Knitting

Repair and Wear

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Sweater Front
Sweater Front
Repair
Repair

I have no idea how long I’ve had this wool sweater. I bought it from LLBean at least 40 years ago! It’s warm, versatile, comfortable to wear. It hasn’t shown signs of wear until recently when I discovered I had worn through the left elbow, so I repaired it. At the time, I didn’t notice any other wear, so I put the sweater back into use. [BTW, I use the sweater as a pullover, so I stitched up the front binding shortly after I bought it so it wouldn’t pull between the buttons – it looks better that way.]

The other day I discovered the front binding (between the second and third button from the bottom) was seriously worn and ready to lose stitches! Just in that spot where my clothes rub against counter tops! Yesterday I mended it.

I though all I had to rework was the top binding, the edge of which was coming apart; but once I’d done that fix, I saw the damage was more extensive – both front panels were thin extending about 1 1/2″ from the midline. I dug out sock yarn leftovers in colours as close as I could get to match the existing yarn and got to work with some Swiss darning.

Not a bad job, if I say so myself. Look closely at the repair and you can see where I did the reinforcing stitches, but from a distance you can’t see anything was wrong.

Knowing how to repair knitwear is a good skill to have in your repertoire. Flora Collinwood-Norris does a brilliant job of darning (and Swiss darning) to restore knit garments to a wearable state. She has written books, and gives online classes. I have neither the books, nor taken classes, but I can see from the photos on her website how this work is done. I’m nowhere as skilled as she is at rebuilding a worn patch in a knit garment, but this repair is definitely acceptable and will extend the life of my sweater for quite a while (until the next wear spot shows up and I’ll fix that, too).

Take a look at Collinwood-Norris’ repair work. It’s worth knowing how to fix knit garments (socks, included).

Latest Socks

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I finished these socks last evening. A nice yarn to work with.

The pink was on the outside of the ball which meant I’d never get to the second pink stripe for a size 7-8 sock! So I rewound the ball in order to have both pink stripes come through.

I enjoyed knitting with this yarn even though the transitions were so subtle. It was difficult finding the matching location – the ball label said the yarn would make two matching socks – the manufacturer just forgot to mark the begin/end in the centre of the ball. It took a bit of careful study to find a similar location for starting the second sock. I didn’t do too badly – the match is almost perfect.

These socks are in the gift pile at the moment – they may make it to my sock drawer….

A Close Match

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Remember, I described the challenge of working with this yarn? How the sections of colour were too long so the transitions were not going to allow me to finish with a blue toe. That I had to cut out segments of the various greens to finally reach the blue.

The difficulty was trying to judge the transition segments so the colour demarkations were more blended. I didn’t succeed entirely, I was better with the sock on top – the first one, I think, than with the second. However, the recipient of these socks won’t notice any difference – I’m just being an obsessive perfectionist! The important part of the sock is the leg, anyway. Nobody sees the foot inside the shoe.

The next pair I’ve got underway is definitely BORING – an alternating pattern of magenta, brown, beige, pink stripes.

I haven’t reached the end of the first repeat which seems to involve at least 10 stripes – I’m trying to decide what I can do to liven up the colour palette. This is one of the Hobbii “Silly Socks” balls of yarn I ordered a couple of months ago – I’m not sure what I have in the “leftovers” collection that might intersperse with this to make it more interesting – but I want to do something!

Half A Pair Of Socks

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This has probably been the most labour-intensive sock I’ve ever knit!

The lovely dark blue and canary yellow ball of yarn caught my eye when I saw it at LK Yarns a couple of weeks ago. What I couldn’t know was the rest of the colour pallet was dull. I knit the yellow cuff then I pulled out the yarn from the centre of the ball (which I always do), found a medium blue yarn and started knitting. I expected the colour to change within a reasonable number of rows – didn’t happen – 25 rows into the sock I was still knitting medium blue – no yellow or dark blue in sight! When I peered into the centre of the ball, I could see a range of pale greens, but it was clear the last colours I’d get to would be the yellow and dark blue.

This particular ball of yarn turned out to be exactly two pattern repeats – each pattern intended to be a single sock – there was a white segment in the centre of the ball to mark the end of the first repeat. So I was going to end up with a very dull sock!

I unravelled the medium blue back to 9 rows, then picked up the dark blue from the outside of the ball and started knitting. The leg turned out mostly bright blue/yellow – just turning into the soft green as I began turning the heel. But then I ran into more green and more green. A sock for a size 7 1/2-8 shoe was going to finish on a pale green and never get to the medium blue. So I started splicing the yarn. I knit small amounts of the various greens until I got close to the toe, the I picked up the blend into a pale blue, then spliced it again to get to the medium blue to finish.

