Reknitting a small hole

Here is the tutorial I have been promising you. This is a very hard thing to explain in words. Its so much easier to have someone looking over my shoulder when I teach it. I will do my best though and feel free to ask any questions if you are confused.

So this is the hole we are going to repair today.


We start out by turning it to the back and pulling the two broken ends out...

This is the path our thread is going to follow

So now we take the piece of yarn that we have threaded onto a crewel needle. It's best to use a crewel needle as they have a blunt end and a large eye. They are easier to thread and this way you have less of a chance of splitting your strands and instead glide through the holes. Take your needle and insert it about 1 1/2 to 2 inches away from your hole on the same strand as the hole lies. How far away you start greatly depends on how loosely woven and how large the gauge is of your knit. If it is a large gauge you start farther away to give your yarn a chance to grip tighter. Too close and you stand the chance of your repair unraveling. Make sure you are on the right thread or when you arrive at the hole you will find yourself above or below it!


Pull your yarn through leaving a little tail, then weave it back and forth along the path... (if you dont understand about the path please refer to my previous post on finding the path in a knit)


Upon reaching the damage you need to insert your needle through the first hole before it and pull it through to the front side.


It's best to reweave the hole itself on the front side so you can control your stitches for the best appearance. Weaving the beginning strands on the back side helps hide the repair better, although if you really wanted to you could do your whole repair from the front.


After you pull your thread through just continue along the path as you had before


Pushing it through to the backside once you reach the other side of the hole


And continue weaving past the repair for another 1 1/2 to 2 inches then snip...leaving a small tail. you can pull this tail through the back of a stitch if it bothers you with a small latchhook. I have pictured a small latchhook you can buy at most fabric stores that is very helpful with knitting repairs. Many repairs really need this tool.


Here is the finished repair. Hole gone! I suggest to finish this you steam it with an iron and then if necessary lay the item on a thick towel, cover it with a pressing cloth and LIGHTLY press it to flatten the repair.

I realize that I may have missed big gapes in the explanation area. I try to think of what I need to say and hope I dont assume too much about what you understand. Please if anyone has questions post them. It only helps me to build a better tutorial. Also any suggestions on teh presentation would be appreciated. This is a difficult skill, and even harder to explain. If people like this one I will gladly make more explaining things like how to REALLY fix a snag, how to fix a hole with a run, etc..
Hope you all have a great day!

Reweaving 2

I received a question yesterday on what exactly IS reweaving and I realized that most people wouldn't know the answer to that. Silly me! When I first started reweaving I found that everyone I told about my new job had no idea what it was. That's because it's a dying art form. In the United States there are only a small number of firms that continue to practice it. This size becomes smaller as time goes on because, as I stated yesterday, it's impossible to find people who are willing to learn it and also because there still remains this feeling of a close guarded secret. When I first started reweaving the other weavers at my firm DID NOT want to teach me anything!
Reweaving is a loose term covering four different types of invisible repair to garments. 1) French weaving, sometimes called thread weaving 2) Inweaving, sometimes called piece weaving 3) Stoting and 4) Reknitting. Supposedly as history goes (and this is quite sketchy) There was once a young handmaiden for a queen in France. She accidently put a hole in the queens favorite dress. The queen was so livid she locked the handmaiden into a room with the dress and told her she couldn't come out till she made the hole disappear. Well the handmaiden cried and wailed and was in great despair but realized that she had to figure something out if she ever wanted to get out of that room. So after much trial and error she discovered a way to reweave the fabric over the hole and made the queens dress as good as new! This art form was closely guarded over the years and the master craftsmen themselves would only teach others in their family. It was passed down generation after generation and very few if any would teach anyone outside the families.
This is not your classic drycleaning repair where the seamstress throws the garment on the sewing machine and zigzags over the tear. This is not darning. These are all repairs that are done to garments that make the damage close to invisible. It can be extremely tedious and time consuming. The satisfaction is amazing though. I can't tell you how many times people would come into my shop and just be in awe over the repairs. I have had people cry, hug me and buy me flowers and bathsalts and lottery tickets, etc. There are many a cherished item out there and people can feel quite attatched to them.
Now most of these repairs are too difficult for me to teach you how to do them over the internet but there are a few methods that are not so hard and would still be of great value in everyday repairs. Over the next few days I will try to draw up a few diagrams and also take a few pictures of the tools I used to give you an peek at this fascinating art.
I know when I closed my shop it was a relief. It was extemely hard work mainly because there were SO MANY people begging me constantly to help them. I was never out of work and most times I was so overloaded that my repairs would run 8 to 12 weeks out. I must admit though that at times I miss it. Talk about a tactile dream! I would sit with piles of cashmere sweaters on my lap. Rich woolens and lovely silks surrounded me. I don't think I will ever get over the satisfaction I would feel when completing a job and seeing the look of amazement on a customers face.

Reweaving

I am home sick again today after another long night of insomnia and much head pain and stomache aches. I think I am beginning ot suspect a reoccurance of my GERD which I suffered from greatly last year. Unfortunately D is undergoing exams this week and has no time to go to the doctor with me. ( The doc speaks French, I speak English...kinda need an interpreter there)
Anyway while I was wandering about this morning and I came across Eva's post on wasting textiles and it made me wonder how many people would be interested in a simple tutorial on some of the reweaving and reknitting methods I know. I couldn't really teach you anything to detailed but I could teach a few basics. Please drop me a line if you are interested and I'll see if I can sketch up some diagrams and make a post about such things.
I will be stitching away on the couch today. Maybe I will post a pic of how the paisley piece is coming along later. Take care for now!