Repairing an Intarsia Sweater (35 years old!) // Casual Friday S7E04
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- čas přidán 6. 07. 2024
- This week's podcast has several Finish it February successes, including a pair of finished socks, progress on the spinning for a future sweater, and the repair of a 35 year old intarsia sweater.
Support me by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi! www.ko-fi.com/roxannerichardson
My knitting designs: www.ravelry.com/designers/rox...
The sweater I'm wearing is "A Serviceable Sweater," published in 1918. You can find my Ravelry project page here, with information about the pattern and yarn used: ravel.me/Rox/ass
SHOW NOTES
OLD YARN, NEW SOCKS
Yarn: Opal 4-ply in the Save the Seas Hundertwasser colorway
Pattern: No pattern. I use the techniques for knitting custom fit socks that are in my written sock tutorial, August Sock KAL: www.ravelry.com/patterns/libr...
The heel that I used is called a Plain Heel. Video here: • Plain heel aka "Insta-...
I made modifications for the heel to fit my foot. Video on how to make those mods here: • Modifying the Plain/"I...
The toe I used is the Round Toe. Cuff down version here: • Short or Long Round So...
Toe up version here: • Short or Long Round So...
FINISH IT FEBRUARY SPINNING UPDATE
Fiber: WAM (wool, alpaca, mohair) from Get Bentz Farm: getbentzfarm.com/shop
FIX IT FEBRUARY INTARSIA SWEATER REPAIR
Original pattern is from the book Knitting Sweaters for Kids, published in 1986. It is out of print, but can be found used: amzn.to/3I3nBLO
The sweater was knit with worsted weight yarn. I used two strands of Cascade Heritage, which is a light fingering weight yarn, to match the gauge of the original yarn.
Assia Brill's help cannot be overstated. She explained that she learned the technique from "Great Knits. Texture and Colour Techniques from Threads, 1995. On pages 58-61, in the article by Rick Mondragon, a genius easy method of working intarsia is described. It’s called Rick Mondragon’s Sliding Loop for Intarsia."
You can see Assia's helpful post, along with her drawings here: www.ravelry.com/discuss/rox-r...
If you have questions about this video, or suggestions for future videos, please let me know down in the comments or on social media.
0:00 Introduction
0:23 Old Yarn, New Socks
8:00 FIF: Spinning Update
11:37 FIF: Intarsia Sweater Repair
Rox Rocks Ravelry group: www.ravelry.com/groups/rox-rocks
IG: / roxmpls
Twitter: / roxmpls - Jak na to + styl
I was in a knitting group recently and we were discussing knitting podcasts- the ones that seem like infomercials and the ones that show giant hoards of expensive yarns acquisitions. Someone chimed in and said “do you ever watch Roxanne”. The response was “of course, she is a treasure!”. The comment was so spot on. You are a treasure to this knitting community and I wanted to let you know how appreciated you are. What a fascinating sweater fix! I love how your analyzed your older work and love it for its lessons. I too have gotten out some of my older work and I always smile at how “younger, less experienced me” tackled a project. Thanks for all you do for us.
What a treasure this sweater is! I think it would be delightful to have a framed collage of photos of each generation wearing the sweater, including photos of you as the creator. This is a family heirloom that will live on after you. The repair is brilliant, and the whole project is filled with love. Thanks for sharing!
Just sitting here in Windsor, ON 🇨🇦 smiling away at a couple of things. Yes, I can completely relate to the “mismatching” sock toes, but more importantly, the pride you’re feeling in the obvious love your brother and his family had for this sweater. Such a great knitting story and an absolutely compelling repair journey. I always learn stuff from you, Roxanne. Thanks again! 😊
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Brilliant repair! I'm so amazed that the sweater has been worn by so many kids and it still looks great! An inspiring story!
The sweater and its repair is a beautiful story of love and appreciation. ❤
Wow, that is amazing that you knitted it 35 years ago and it's still being worn. Says so much about care and attention, nowadays quite a few garments people buy are not passed olong, they are just thrown away. When I started nursing 50 years ago this year, my mother knitted me a woollen cardigan as part of the uniform and I still wear it. Its so lovely and warm, like a huge hug which I love because my Mother has passed now but its like she's still here. My thing is if in doubt about what to knit, knit a sock and I have so many pairs now that I have gone back to sweaters. Thank you for showing us the video of fixing the sweater, very clever.
Catch up next time, take care.
