Fixing a Hole in Knitting

​If you don't knit, you can't imagine the horror of finding a huge hole in a hand-knit shawl.  Especially one worked in cobweb-weight linen yarn. 

I had draped this poor shawl over a thick plastic hanger and then added a few more shawls over it.  The weight just caused some threads to break.

picking up stitches above and below the hole

knitting up the stitches I picked up below the hole - to make a patch

I picked up stitches on double pointed needles a few rows below the damage, and just started knitting.  The pic on the right above shows about 8 rows of the patch.

the patch extends way past the hole in the knitting

grafting the patch in with a Kitchener Stitch

I kept knitting the patch until I was far enough along to graft the top of the patch into undamaged stitches.  The pic on the right above shows how I did a sort of Kitchener Stitch to blend the top of the patch to the shawl.

The next step was to sew the sides down.  I did it as neatly as possible.   Looking back, it would have definitely been better to graft the sides first, then the top.  Doing it the other way, the sides do not line up - as you can see.  

The final step was on the wrong side, which I did not picture.  That involved catching the raw edges to the patch edges to prevent any further unraveling.  

t’s not perfect, but it’s not that noticeable when worn.  Poor shawl.  Poor me.  But now I have a dedicated drawer where shawls are folded nicely for storage.  Live and learn.

If you are curious to see the shawl before the damage and first aid, here's a link to my Ravelry project page.