Knit Repair

You may have noticed this little beauty in the pile of books from the Needlearts bookshop:



This is, as it says, "Flawless Knit Repair" by Rena Crockett (who sounds like a make-believe Pioneer Woman of the old school). It's a slim volume but I think it will prove to be worth its weight in gold. The reason for ordering this was that, horror of all horrors, there has been some pesky creature at my knitting.

Holes (yes, that would be plural) have appeared in the Siberian Winter Shawl. The very first shawl I ever knitted and knitted with my knitbud, who knows who she is, and doesn't, as far as I know, have any holes in her Siberian Winter.

I got the book and read it. Always a good start, and especially good for Kate, who likes reading, and often prefers reading to doing. As is often the way of things, practice makes perfect. This afternoon has been dedicated to practising.

I knitted a swatch - quite a novelty for me. I cut the swatch in the middle and I unravelled the cut threads and pinned them on either side. Just as when you start cleaning the house it seems to get worse before it can get better. There is always a point when you think, "Why didn't I just leave it as it was?" That point came fairly early in the proceedings.



Deep breathing (no chocolate yet, though). Now it's time to Kitchener the stitches together with sewing thread to stabilize everything. (Pass the chocolate!)



I used a contrast coloured thread, as instructed. It's not going too badly so far.

Next, weave the repair yarn under and over the sewing thread:



OK so far.

Then use a crochet hook to recreate each column of stitches and Kitchener together at the top with more repair yarn in a tapestry needle.

Here we see the first two columns finished:



Looking slightly wobbly - nothing to what I was feeling like at this stage. Continue all along the row. Turn the work over and repair the slits at each side. This is where it all went a bit pear-shaped. Mostly because I hadn't had enough chocolate and had just started on the wine. I did it, though, and while it isn't as perfect as the original:



I don't think it's too bad for a first attempt:



And finally, because the back should be as "tidy" as the front, here's the finished back:



It's slightly more bulky than it should be, because I got bored with weaving in ends, but it ain't too bad.

I've learned a lot - one of the things being you can never have enough chocolate on hand when Kitchener stitch rears its ugly head.

I'm off to lie down in a darkened room.