I was entranced by your repair to the sweater, Roxanne, and impressed you managed to find a colour of yarn so close to the original. Wonderful that the family still want to carry on wearing it, they obviously value your skills.♥️
I really enjoy how your knitting-nerd!brain works in how you work to understand how every technique or trick works (and teach and pass it on!), instead of just treating them as magic formulas or mantras to repeat. So no wonder you work out multiple ways of getting desired results and inspire and encourage others. That is to say - I loved watching you work out how to fix that intarsia, even with the hair in frame
It is such a wonderful feeling when you have proof that all your hard work making something is valued. I’m happy for you. I am continually amazed at your master skills. I used another of your videos to repair a cable in already done rows, 10 rows back. Your video enabled me to ladder down just the 18 stitches involved in the cable rather than frog back the entire 10 rows as this was in an afghan! But even better, using double pointed needles to reknit just that section, rather than having to crochet hook back up each column of stitches. Repair work is a whole other skill in knitting I think. Thank you. You are my knitting video reference desk. 😊
Love love love the sweater repair! Great new buttons that get the black she requested, but stay with the linearity of the oh so retro stripes. I also love it that your family values their knitwear! Good for them!
The way you mended the sweater is very, very cool
I think you did an amazing job on the sweater. It's wonderful that it's been preserved for another generation. It says a lot about how much it means to your family. What an heirloom piece. I think so many styles are coming back anyway. I see princess seams all over the place. Wide leg pants, bow on blouses and so on. I was really feeling my age when I saw someone going on and on about 2 piece jacket sleeves earlier this week like this was something just discovered. I tailor made all my business suits years ago and all my jackets had 2 piece sleeves.
Roxanne, thank you for showing this fox and explaining how you would decrease the stitches if you were knitting this today. It was a valuable lesson!!
I don’t know what my favorite part of this video was: the fascinating technique? The styling in the 80s sweater book? Or your admission that you really want your socks to match. I do too! Is it a little crazy? Maybe but I don’t care!
Your cardigan rescue must be so satisfying! The result is fantastic! ❤❤❤
How lovely to have something handmade and loved fir so many generations!
Watching you repair the cardigan was enthralling. I would have been so tentative about cutting into the fabric. The result was amazing!
Wow! What an incredible result on repairing the sweater! I learned so much from your demonstration. I love the results, including the updated black buttons! I know the sweater will be worn again and cherished by another generation. Thanks for sharing the technique!
Thank you so much for the intarsia repair. It helped me understand how to work intarsia. I’ve read instructions until I was blue in the face. As usual, your clear, precise explanation and video clarified it all, Thank you brilliant knitter.
The repair video was a great learning. Making use of the needle to pull the yarn was the work of a master knitter. I was thinking of a crochet hook to pull the thread. Thank you .
Your videos are a treasure of interest and information!
Your intarsia fix video is fascinating and so well explained. Thanks, as always, for sharing your experience and expertise.
Really nice love it that your brother's family values your knits and the cardigan has survived for other generation. Understand you that makes you happy. Very lovely.❤
The family sweater/ Well done! Your demonstration was clear and so informative. Thank you!
The sweater repair was facinating! Thank so much for sharing.
So enjoyed learning something new about repairs. Thank you for sharing!
What a lovely podcast. Sweater filled with love!
Very interesting! A lot of work, but worth it for such a knit worthy family.
As someone who daydreams about color theory but has no experience dyeing yarn, I think purple would be lovely with the gray! Anything on the cooler end of the spectrum should give you a nice, dark jewel tone on the gray base. Blue and purple would likely turn out quite deep and give good contrast for colorwork. For greens, I think it would depend on the specific shade: a chartreuse might not give enough contrast, but an emerald would. Red would also be nice if you like burgundy, though I’d look for one that leans more purple so it doesn’t end up reading too brown. But if you do want a more earthy color palette, orange dye would make the yarn brown and might also be nice. I’d steer clear of yellow, as it would end up looking like a kind of sickly green, and I doubt you’d end up with enough contrast in value for colorwork.
Big thanks to the absolute geniuses who helped you find a fix for your intarsia cardigan, and to you for figuring out how to actually do it! It was so cool to see you do it on camera!
That was amazing to see how you tackled that mend. Thank you. 🇬🇧
Thank you, Roxanne for sharing!! ❤
That is absolutely amazing - I could not look away. What an amazing technique!!
That repair technique is genius, I'm taking notes.
Finish it February for me consisted of:
-frogging a sweater that had been hibernating since last April
-hand sewing two skirts I cut out in October. One done, one to go!
-clearing my pile of mending & alterations. All done! Hemming up husband’s pyjama trousers and repairing his bust fingerless mitts.
Other than that, only have one WIP and I’m actively working on it! Hoping to cast on another once I finish the skirts.
The repair is mind blowing! Thanks for sharing.
Your sweater fix is amazing work, congratulations on such a great job! I’m impressed you found yarn so close in color. The technique is something I never would have thought of, but then intarsia isn’t my forte so it would not have occurred to me that the gray selvedge loops would need to be used.
