How to Fix a Hole in a Sweater

Steps

1. 1. Find the Hole and Look at the Broken Knit Loops

   Spread the sweater out flat with the damage in the middle and good light falling on it. Run a needle tip around the edge of the hole.

   Tip: Slide a darning mushroom or a piece of card under the hole before you start.

   

2. 2. Cut a Length of Thread to Match the Sweater

   Ordinary sewing thread is all this takes. No yarn, and no need for an exact match.

   Tip: Wool is rarely one flat color. Look at the knit in daylight and match the lightest tone you can see in it. A slightly light thread reads as a highlight. A dark one reads as a line.

   

3. 3. Turn the Sweater Inside Out and Anchor the Thread

   Turn the sweater inside out so the purl side faces up, the side where the knit reads as rows of small bumps. Every stitch happens here.

   Tip: Knots are the enemy in knitwear. A knot on the inside rubs against skin and works itself loose in the wash. Winding around a loop holds better and leaves nothing to feel.

   

4. 4. Catch the Vertical Knit Loops Beside the Hole

   Look at the knit right beside the gap. The strands running up and down are the vertical loops, the chains of the knitting, and those are what you rebuild.

   Tip: If you cannot pick out the loops, lay the sweater on a light surface and tilt it toward a window or a lamp.

   

5. 5. Carry the Needle Up Over the Hole and Back Down

   Take the thread up across the hole, catch a loop on the far side, then come back down into the loop next along on your own side. That up and over and back down path is the entire repair.

   Tip: Pull each pass a fraction, no more.

   

6. 6. Work Back Along the Horizontal Loops and Ease the Hole Closed

   With the vertical loops caught, go back across the mend using the horizontal loops, the small bars that run side to side between the chains. Pick them up the same way, needle under the bar and out again, travelling across the repair.

   Tip: Turn the sweater right side out every few stitches and check the front. Loosening a stitch that pulls too hard is quick now. Unpicking a finished mend is not.

   

7. 7. Fasten Off the Thread and Bury the Tail in the Knit

   Move a short way off the mend into sound knitting and work one or two small stitches to lock the thread, the same wind-around-a-loop move you started with. Then run the needle through the back of a few nearby stitches, pull the thread along and snip it close to the wool.

   Tip: Give the mend a steam to settle it. Hover the iron above the wool and let the steam do the work, because the soleplate must never touch the knit.