Friday, November 10, 2017

Darn, 1, 2, 3

I thought I'd record the basic steps of darning, while I'm at the early stages of darning this ragged wool blanket. 

Basic darning is simple. 
1. Find a hole.

2. Stitch around the hole, to help firm up the surrounding area. Then, starting on firm fabric, weave lines with your needle in and out of the original weave, and across the hole. These are the stationery warp threads.

 3. Weave the other direction, going over-and-under your first lines--these are the weft threads. 
Warp and weft are weaving terms, and essentially you are using your needle to re-weaving the fabric.

 That's it!
It does take some care to make smooth and even darns, especially working with raggedy edges and holes. Luckily perfection is not the goal, and you can see I am not near it, but the darns are functional, and, I think, interesting for the eye.

3 comments:

bink said...

So cool! Like cute green space bugs came and pooped on your blanket--and I mean that in the best way. Seriously, I love the colors together. This is going to be gorgeous.

Krista Kennedy said...

Thanks for this! I've been wanting to take up sock darning. This is strangely lovely and helps me see.

Fresca said...

Thanks, BINK: That's an unusual but adorable compliment!

KRISTA: Sock darning is the gateway drug.