Tutorials & Tips & Techniques Archives

An Example of a Great Repair Request

March 16, 2024 by Jennifer Raymond

Have you ever wondered what goes on before I take on a project to repair?

Before I accept an item to fix, I like to have a dialogue with clients about the piece, their goals, and my ability. All of this starts with the Repair Request I have on my Contact Me Page.

So what makes a good repair request? I often have to clarify to potential clients what I need to come up with an accurate estimate to repair the item they’d like me to work on. When you, the client, fills out our contact form, it asks you a series of questions such as:

How important is matching color or matching fiber content?
How important is it to you that the repair be machine washable vs. needing to be washed by hand?
How are you intending to use the item?
How fragile does the fabric appear?
How important to you is cost?
How important is it for you to preserve as much of the textile as possible?

When you answer these questions, they help me understand where your priorities lie in the the repair. Some repairs can be functionally stable, but the color or fiber content might not be the best match. Finding a good color match can be time consuming – are you willing to reimburse me as I purchase different yarns to find the best match for the repair? If you are intending to put the item on display vs use it everyday, that may influence how much of the object needs to be repaired – daily use means I should also prioritize areas I see are going thin, because with more use they may easily become holes soon.

One of the best ways I can get a sense of the item (aside from sending it to me) is to take good photographs. Take a look at the photos below as I show what was really helpful about them.

This is a great overall photo of the piece. I can see the pieces of paper that mark the holes, and I know where the holes are in relation to each other. It gives me a sense of the scale of the piece, the overall pattern, and if there are any edgings or other factors I have to take into account while working.

Great photo with a number. The ruler provides a lot of detail for me: I can tell the size of the yarn and how big the hole is. The hole is filling enough of the frame that I can zoom in to look at how the fibers are worn away (ie: frayed, cut, ragged).

Again, the ruler is super helpful. I can also tell the customer had their hands on either side stretching the fabric slightly so I could see everything.

So helpful to have number 3 and 4, which are close together, numbered! In cases where holes are close together, the location of the holes can impact how I approach the repairs, so it’s helpful to see that relational information.

Here the hole was small enough that I couldn’t see it in the overall picture, but can see it here. It was so helpful!

One of the other things this client did was mark each hole with a piece of string. This really saves both of us time. While sometimes people don’t realize there is a hole that I catch, the time it takes for me to find holes that the client already knows about is time I could use on doing repairs. Ultimately it saves us both time, and in the end, the client money.

Got a piece you’d like me to look at? Now that you have a sense of what I’m looking for, head over to Let’s Connect, and get the conversation started.

Re-Imagining A Crochet Tablecloth

July 1, 2022 by Jennifer Raymond

Getting creative with clients to turn a piece from something that can’t be used to something that can is one of my favorite types of collaborations.

This tablecloth had major damage around various part of the outer edge. However, like many crochet pieces, this one was modular – both in that the motifs used could be pulled out and put other places, and that each round of motifs and edging was not dependent on the last piece.

The first step for me was laying the piece out so I could take a careful look and mark and note the places that needed attention. There’s the obvious two holes along the edge, but there were also multiple smaller places that would need attention and reinforcement too.

The client preferred to be able to use the piece – no matter that we’d have to take off quite a bit of the outer edging. We could then use it as a table runner instead of a table cloth.

After taking a good close look at the piece, and multiple conversations with the client, we determined the place where we could take the least off. I’d still need to repair some small areas, but we had reduced the amount of work to something that was in the client’s budget.

Taking the edging off involved the use of a sharp pair of scissors and some time where I didn’t need to be interrupted. There was no room for mistakes! After several hours of carefully removing the outer edge, it was time to take a step back, take some pictures and consult with the client again.

Here we have the piece with the edging taken off – it really changed the appearance and presentation of the finished product. I think the cleaner unadorned edge gives it a bit more of a formal and modern look.

A quick and light steam press, shoring up some of the other areas, and it was ready to be sent on its way!

Preparing a Hole For Swiss Darning in a White Knit Throw

December 23, 2020 by Jennifer Raymond

One of the first steps when I get a piece is an initial evaluation to make sure everything is ready to be worked on. It always helps when clients secure stitches and mark the areas that need to be worked on. In this paticular case, a hole had developed in a supremely soft knit afghan… clearly it needed repairing to be used this winter! I feel like the end of 2020 has been a year of wanting to snuggle under a blanket, especially as in the Northern Hemisphere it’s getting cold.

hole in white knit throw held together with safety pins

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The Largest Textile I’ve Blocked to Date: A Knit Lace Chuppah

February 27, 2020 by Jennifer Raymond

A while back I was contacted by a young woman getting ready for her wedding. She had a rather unusal request: she needed a lace knit chuppah for her wedding blocked. Part of a traditional Jewish wedding is the chuppah: a canopy under which the couple stands during the wedding cerenony. The chuppah has a lot of symbolism. Some chuppahs can be very plain, but many of them are passed through the family, and are elaborate family herilooms made of lace and embroidery are not uncommon.

