Copyright Joy Beeson
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Mending Hand Knits: 

YARN: 

    Darning wool is no longer available, so you will have to 
use embroidery wool.  
    Persian wool is good for darning worsted-weight knits, 
and for replacing fingering-weight that's missing 
altogether.  
    DMC makes a very fine embroidery wool they call 
"Medici;" it's a bit hard and tight, but it's the only 
easily-available wool fine enough to reinforce Persian and 
darn factory-knit fabrics.  Multiple strands of Medici make 
a flatter darn than a single strand of a heavier yarn. 
    Some yarns spun for warp are strong enough to darn with; 
if you know a weaver, ask him to save selected thrums -- the 
waste bits of yarn that are left when fabric is cut off a 
loom are plenty long enough for darning and embroidery. 
    Since darning uses up thread faster than sewing or 
embroidery, you may need to use longer pieces of yarn than 
you would ordinarily.  When using an over-long thread, keep 
the yarn and its tail about the same length, to minimize 
tiresome reaching.  This also forces you to shift the needle 
every few stitches, which reduces the tendency for the yarn 
to wear through where it's folded.  

If the yarn tends to twist and snarl, you can combine needle-
shifting with dangling:  drop the needle, and wait until it 
stops spinning.  Then unfold the tail, drop it straight, and 
wait until that stops spinning.  Then push the needle down half 
an inch -- more if you are taking very large stitches -- and 
resume work. 
    If you are using silk thread, the needle may fall off 
when dangled.  If so, push the needle clear to the fabric, 
then stroke the thread between your fingers to push 
twist off the end.


TOOLS: 

    Long "darning needles" are for mending woven fabric, and 
are not suitable for darning knitwear.  Use a short, blunt-
pointed needle with a long eye, just thick enough to make a 
hole that your doubled mending yarn can pass through easily.  
Canvas embroidery is the most common use for needles of this 
type, so they are called "Tapestry needles."   Look for them 
in most of the places that sell hand-sewing needles.  
    Sharp-pointed needles of the same type are sometimes 
useful, particularly when the yarn isn't wool, but your 
usual goal will be to encase the worn strands without 
piercing them.  If you darn with plant fiber or synthetic, 
it's a good idea to switch to a sharp-pointed needle for 
securing the ends.  Wool ends will hold when merely slipped 
under the network of darning. 
    
    Work proceeds much more easily if the fabric is 
stretched over a hard, smooth, curved surface.  An object 
put under a worn spot to provide this surface is called a 
"darning egg", because the most common type is an egg-shaped 
piece of wood mounted on a handle.  The handle doubles as a 
darning surface for glove fingers.  The handles of knives 
and kitchen tools have also been used as darning eggs in 
glove fingers. 
    Rock shops sell egg-shaped stones in assorted sizes, and 
craft shops sell wooden and plastic eggs.  At Easter time, 
you can buy hollow eggs that double as a place to store your 
needle and yarn.  Some vending-machine containers are a useful 
size and shape.
    Real eggs have been pressed into service -- it's 
considered wise to boil them first, in case a cat catches 
her claw in the work, panics, and dashes across the floor 
smashing the egg against walls and furniture.  
    It was a hundred-watt light bulb that met this fate.  
Light bulbs are just the right size and shape to darn a 
stocking heel, and are always handy, but if the cat is 
around, light bulbs in my socks make me nervous. 
    My grandmother used a small gourd that has a finger-
sized neck and a bulbous bottom.  I find my nest of 
cylinder-shaped stainless-steel mixing bowls handy when 
darning bicycle tights.  
    Look around. 


