tomofholland

As regular readers of my blog know, I prefer my mending visible and decorative as well as functional, and I love to be challenged to create something beautiful. However, occasionally I have to concede reluctantly that an invisible mend is more appropriate. A few weeks ago, I had not one, but two of concessions to make in my quest for the visible mend when I got the following commissions:

The Side Seam Rip

A ripped side seam on the right

Sometimes the invisible mend is called upon, because of the nature of the damage. In the above example the side seam on the right was ripped. To be more precise, for the machine knitters amongst us, the linking thread had snapped, or hadn’t been fastened off properly. Linking is a way of “sewing up” seams of knitwear, often used in production knitting. The linker produces a chain stitch, so a quick and easy way to fix this, is to emulate a linker by means of a crochet hook and buttonhole thread.

Invisible mend using a crochet hook

Invisible Mend: As Requested

And sometimes, it’s just what the owner wants. Here’s a gorgeous cardigan combining cables and yarns, by Lark Rising, a Brighton knitwear studio.

Cardigan by Lark Rising

It’s a severe case of elbow fatigue! Although I could think of a few nice ways of performing a visible mend, Zoë preferred to go the invisible route.

A hole right in the middle of a lace pattern

As I really enjoy lace knitting, I was up for the challenge. In fact, the more difficult part of this fix was not necessarily to work out how the stitches and eyelets were formed, but to try and make it blend in. It’s difficult to find the exact matching colour, and as the cardigan had been worn lots, the surface had started to full a little.

Near invisible mend

By virtue of tripling up some crewel wool, I managed to get a close enough match of the colour and yarn thickness; and with some judicious brushing with a tooth brush I managed to raise the nap just enough to emulate the surface texture. When viewed from a distance the invisible mend blends in completely.

Voila, an invisibly mended lace cardigan

However, this is not the only cardigan Zoë asked me to repair. Next week I’ll blog about the return of an old friend.