While staying at home, I’ve been really almost too busy–maybe procrastinating getting to work on creative stuff like finishing the pile of weaving projects on my table. I had told a friend who wanted her sweater holes fixed that I could do it and it has been sitting on my desk for a few days. That only took a few minutes to do but then I thought it could be a good post. Taking photos, deciding which to use, writing text for each, labeling photos to texts, email all to my tech guy. Whew!! The day is about over and I promised myself I’d watch a movie tonight (it’s a choice between that and the Met opera that’s on the computer every night. Go to: www.metopera.org. There’s a different one every night, they are free and you can play them anytime of day or night! The scheduled ones are great ones! The next post will be on weaving–I promise. Peggy
Moths seem to love to eat cashmere and one hole can ruin a whole sweater. I learned this from Yoshiko Wada and at Dharma Trading Company San Rafael, CA. www.dharmatrading.com I’ve also knitted patches which you can see in the last post.
Here is the equipment needed. The fiber comes from a spinner or spinning/needle felting store. I got this from Windrush Farms at my farmer’s market. www.windrushfarm.wordpress.com She sells small amounts of colored fiber for felting. I have used a brush or styrofoam instead of this brush-like tool that comes with needle felting supplies. I like it a lot—stays put—and I don’t poke my fingers.
Pull the fibers apart and crisscross them and make a small loose ball or wad.
Put the fiber on the wrong side of the sweater and poke all over the area with the felting needle. Watch your fingers it is SHARP!
I thought mine needed an extra wad so I worked over the area again on the right side. Check the right side and if a few hairs, poke them to the wrong side.
My fleece didn’t match as well as I’d like, so you may not want to do it on the obvious places. However, the hole(s) will not get bigger and the sweater is stable.
I preferred to knit patches and needle felted them in place, using the back side of the knitted patch. Look closely and you can see another hole mended just with white fiber and needle felted—not too bad. Use a fuzzy or fluffy yarn. I loved this kid mohair swear and couldn’t bear losing it. I made extra patches as a “design feature”.
Great post Peggy. And the grey sweater is so beautiful with the knit patches.
I shall try this. both the knitted and plain fleece version.
Thanks, Peggy! I didn’t know about felting as a tool for repairs. Deborah
Peggy, I really enjoyed this post. I’ve used decorative effects to repair damaged sweater areas, but never thought of needle felting. Thank you!
I love the idea and will use it on a pair of art warmers my daughter made me that moths found, but I have a question. Doesn’t poking the yarn cause small breaks that might make more holes later?
I don’t think so. the needles are so sharp and fine and you only polke enough to push the fibers through. This idea has been used in industry. I saw a whole garment that was needle felted somehow.
Thank you! That’s good to hear 🙂
Will the new wool shrink when washed?
If a tiny hole I double you need to worry. If washing a lot, take precautions and use your judgement.
Peggy
Thank you for this tutorial! I just tried it and it worked great on an old cashmere sweater. I didn’t have any roving, but I did have some knitpicks palette yarn. I didn’t have an exact match to the shade, but did have a couple that were close. I snipped a couple of short yarn ends, teased the plies apart, then teased the strands into fibers. and made them into a fuzz ball between my hands, adjusting the amount of color to get a closer match. No more hole! I’m so excited! This was significantly easier than any other mending technique I’ve seen, and takes practically no time.