BUTTONHOLE STITCH DARNING 
    
    After much experiment, I have concluded that the best 
way to darn knitting is to work interlocking rows of 
buttonhole stitch, also called "blanket stitch".  (Mildred 
Graves Ryan calls this "point de venise darning".) 
    A buttonhole darn is elastic, it covers the weakened 
fibers on both sides, and it can be tapered by working 
larger stitches on the sounder parts of the fabric.  If a 
mitten keeps wearing through at the same spot, one darn can 
be worked over another without making lumps.  When filling 
holes, it can be worked over horizontal strands thrown 
across the hole, and will cover any vertical or odd-angled 
strands you have used to stabilize the shape of the hole.  
You don't have to cut away odd shreds, but can buttonhole 
them into the darn.  This helps in "feathering" the edges of 
the hole. 
    Rows of buttonhole should be straight, even when the 
hole is round -- curved rows pucker.  Usually, I work 
parallel to the cross grain, but buttonholing also works on 
the vertical grain.  Vertical and horizontal patches of 
darning co-exist peacefully. 
    Sometimes it's a good idea to work a darn that just 
fills in the hole, making the stitches loose enough to match 
the thin fabric around the hole, and then work a reinforcing 
darn over the entire area.  Or one can work a very loose 
darn as permanent basting to hold a large hole in shape 
while serious darning is done. 
    If the mitten or stocking is light in color, a water-
erasable marker (sold in sewing, embroidery, and quilting 
shops) can help you to keep your stitching straight.  Before 
starting to darn, mark carefully along rows of stitches 
spaced about half an inch apart -- or more, or less, 
according to the situation. 
    If you are having a lot of trouble, or want to be 
particularly fussy, you can weave a smooth sewing thread 
through a row of stitches to serve as a guide.  Since you 
are working with a blunt needle that doesn't pierce threads, 
the contrast thread can be pulled out after you work over 
it.  Or use a silk thread and leave it in. 

    Where the fabric is thinner, you'll need to make smaller 
stitches.  This means that you'll usually need more stitches 
and rows in the middle than you need around the edges.  
This, in turn, means that you'll have to increase, decrease, 
and make short rows even if you never darn a curved surface. 
    To increase, work two stitches in one stitch.  If this 
seems inclined to pull a hole, make the second stitch 
longer, and catch it in the previous row.  Or you can make 
one stitch over the thread only, and catch the fabric in the 
other stitch. 
    To decrease, skip over a stitch.  Try to keep the 
stitches uniform.  If a narrower-than-average stitch in the 
previous row presents itself, skip that one.  Stitch as 
close as possible to the skipped stitch when working into 
the stitches before and after it, so that the stitch which 
spans the skipped stitch is as narrow as possible.  This 
stitch will be wider than average anyway, but the extra 
width will be divided between two stitches when you work the 
next row.  (Since every stitch spans half of each of two 
stitches in the previous row, irregularities tend to average 
themselves out.) 
    To turn a short row, make the last stitch less tall than 
average, then put the needle down where you would if you 
were making another stitch, and bring it up where you would 
have put it down in the next stitch.  This causes the top 
line of the row to dive down into the top line of the 
previous row.  Another plan is to slip the yarn under the 
top line of the stitch you would have stitched in, then slip 
it under the bar between that stitch and the next, and out 
under the top line. 
    If you don't want to begin the next short row from where 
you are, slide the thread under the stitches, as if hiding 
an end, and end by going down in one stitch and coming up in 
the next.  (Or by exiting under the top line.) 
     
    Try to make your first exercise in darning the covering 
of a weakness that you have caught so early that you can 
work a uniform net, thin enough not to have a definite edge, 
over the entire thin spot and a bit of the sound fabric 
around it. 


TO COVER A THINNING SPOT IN BUTTONHOLE:  

    Begin by weaving the yarn up a stockinet column the same 
way you hide an end when knitting:  down in one stitch and 
up in the next.  Subsequent beginnings should be secured by 
sliding them under a row of buttonhole stitches, between the 
darn and the fabric.  If you want to get an end out of your 
way immediately, instead of weaving it into the darn as 
suggested below, weave it over and under stitches like the 
first beginning.  This disposal is particularly suitable 
when you have worked the end down too short to thread into a 
needle:  weave the needle, _then_ thread it. 
    If a short end gives you fits, use a crochet hook to 
pull it in.  It's usually easier to use the needle, but 
"usually" isn't "always". 
 