When I first spoke to the young lady, she admitted that she had gotten in touch with a few other finishers, and none of them could take on an item so large. She estimated that the finished piece would be about 10 by 10 feet. I have to admit, I went through the house with a measuring tape, measuring each room in my house to see if I could fit something so large. Luckily, our kitchen with all the furniture out would work. It was 14×14 feet – which would give me just enough room to be able to walk around it when the piece was laid out.

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Mending a Midwest Inspried Crochet Afghan

February 13, 2020 by Jennifer Raymond

This midwest inspried afghan had a lot of damage done to it over the years, and the owner contacted me about doing some repairs and mending to bring it back up to shipshape! This was an interesting piece – each row was done through the back loop (hence the distinct ridges, and each row the yarn was cut on the end, resulting in the creator only ever going from right to left when working on it. The cut ends became part of the fringe.

It did make the repairs a lot easier to do, as I didn’t need to flip the blanket over for each row. Working through the back loop does mean that the last row invoves a lot of sewing, though.

The two holes right above the the black line were so close together it made more sense to pull out the yarn between them and work them as one large hole. I decided to tackle that first.

To keep track of each stitch, I used locking stitch markers to hold each leg of the single crochet together. This will help when I reweave the last row.

Nearly done! After working each of the rows, I’m finishing up by joining together the last row. I had to take out the black row later in the process as it had more damage to it than I realized.

Now I’ve got everything worked up and the ends woven in. I mark each area of repair with a piece of yarn, so the repairs are easier to find. When the clients get the repaired piece they can take the markers out.

See that the stitches look a little more lively where I’ve done the repairs? This will improve as the piece gets used, and the newer stitches gain some wear.

Now I’m tackling the repair that is further up in the blanket. You’ll notice there’s the larger hole, and to the left, another smaller hole. It made sense in this case to also pull out and combine the holes. The yarn in between the two holes was worn away enough that I was concerned about its stablility.

As in many repairs, this is a slow process of just adding the new yarn to the old, crocheting across the row, and then sewing and reweaving the old to the new. What you can’t see on the backside is all the ends I still need to weave in.

And now we’re at the end: the hole is closed up and the ends are woven in. A bit of yarn to mark the spot. Now it’s time for this afghan to have a quick wash before it leaves to go back to its owner.

Much Beloved Heirloom Crochet Tablecloth Made New

January 6, 2020 by Jennifer Raymond

rectangular lace crochet tablecloth with center border and then outer border made up of flower motifs

One of my favorite repairs, recently, has been a series of two different crochet lace tablecloths I took on. These two pieces were both at least 30 or more years old, and were in pretty good condition. Frank from Textile Restoration Inc in Chicago had sent the client my way. I’ll highlight the first of the tablecloths today, and I’ll be highlighting the second of them a little later.

The first tablecloth, which I thought of as “Field of Flowers” when I worked on it, was a huge piece, at least 5 1/2 feet by 4 feet. It was made of a center pannel of 4 x 12 motfs, an inner border of triangles, an outer set of motifs 4 deep, and then larger second outer border.

Most of the holes were areas where motifs that had been joined as the tablecloth was worked had come undone and unraveled – not uncommon, even in pieces where every single end is tightly woven in. The areas where two motifs join together tend to be an area that recieves more stress.

[Read more…]

Darn It! How to Repair your Knitting Online Workshop Available

October 8, 2018 by Jennifer Raymond

I’ve been working on my new class from Interweave, Darn It! How to Repair your Knitting for several years. Since I began offering repair courses, I’ve wanted to find a way to get this information to students who were not in my geographic area. This started when I posted about getting a copy of Rena Crockett’s Flawless Knit Repair. People from all parts of the globe would email asking how they could get a copy, or asking if I’d be willing to scan a PDF version of the book. (I was never comfortable with that solution, as I make my living off of my copyright, and I’ve never been able to contact Crockett or her realitives to see if they would be OK with that action.)

But in the back of my brain I was trying to figure out how I could create my own, readily available version of Crockett’s book. Becasue as much as Crockett’s book was instrumental in my own start into repairing things, I’d found some other methods of working that I wanted to share with people. More than a year ago I teamed up with Interweave to try and create a course that would answer the need I’d seen.

I’m proud to announce that Darn It: How to Repair your Knitting is finally available! This class covers a lot of ground: repairing knit fabrics, purl fabrics, cables, lace and (my favorite!) colorwork (which has some special challenges). It breaks down, step-by-step, how to approach various reparis, and how to make them nearly invisible (if that’s your desire).

