in-case day. If you’re lucky, you still have leftover yarn from the project. We talk about the purpose of the repair and how the item is going to be used: does the client want to make the item useable again, keep it from falling apart further, or restore it visually so it can be put on display? These factors can all influence yarn choice. When I work with clients, I like to discuss what factors are most important: matching color, matching fiber content, or matching weight. When you do need to make a repair, know that sourcing yarn can be tricky. It is a lot easier to fix a problem before you wash the item because the yarn has the memory of where the stitches should go, which can help. For sweaters, I check the cuffs, around the buttonholes, along the pockets, and at cable twists anywhere there could be loose threads that catch on things. On socks, I look around the ball of the foot, the toes, and the heels. With hats and mittens, it is the ribbing. Although the trap doesn’t prevent moths, it acts as an early warning system were I ever to have a problem.īefore I wash my garments, I take a moment to look at the places that tend to show the most wear. I also like to keep a pheromone trap for moths hanging about where I store my knits and yarn. This treatment prevents oils, dirt, and other detritus from attracting wool-loving creatures. Before you store your knits for the season, clean them in a gentle wash a leave-in wash, such as Soak or Eucalan, or a gentle pH-neutral soap (baby wash is a good choice) works well. Properly cleaning and storing your knits can help preserve them. Taking the time to maintain and occasionally inspect your handknitted piece can often prevent more extensive damage from occurring. You can’t always use a straightforward Swiss darn (duplicate stitch), so these repairs often involve reweaving stitches, either vertically or horizontally, and reconstructing the cable twists.īut the first step to making any repair is prevention. Diverging or converging cables can stress the yarn, causing it to go thin in places. Larger cables can get caught on objects, causing the yarn to break and resulting in holes if the stitches aren’t caught before they ravel. Each year I get dozens of pieces with various types of damage, and a significant number of them are items with cables.Ĭables represent a particular challenge to repair. But are you confident with darning and repairing cables?Ī large part of my business is repairing handknitted and hand-crocheted items. You go to pull out your favorite handknitted sweater, the cozy cabled piece you love, only to find a pull, snag, or-heavens-a hole! What’s a knitter to do? Repair it! When you spend so much time working on a piece, it only makes sense that you’d want to mend it to extend its life. ✓ Let the Interweave Knits Winter 2024 issue transport you to a winter wonderland of cozy knits! This remarkable edition features 14 extraordinary projects to immerse yourself in the uniqueness of specially crafted yarns.ĭrat.
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