Re: Delicate Knit Repairs With Wooly Nylon
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I use the squiggly-wiggly darning stitch on my sewing machine ... and a piece of FUN stretchy fabric to "darn" over the worn areas ... or do the same by hand sometimes :-)
On Sat, Oct 10, 2020 at 2:50 PM Jaya Srikrishnan < ermabom@...> wrote: Mary, Regan,? Great idea. I would worry about one thing, not so much for Mary’s item which is an edge mend, but for Regan’s. Serger thread is a lot stronger in general than cashmere and many years ago, I was taught never to make a mend with a stronger thread than the original fabric as the stronger thread will cut the weaker one with wear.
My own experience with this comes from sock mending. I was initially making socks with non-sock yarn (back in the 90s) and they developed holes. I mended them with the same yarn and found that the patches wore holes around them. Then I tried reinforcing those areas with serger thread and found the the wool yarn wore around the serger thread. I eventually gave up on mending and developed other things I could make with socks that wore in those spots - upcycle them in a way. I am now experimenting with mending sock yarn with sock yarn but making the patch large enough to anchor in much stronger yarn around the worn area. Let’s see how they wear. I've got a ton of catching up to do and will begin reading all the messages tonight.
I wanted to share a simple solution to a problem that has plagued me: how to repair a purchased cashmere knit poncho without access to the right weight and color of cashmere yarn.
I've worn this poncho so much and my car's seatbelt had worn through the bound off edges of the poncho in a few places.? I looked through my stash of laceweights and nothing was right.? Either it was too heavy, too scratchy, too dark, too light.? My poor poncho sat on top of my dresser since March, front and center, so I wouldn't forget about how much I wanted to do a proper repair.
This morning, the first full day back in Raleigh since this summer, I had an inspiration.? I sometimes use a serger thread called wooly nylon to do a rolled edge on a scarf or delicate garment when I don't want the thread to show.? It's also useful when you want extra stretch.? It's a fine collection of a few untwisted nylon fibers and it looks a lot like laceweight, cashmere top, ready to spin.? I unearthed a spool of black wooly nylon, armed my self with a needle and a very fine crochet hook and got to work.
I've attached before and after shots.? The nylon was very forgiving, gives a result that is almost completely invisible and retains the softness of the cashmere knit.
Wooly nylon is easily sourced from online sellers and even JoAnne's Fabric and Crafts.? If you have a problem like this one, it's a great option!
Mary.
Jaya
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erica