Let’s look at what the class includes:

In This Online Workshop You’ll Learn:

A variety of repair techniques including duplicate and Kitchener stitch
How to fix holes before they even happen
Step-by-step repairs for stockinette, Fair Isle, cables, and lace knitting
The secret to weaving in ends invisibly
Tips for sourcing repair yarn and mimicking original yarns in older or heirloom pieces

Lesson Outline:

Intro
Darning vs. Reweaving
A Stitch In Time: Finding Holes Before They Happen
The Duplicate Stitch
Repairing Stranded Colorwork
Kitchener Stitch
Repairing Cables
Mending a Hole in Stockinette
Weaving in Ends
Repairing Lace
Conclusion

Skill Level:

Any! Students should have basic knitting skills and some knowledge of knitting cables and simple lace.

Optional Materials for Practice Swatches:

Small amounts of worsted-weight yarn in several colors for practice swatches and repair; Size 7 or 8 knitting needles; locking stitch markers; crochet hook; tapestry needle and sharp-tipped needle; Size 7 or 8 double-pointed knitting needles

Repairing Cables Article in Interweave Knits Fall 2018

September 6, 2018 by Jennifer Raymond

And the releases keep coming! I’m proud to announce I have an article in the Interweave Knits Fall 2018 issue on repairing and reweaving cables in knitwear.

My piece appears on page 64. You can also find a copy of the article on the Interweave Knitting Page.

The article offers tips and tricks to repairing cables. I’ve added in some expert tips about where I source my yarn. I think the editorial staff at Intwerave did a great job laying out the article and making it the best it can be!

Unique Sweater Pillows Tutorial

March 9, 2017 by Jennifer Raymond

Lately I’ve been able to dig my teeth into some interesting projects like the hobbyhorse blanket I repaired a couple of weeks ago. Today I wanted to share with you another project I’m working on. I was approached by a client interested in having six sweaters turned into pillows. A dear friend of hers had passed away, and she wanted to take her friend’s distinctive sweaters and turn them into pieces she could treasure.

I’ve worked a few times with commercial made sweaters; although more often I’m taking them apart for teaching purposes or using them to practice techniques I’d like to teach. While this isn’t a tutorial per-se, it’s an outline of my process and some tips and tricks I’ve discovered after working on other smaller projects similar to this.

Stabilizer ironed onto the back of the sweater pieces

My first step was taking the sweaters apart. All but one was chain-stitched together, which made disassembling them pretty easy once I got the hidden stitching undone. The last one was sewn together, which was a bit more of a pain to take apart. At least it was done in mattress stitch!

Next I ironed on stabilizer. The stabilizer gave the knit fabric more woven qualities, which was needed for several reasons:

It made sewing into the fabric infinitely easier.
For colorwork or stranded knitting sweaters, it prevented unraveling.
The stabilizer prevented the fabric from distorting by keeping lines straight and preventing stretching.
For sweaters with button bands or zippers, it prevented them from accidentally opening. It would allow some of the sweaters button bands to not be sewn, preserving some of the sweater-like qualities.
It allowed the finished pillow to be sturdier.

On the very last piece of sweater I was just shy of covering the entire sweater. Since I would be trimming most of the edges away, I pieced together a few extra scraps of stabilizer I had to finish it off (you can see this above).

Figuring out the size of the pillow, and making sure all the lines are straight

After the stabilizer was on, I began to look at each sweater, determining the notable features of the sweater – what made it distinct? How could I choose a shape that complimented the look of the piece? Would the pillow look better as a square or rectangular pillow?

Cutting the pieces using a quilter’s template and a fresh blade on my roller cutter

This tall ice-skating Santa would have gotten cut off as a square pillow. I also loved the beading on the edge of this sweater and the beaded snowflakes. I had to fudge cutting this pillow out to make sure that I caught all the elements that made it interesting.

I cut pieces to preserve the button bands, then had to make sure the button bands were in the center of the pillow

I thought it was important to keep the qualities of the sweater above that made it interesting – button bands and ribbing at the edge. This pillow had a really thick button band that was nearly impossible to sew through, needing a lot of hand stitching.

After cutting out all the pieces and making sure I’d gotten them to the correct size, it was time to pin them together. For most of the pillows I was able to use my sewing machine to sew at least three of the sides. For two of them I was also able to machine sew part of a fourth side, saving on a lot of time.

A stack of sewed pillows, awaiting stuffing

A stack of sewn pillows, awaiting stuffing

The top pillow above, with the blues and greens, ended up being a favorite. I love the buttons on the button band!

Mattress stitch is almost always a perfect solution to having two fabrics come together invisibly

Next I began hand-sewing the final edge of the pillows. I used #10 crochet thread instead of normal sewing thread. This was becasue I was having to yank at the pillows to get them to look the way I wanted them. This was doubly true when sewing through the button bands, and getting three layers of very thick knit fabric to come together. Even still, sometimes I wasn’t careful and had the thread break. Not fun!

