Darning Instructions

To help you enjoy your knitwear for longer, here are some simple darning guidelines for minor repairs to your knitwear that can be made using the spare yarn supplied with your purchase.

You will need:

• A darning needle – these have a blunt pointed end and a large ‘eye’ suitable to thread wool through.
• Your Hand and Jones cedar block with the yarn matching your Hand and Jones knit – important as this will match your item to be repaired perfectly.
• A cut-off length from your block knotted at one end.
• A pair of craft scissors suitable for cutting wool.

1. Lay your repair flat on the table, or stretch over a piece of card if the hole to be repaired is in the sleeve. Please note the below repair is carried out in a contrast thread for ease of viewing.

2. Push the threaded needle through from the wrong side, about 0.5cm from both the top and side of the hole. T he knotted end of the yarn should sit on the inside of the garment. Start to make horizontal rows of ‘running’ stitch by pushing the needle in and out of the knit, and pulling the yarn through. Turn the needle around when you have stitched 0.5 cm past the hole each time, and stitch the other way.

3. When your rows of stitching meet the hole in garment, run the yarn straight across, to build up a ‘ladder’ of stitches across the hole.

4. When you have covered the area to be repaired with horizontal stitches, push the needle back through from the wrong side to meet the widest point of the horizontal stitching. Turn the needle 90 degrees to make stitches in a vertical direction. In the same manner, push the needle in and out of the knit including the horizontal stitches, turning the needle around, and stitching in the other direction, when you reach the top and bottom of the area.

5. Weave the needle in and out of the horizontal ‘ladder’ stitches pushing the vertical threads close to each other to create a compact, crosshatched area over the hole. When the whole area is covered push the needle back through to the wrong side, knot the yarn and trim the end to secure.