One sock done. Now I have to watch closely while knitting the second sock – carefully counting rows, so I can work up a colour match for the second sock.

Not gonna buy that yarn again!

Silly Socks

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Silly Socks (Happy Clown 09)

These were fun socks to knit! I bought the yarn from Hobbii in Denmark a couple of months ago. I’ve purchased yarn from them for a couple of years and found it a nice weight and texture. The patterns have for the most part turned out interesting socks. These were the brightest I’ve ever knit!

The only challenge was the ball of yarn had some knots where during the winding process the yarn broke and it was joined manually – distorting the pattern. I ran into both knots while knitting the first sock. The first happened between the green and blue transition – I had to unwind quite a bit of yarn to find an approximate location for a match. The second knot happened just after the heel where the solid yellow was abruptly ended and joined to green. At that point I cut out the knot, threaded one yarn into the other knit 5 stitches, trimmed excess yarn and carried on.

I had to be careful on the second sock to match the location when I got past the heel. I was pretty successful making an approximate match – my two socks turned out the same! I didn’t encounter any further knots, thank goodness. It was also a good decision to knit the cuff in yellow (I didn’t know at that point I’d lose most of the yellow solid section). It gives a colour balance to the finished sock.

Socks

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Hobbii Silly Socks (Circus Princess 04)

Finished this pair yesterday while watching Wimbledon action – Alcaraz vs Jarry. Not Alcaraz’s best play – his first serve wasn’t working well so he was playing a defensive tennis against a competent opponent.

The socks are rather sedate – but I liked the soft colours and enjoyed working with them which is why I chose the soft pink as the complement colour.

Finished A Couple Of Evenings Ago

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Lang SwissLakes Super Soxx Yarn

I finished this pair of socks a couple of evenings ago. I really liked the colours and the colour flow. I used a contrast yarn for cuff and heels but decided to carry on with the patterned yarn for the toe, introducing the contrast 1/4 of the way through in alternate rows. The teal and rusts make a nice combination.

Socks Finished Last Night

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KnitPix Yarn

Many months ago I bought several skeins of sock yarn from KnitPix – I ordered them because I found the original couple of skeins were a lovely soft merino/Polyester blend and great to work with. I chose to pick up the lime/yellow colour from the pattern for cuffs and toes, but decided to use a navy for the heels to keep the overall “navy” feel to the socks.

Someone will enjoy wearing them.

Sort Of Sedate Socks

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Man-Size Socks

I mostly knit socks to fit a women wearing a size 7-8 shoe (give or take a bit in the length). If I know someone has a small foot, I knit them with four fewer stitches and a few rows shorter in the foot. I don’t actually knit socks in “inches”; I knit them by counting rows so I know precisely how long each section of the sock actually is without the uncertainty of stretching it against a ruler.

This pair of socks is intended for a man wearing a size 9 1/2 shoe. So I added 6 rows to my usual foot length. With a bit of washing (even in cold water) which will shrink the socks a tiny bit they should fit nicely. Just waiting for an occasion to pass the socks along.

The socks aren’t “dull”, but they are sedate, I’d say. No bright colours. Just a wee bit jazzy.

Waste Not, Want Not

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Socks – Restored

Patsy wondered whether I could fix holes in the feet of her socks. I’d have to see, I told her. Depends on the size and location of the holes. (These were socks she bought from me to give to her daughters, I thought, a couple of Christmases ago – looks like she kept a pair for herself! Well loved, I could see.)

Well, not only were there substantial holes in the ball of the foot, the heels were threadbare, as well. No point in trying to reknit the holes. Better to salvage the legs and reknit new feet.

I went to my leftover yarn stash to see whether I still had a ball of the original yarn tucked in there. No luck, didn’t find any. I did find another pattern that looked like it would complement the original pattern. I cut off the feet just at the start of the heel, and reknit new feet.

It takes 4-5 days to knit a length of leg – so 8-9 days, say, to knit a pair of legs. Half the job done. It’s worth my time and effort to salvage legs and knit new feet. She’ll get another couple of years wear from these like-new socks.

The match between the two socks isn’t absolutely perfect, but close enough that if I didn’t mention it, I’m not sure Patsy would even notice the discrepancy.

I’ll knock on her door with these later today!

Worked out pretty well, huh?