Mattress stitch (aka ladder stitch) was my stitch of choice.

Pillow made out of old sweater, button band showing

The pillows are coming together now! I wasn’t always able to get the ribbing to come together evenly on the bottom. It’s a nitpicky detail, and probably something only I could notice. It couldn’t always be helped though. I love here how I could keep the button band unsewn, so it looks like the button band on a normal sweater, with that dimensionality! The thick stabilizer unerneath will prevent stuffing from escaping.

Some close shots of the lovely beadwork on the bottom of the Santa sweater. I just had to keep a detail like this. I’m already wondering how to replicate this in a handknit design.

This has been a fun project and a unique way to honor a passed friend. In the next few days I’ll wrap up with the final touches – removing lint, straightening edges and getting ready to send these pieces back to my client.

Reweaving a Lace Knit Blanket, Part 2

March 6, 2017 by Jennifer Raymond

Today I resume notes on my recent repair, a lace hobbyhorse blanket. This is the second of the series detailing my thoughts as I worked through this reweaving and repair project. You can see the first part here.

Base of the hobby horse, stitches on locking stitch marker.

When I last left off I’d gotten the piece reworked up to the lacework, and fixed a couple of runs that were below the hobbyhorse. I’m ready to start working my way up the lace horse.

To review, this is what a whole hobbyhorse looks like (below). You’ll see I’m using stitch markers to visually mark my place – the green stitch marker represented the first line of stitches in a column that were whole and unraveled.

Reference hobbyhorse

I got my stitches on a pair of needles and began “knitting” my way up the rows, following and mimicking the other lace horse. I used a trick I often use with children and beginning knitters – the knitting needles are two different colors so I could easily remember which were right side rows and which were “wrong side” rows. By that I mean the rows I was working with the lace (which would have been the right side of the pattern) and the rows I was just plain knitting (which would have been the wrong side, or the purl side).

Double pointed needles made it easy to not have to slip the stitches back and forth.

Reknitting and reweaving the foot of the lace knit hobbyhorse

At this point I was to the top of the horse’s foot and began to notice a problem I hadn’t been sure about until that point. I thought there was a jog in the line of decreases and yarnovers to the left, but I wasn’t quite sure. As I began working the pattern up the leg of the horse, it became apparent that a couple of mistakes had been made by the origional knitter when knitting the horse.

Note: you’ll also notice that as I was making these repairs I wasn’t paying attention to gauge too much – both because I could go back and “adjust” areas, and also because this repair had a time budget – it was more important to get the repair to a place where it wouldn’t come unraveled.

Reknitting and reweaving the leg of the lace knit hobbyhorse

There were three apparent mistakes, but two of them affected the repair – circled below. You can see the jog in the line of stitches on the bottom circle, and another jog at the line of stitches in the horse’s neck. The third mistake, the one which may have led to the run in the first place, is right at the top of the dropped stitches. The mysterious part of all of this was the fact that there wasn’t any broken yarn – the run must have resulted in a dropped stitch that couldn’t get fixed.

At this point I was also starting to suspect that there might have been an extra pair of stitches in the original pattern. Looking at the horse I began to wonder if perhaps there was a fourth mistake that was lost when the stitches dropped down? I’d been noticing that even accounting for differences in gauge, the stitches were really loose. This hypothetical fourth mistake would account for an extra row of stitches, and thus the extra yarn hanging out in each row. I started to suspect that the drop might have resulted from the original knitter trying to fix those mistake; and perhaps losing a stitch in the process?

Comparing how the hobbyhorse is supposed to look, vs the horse with the run in it

By now I worked my way back to where the drop happened. I had to strategize how I was going to finish this repair off. I had two different choices I could follow:

1.) Cut the yarn to reweave the affected area and then weave in those ends.

2.) Use additional yarn to sew the gap closed.

I discarded the first option for a couple of reasons: time and cost was a factor for this client. I also wouldn’t have much ends to work with when weaving things back together. Since this is a child’s blanket, I wanted a sturdier option.

Instead, I went with option two. I found some embroidery floss in as close of color as I could get, and cinched in the stitches. I then sewed through the area several times, weaving in the ends afterward.

Getting ready to sew the run and hole in the hobbyhorse closed

To get the stitches looking more even, and to test to make sure everything was locked in tight I decided to go with an unconventional approach for blocking. I wet the blanket, maneuvered the stitches so they looked as even as I could get them in a reasonable amount of time, and threw it in the dryer (since the yarn was dryer safe). This fluffed up the yarn, locked the stitches into place, and helped everything even out.

And there you have it! This piece went off to its owner last week, back into the loving arms of a boy that will have it for years to come.

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