Le Tissier Designs

Of Larks and Linnets and Flying Fingers

Tag: needle felting

  • Mending 101

    Mending 101

    This Fall and Winter and I am undertaking a self taught mending course. I started it yesterday by mending a few moth holes in my favourite vest and what I call my weekend sweater!

    I had hoped to work on these things in the summer for a Winter Class but the best laid plans….. So better now than not at all! See On the Mend.

    Needle Felting

    Small holes in our knits can be repaired with a few basic needle felting tools and some fibre. I did not realize how easy this would be or I would have tried it years ago! There are some other methods of dealing with small holes, embroidery stitches offer many options! But this is easy and fast!

    All you need is holes, a needle felting needle, fibre and a sponge (which is underneath the hole). I started in the back to give the hole backing. I did not need to do this. Just felting from the front works fine.
    Back is finished.
    Front after the back was done, You can see the shading of the fibre after has been needle felted through the knit. So I felted again on top of this fibre. My hole is a little on the stiff side with two sides needle felted.
    One dot looked foolish, so I added a few more spots.
    You can see that this has been folded for quite a while! Needs a wash and then it will be ready to be worn again!

    The second sweater with a hole was a much simpler project. This sweater is what I call my weekend sweater. I throw it on over when I just need a little more warmth. It was knit with sock yarn when the patterning sock first came out, so about 24 years ago. There was only 1 hole in the back, So I filled it up with fibre and called it done!. I did play around with it a little, added a little bit of an edge and curlicue!

    I had hoped to get another sweater mend underway, this one needs a new ribbing at the wrist. The sweater is over 30 years old but still looks great, no pilling and the colours are still vibrant! Well worth repairing, especially as it’s big, boxy style is coming back.

    Several years ago I had to replace the ribbing on the other wrist, I had caught it on something sharp and that had broken the bind-off (the sleeves had been knit from the top down – best way when yardage was short). I had used up all of my remaining yarn with that repair. So finding a close colour took a while, then the yarn I found got put away in my stash, so this sweater has been waiting for about three years. You can see in the photo the colour is not perfect, but it will make the sweater wearable again, not bad for a 30+ year old sweater!

    Yesterday I put the work in and found the yarn! That took a little time, you know, the needle in the haystack approach! So after looking for the yarn, I did not have time to do the work – but this weekend it will happen!

    The original yarn was a wool from New Zealand, gorgeous blues in 4 tones. The pattern was an early Kaffe Fassett pattern in about 36 colours, so I simplified it a little!

    I have quite a few other pieces to mend and I want to try many different techniques! So my Fall knitting projects are booking up fast!

    How is your Fall planning coming along?

    Happy Knitting and Mending

    Lynette