Last time we talked about elbow mending, my technique involved weaving patches in advance and then sewing them on. This made it very easy to get wonderfully symmetrical repairs on each sleeve.
This time, I'm throwing that all out the window to show you how to make an asymmetrical and more organic design, like this:
The basic idea is to link patches together at their edges. Just start darning anywhere, and then work outwards to stitch the edges/bottom of your new patches into that original darn. That's how I mended these socks, and they're stellar yeah??
This is easiest over a threadbare area (see: "Easy Mode" below) rather than over a hole ("Hard Mode").
Note: Always anchor the bottom of your stitches into an old darn, and work outward (or from bottom to top). Save yourself the frustration: it's easiest if the top of your new patch always lands on fabric rather than trying to line it up with a previous darn. This diagram shows the (approximate) order that I darned the green/yellow sock:
You'll probably find that "from bottom to top" doesn't always work, especially when you are re-mending. On the right sock, you can see that to get the bottom pink darn I rotated the loom around and the darn is "upside down" to build my patch outward from the centre.
Of course, I took the elbows a step further and created some patches that link together in mid-air at the centre of the hole, which...complicates things a bit. But the concept is similar. And here's the result:
left side: finished patchwork. right side: more on that later!
The first rule we're scrapping: "Anchor the outside of your patch where the fabric is strong."
Easy mode: If your fabric has a hole (it's worn past threadbare), you will start by darning it closed with one patch, as normal. Darn just to cover the hole - there may still be weakened areas around your patch and that is ok!
Hard mode: Got a very large hole? It's possible to just repair one half of it at a time! Start with your weft colour and stitch across, where you'd normally anchor the bottom of your patch.
Grab your warp yarn and wind it under this first weft, and up around each hook...
then darn as normal.
Next, link your new patches into that first one.
Yes, stitch through the sweater/sock when possible, but the important thing is to catch the darning yarn, linking arms like gleeful schoolkids.
Easy mode: Your fabric is technically intact now, but you'll need to mend the weakened and threadbare areas around your original hole. Shift the first darn downwards on your work surface to create a new one above - it's a lot tidier to always work from middle out, as I described in my "Note" above.
Hard mode: Have you ever tried just mending one-quarter of a hole? I have! Shift your fabric so that you'll stitch into the right (or left) side of your patch as well as the bottom. As you build your darn, the right side is stitched into the fabric normally while the left side floats in midair, as in weaving.
If there is nothing to anchor the top of your patch to, just make sure you're shoving lots of wefts in so it's all full. Your subsequent darns will catch those free (libre) edges and create a complete patch.
Continue until everything is strong and mended!
Easy mode: Continue adding patches above and beside, always linking with previous patches. You may need to rotate your fabric around as you go, especially if your first darn was in the centre of your design (i.e. you started by covering a true hole).
Hard mode: Situate your next darn so the bottom of it catches the free (libre) edge of your first patch. Stitch all of your warps into that edge, and then darn as normal.
Hard mode (2): You can also link new darns side-by-side, stitching your new wefts through previous wefts. For example, start a new darn to the left of those free (libre) warps from when we just mended one quarter of a hole. Anchor your warps as normal, and then weave so the right side of your new wefts link up to the right side of your previous ones. Voilà!
Setting yourself up for patchwork success
Like we talked about #last time#, your dominant elbow probably isn't as worn out! I created a big patch with colour blocked warps and wefts that mirror the patchwork on the other side. This way, when more mending is needed, it will be easy to pick up the same technique for a "matching" elbow!
I'm sure this was all very confusing, but I hope you enjoyed the pretty pictures and were maybe inspired to try something weird today.
I did record video of this repair that I might one day edit for YouTube, but I'm currently finding all that editing very intimidating!! Woohoo :) happy mending.