    If the darn is stretched parallel to a hidden end, the 
end will pull back into waves and be less inclined to 
restrict the stretch of the fabric.  It is rare for an end 
to get felted into place before it gets stretched, so you 
don't have to worry much about ends that are slid in after 
the stitches are made.  When stitches are worked over a 
yarn, the yarn is less inclined to slip, and when both ends 
of the yarn are secured before stitches are worked over it, 
as sometimes happens when padding threads are thrown across 
a hole, you definitely restrict the stretch of the fabric.  
    Whether working over a yarn is good, bad, or indifferent 
depends on the stretch of the yarn, the stretch of the piece 
being repaired, and the size of the darn. 
    Try to put your ends where they will do some good. 

    You usually should work on the right side.  The side 
next to the darning egg is smoother and more suitable for 
wearing next to the skin.  The side that is uppermost when 
you are darning has more yarn in it, and is suitable for 
taking wear.  If the wear came from the inside of the 
garment -- perhaps from a ring or an orthopedic device -- 
turn it inside out, and darn on the side where the wear is. 
    
    I'm going to describe the darn as if the rows were 
horizontal and the fabric vertical.  Turn it to the most-
convenient angle.  Right-handers will probably want "up" to 
slant away and to the left.  
    Come up below the worn spot and a little to its right, 
and work over a row of stitches, right to left.  Use the 
knitting as a guide to make your embroidery stitches uniform 
and square, about as high as they are wide.  (Making them 
narrower without making them shorter is one way to thicken 
the middle of a row, but square is the best shape for 
working a net over an area.) 
    When you are a little to the left of the thin spot, end 
the row by putting the needle down where you would have 
brought it up in making the next stitch.  That is, the last 
loop is secured by a short straight stitch that ends where 
the next loop would have had its corner. 
    Bring the needle up in the right place to begin the next 
row.  This stitch is about half as long as the stitches you 
have been making, so it's easy to begin the next row too 
high.  If the previous row was a trifle too long, begin by 
working into the last loop.  If the previous row was a 
trifle too short, work into the straight stitch securing the 
last loop as if it were the top of a stitch 
    Use the columns of knit stitches as a guide for making 
the side edges straight, unless you have a reason to make 
them some other shape.  Try to keep the underneath stitches 
vertical. 
    Work back left to right, turn in the same way, and 
continue until your thread gets short.   
    When changing threads in ornamental buttonhole, one 
leaves the last stitch unfinished, and later weaves the end 
through the first stitch of the new thread to give the 
illusion of an unbroken thread.  This is both inconvenient 
and undesirable in darning, where the ends are woven in on 
the right side.  Temporarily secure the old end by taking a 
stitch well above the darn, unless you have worked the end 
down so short that leaving it flopping doesn't bother you. 
Slide the new thread under the row below the last row of 
darning, then take a stitch that comes up in the same place 
where the old end comes up, and continue darning.  When you 
have worked a row, thread the old end into a needle and 
slide it under the second row from the edge, which is now 
the row above the row where you secured the new thread.  If 
you need to work past the old end, slip the needle under it 
to avoid nailing it down prematurely. 

    Though working over a thread reduces the stretch of a 
darn, a hole fills in so much faster when the stitches are 
padded that it is often worth it.  You can throw a short 
yarn across the hole before each row, weaving the ends well 
to both sides of the hole, you can take advantage of ends 
that need hiding, or you can stitch across in one direction 
and strand back.  This last appeals particularly to people 
who buttonhole more easily in one direction than in the 
other. 
    Another approach is to first stabilize the shape of the 
hole with a loose network or a zig-zag of yarns, and work 
over them as you come to them.  
    All these methods can be combined, of course. 


OTHER DARNS AND PATCHES FOR HAND KNITS: 

    An inconspicuous darn is to embroider rows of chain 
stitch up the columns of stitches.  This does not reinforce 
worn fabric, but will protect new fabric from abrasion -- in 
the spot where a rough gear-shift lever hits the thumb of a 
mitten, for example. 