I totally get wanting socks to match. When I am feeling very particular about it, I work toe up (which isn’t my favorite) because I think once you get past matching throughout the toe increases everything else is likely to remain in step as you proceed. Otherwise I am a big fan of contrast toes and / or heels and cuffs. If the pair you just made will bother you, being not as closely matched as you like, maybe you can rip back the toe on each and make a contrast solid color toe.
Will have to look at round toes as my feet do not taper at their toes. The buttons give the vintage sweater a more up to date look. Thanks for walking us through the patch
Roxanne, I sure learned with this video. Your sweater is beautiful, and you did a phenomenal job in repairing. I can relate to the tension, which I notice making a knit blanket in stockinette. Some of the stitches are larger than other stitches. Thank you🤗
Turquoise would be beautiful.
Thank you for sharing this repair process. I’ve done similar repairs, but this method is so much more efficient. Bravo!
It's unfortunate that it only works with intarsia!
Good job! The sweater can still be worn without looking dated.
Brilliant
Brilliant repair, indeed! Thanks so much for demonstrating it.
Absolutely riveted by the sweater repair. Such a perfect job. Once the child is wearing it, no one will be able to tell unless you point it out.
As I understand it, you want to dye some of that gray yarn that you have spun. I would go with red. It's a very stable colour in most dyes. The resulting yarn would be tonal, with the lightest gray parts dying true and the darker grays muddying up a bit and even tending toward maroon. Knit up, i think it would look terrific with the grays of the natural WHAM.
Thank you for sharing your sweater repair, I was amazed at how great it looks! This has motivated me to try repairing some sock heels I have been saving to try to repair.
What a great repair. Also nice color match as well. As for the gray yarn I would go with a deep purple
Hi! I'm very grateful for your videos you have taught me so much!
I'm a very perfectionistic person and I will 100% undo an entire garment if I found a mistake that bothers me, no matter how much progress I've made. I know that if I'm wearing it, I'll notice it and I will drive me mad. So I'm happier about it. I'm happy doing things with my hands, I don't care about speed and finish lines. So I can do whatever I want with my time and my hobby 😂
Always love your videos. Thank you Rox!
Wow ! What a great repair !!!
Excellent repair!
Absolutely perfect. You are awesome! What a wonderful knitter to have figured it out. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks again for another informative episode. Revisiting your previous knits is interesting to me right now. Not exactly the same but I am knitting a hat that I knit a few years back as my first in the round project. It makes me very aware of how much I have learned since.
This episode was amazing Roxanne. You are so gifted in learning AND teaching technique and stitch anatomy. You are a treasure. Thank you for this mesmerizing lesson. The repair is fantastic and so fun to watch the yarn surgery!
Amazing fix! I'm encouraged to try to fix some things now!
Nice fix Roxanne!
I'm just at the end of a grey sweater spin and am planning on dyeing with cochineal. It will retain the variation of the natural fiber colours and look better with my skin and hair colour . Thanks for the repair video as well!
Great job fixing and updating the sweater. Love it!! I really love your videos. They have helped me immensely. Working on my second big project for Finish it February. An Arne and Carlos color work sweater.
In the spirit of fix it February, and inspired by a sock you showed a few videos ago which was all over 64sts but increased to 72 for the cuff, I just frogged the ribbing on a pair of toe up socks with a bind off that was too tight and that I've been fighting to get on and off my foot, and reknit it with an increased 8 stitches. Thanks for the idea
Your socks are very nice. But I was totally amazed at how you fixed the sweater!! Omg You are brilliant and your friend as well. The finished job was excellent, and yes you can feel wonderful that the sweater was used and still being used, and not donated somewhere. Just brilliant.
*Me, staring at my feet while wearing two deliberately mismatched socks… 😳😅😂 So far in FIF, I’ve put the thumb in a neglected pair of mittens, finished a hat for the donation bag, and blocked a finished tee. Once the ends are woven in, I’ll have my long neglected items done & can cast on something new!
Very interesting and informative video. Good job!
I held my breath while you were😅 cutting.
Great episode!
I never match socks. In fact, I don't normally even knit two socks from the same skein. My daughter and I generally wear mismatched socks that look nice together.😊
Thank you so much for taking us along with this repair and all your videos, I learn so much every time.
Hi Roxanne. Great job on the cardi fix. Very technical.
My very first pair of socks I decided to knit them both at the same time (on separate needles). So… I started one from the outside of the ball and the other from the inside of the ball. I’ll leave you to think about how the tuned out. Still wear them but almost do a ballet stance to get them to look even 😂😂😂. I feel your pain. 🙋🏼🏴
The sweater repair is fascinating! Thanks so much !