    You can cover or replace a strand of yarn by duplicate 
stitch or grafting.  Since this is tedious work, it's 
usually done only when the damaged area is small and the 
garment is particularly valuable.  
    Duplicate stitch is a good "save" when you notice a 
defect in the yarn after completing the work.  Break a short 
piece of yarn by pulling fibers, as for splicing, and put 
the middle over the weak spot, then darn away from it in 
both directions.  (Use a crochet hook when the ends get too 
short for a needle.)  The tapered tails will blend 
imperceptably into the original yarn.  If the yarn is 
untreated wool, this repair will become more firmly attached 
and harder to see with wear and washing. 
    You can duplicate stitch up to a hole and work 
nalbinding across it, if you have allowed something that is 
worth that much effort to wear into holes.  
    Like grafting, nalbinding is duplicate stitch over 
stitches that aren't there.  It will be much easier if you 
put in vertical threads to work around.  Use Medici or silk 
sewing thread for the vertical threads so that you don't 
have to take them out afterward.  Weave up a column of 
stitches as if securing an end, skip over the hole,then 
weave into the exact same column on the other side.  A 
magnifying glass can be a big help in identifying the exact
same column.  Weaving a thread through the intact column on 
each side of the hole also helps.  

    Some people knit patches, by picking up live stitches at 
the bottom of the hole and grafting at the top.  The sides 
can be sewn, or secured by pulling the frayed yarns through 
the stitches.  (The turning yarn that spans from one row to 
the next is a good place to link.)  Weave the frayed ends 
into the old fabric, to reinforce it. 
    It may be a good idea to wrap the turning yarns around a 
smooth thread, to make it easier to find the place to link 
the worn yarns through. 
    I've never encountered a hole for which a knitted patch 
was suitable, so this description is not from experience.   

    When the end of a finger, the toe of a sock, the cuff of 
a sleeve, or some other extremity becomes worn, it's often 
suitable to ravel it out and re-knit it.  Sometimes the 
original yarn can be re-used for the repair.  Wash it first, 
to relax the kinks.  Overlap the frayed ends, instead of 
cutting them off and joining. 
    If the extremity was knitted the other way, and won't 
unravel from its beginning, snip one thread at the spot 
where you want to divide the fabric, and pick it out all the 
way around.  The piece that falls off usually can be 
unraveled from this side, if you need to incorporate the 
original yarn into the repair. 


MENDING FACTORY KNITS 

BASEBALL-STITCH DARNING 

    A frequent failure in cut-and-sewn garments is fabric 
that has worn away along a seam.  In addition to wearing 
through at the fold, the allowances are often encased in a 
sharp, hard line of overlock stitches.  This ridge under the 
fabric may serve as an anvil on which the fabric can be worn 
away. 
    One way to repair such a seam is to re-stitch the seam 
with baseball stitch, spaced closely enough to overcast both 
raw edges.  Since this seam is very flat, it has little 
tendency to wear away.  (In some references, baseball stitch 
is called "antique seam" because it was used for 
construction in the days when fabric was so valuable that 
allowing it to wear away at the seams was unthinkable, and 
so narrow that you were apt to have seams in places where 
lumps and ridges are intolerable.) 
    First cut away the seam allowances, not only where they 
have worn free of the main fabric, but into the sound fabric 
on either side.  (Baseball stitch is easy to work next to a 
previous patch of baseball stitch, so you needn't be 
fanatical about preventing future failure.) 
    Choose a thread that harmonizes with your fabric.  
Secure the thread very thoroughly if it is synthetic, merely 
hide the end if it is wool, take intermediate precautions 
with silk and cotton.  Sliding the thread through a 
overlocked seam is a good way to hide an end; taking back 
stitches in the overcasting is a good way to secure an end. 
    Begin stitching a little above the break, stitching 
toward the seam from both sides so that the stitches 
interdigitate across the seam. 
..PICTURE NEEDED HERE
    When you get to the break, let each stitch come up in 
the gap, so that the edges are overcast and held together by 
a figure eight, and the crossing of the threads in the gap 
prevents the edges from over-riding one another.  Stitch 
beyond the end the same way you stitched before the 
beginning, and hide or secure the end. 
    If there is a small gap, fill it with one or more vertical 
threads and weave over them.  An odd number of threads requires 
you to modify your baseball stitch by coming up in the gap on 
one side and going down into the gap on the other side.


End of excerpt from _Rough Sewing_.