Never heard of purl yarn but I do know Hundertwasser!
The repair was so interesting and you are definitely a knitting wizard(ess)!
Gray and red are gorgeous together.
Nice!
Hi Roxanne. You never cease to amaze me. This repair is wonderful. Thanks for sharing your process with us. Heartwarming story to be passed down with the sweater for your family! You’re so funny about matching the socks but I’d be the same way. They came out great. I have the worst time getting gauge with sock yarn. I tried to do a toe up sock once and after multiple swatches I gave up. I’ve only done cuff down and with worsted weight yarn for my husband to keep him warm. Maybe someday I’ll revisit the sock yarn scenario. With regard to what color to dye your WAM I think any jewel tone would look lovely. Cool colors such as red as you said, teal, burgundy, etc. Thanks for another excellent podcast. Very inspiring!🤗🤗
Great job on repairing that sweater!
I have an idea for what colour you could dye your fibre/finished yarn. Amethyst by Dharma would work well in my opinion. It's a single pigment, premetalized acid dye with excellent light and wash fastness. It also leans blue, which I think would work very well over a grey base. I can't wait to see what you make with your handspun!
A nice contrast with the grey WAM might be a green similar to the file behind your right shoulder (far left middle shelf) 12:05. Your 40s Harlequin jumper had 2 great colours to contrast with grey as well.
Hi Roxanne! Beautiful repair of the sweater. You realy rocks!
And I understand the need of matching socks, that's important for me too 😅. Maybee it's only a illusion but it looks like the second toe are much narower and that you don't have the same stich count from the end part of the blue section.
They had the same number! :-) That sock was hot off the needles. I tried on the other sock once or twice, which probably changed its shape a bit.
Magenta!!!!!
This has been incredibly helpful as I am repairing several holes in a wool sweater for a friend that has moth holes in it. One section is fairly large and I have tried several techniques on it, all of which are not quite right - I am going to try your method and see what happens - it makes great sense. My one challenge is that it changes colour at the top of the graft rather than on the sides - that should be interesting. Thank you again!
As noted (on screen) in the video, this technique does not work in regular old stockinette, where the color of the yarn stays the same to the right and left of the hole. It depends on those loops along the vertical edge existing from having knit the original garment in intarsia. If the area to the right and left of the hole is in the same color, you will have cut strands along the vertical edges, not loops.
Roxanne - what method would you recommend for the repair I am trying to accomplish?
@@RoxanneRichardson
Probably the patch method. I'll be doing a Technique Tuesday video on that this week.
Thank you, Roxanne! Much appreciated! @@RoxanneRichardson
I have no experience with dyeing wool but I think as it is a gray wool to start I would look up over-dying for colors that work over a colored base. Aiming for a deep purple like the one you’re wearing would be nice.
I did an experiment a while back comparing the way two handspun yarns of the same breed but with different starting colors (one cream, one natural tans), but that's the only experiment I've done. The gray of the WAM is a different starting color than the tan that I dyed before.
I like red but you already have a gray with red gorgeous sweater. Gray with a dusty purple might be nice
I have a light pink and gray sweater in the back of my head. You don't seem too much of a pink gal but I really like that combo. Your sweater fix would be very satisfying. I wondered if you had much problem finding the yarn color.
It was a challenge to find a good color match! I have lots of blues in my leftovers, but none matched, and I went to several yarn stores over several months looking for something that would work. In the end, I lucked out with the color, and was lucky that it was fingering weight, which I knew I could double and match the thickness of the original worsted weight.
I think whatever color I choose to coordinate with my handspun, it will have to be darker, since I will be overdyeing the gray!
I am sure you never imagine this! What a fabulous tutorial. I have a 40 yr old first sweater (dinosaur) to mend and you have given me the tools!!
beautiful work as usual and thumbs up for your explanation s as you go. I have a jumper that is torn at the ribbing right through to the bottom and up into the body. Could you do a video on how to repair that. It's for my son in law who never asks for anything, but for this jumper, i made him a few years ago. I'd love to fix it for him. thanks from Australia, where it is very hot, 31c.
In my opinion, yellow to yellow-orange contrasts nicely with grey. Tone or shade does matter. Depends on what shade of grey.
I found a book on this very repair.The illustrated dictionary of knitting by Rae Compton. On page 351a ,repairing knitting. I can send a picture of the page if you want.
That sweater repair came out so well! I loved seeing you work through the solution. It's so sweet your family has kept it so long.
If I were you, I would dye the contrast spinning yarn black to get the most contrast, but I'm not very familiar with dying... Is it possible to lighten the yarn first and then dye it?
I had to giggle about the self-striping socks... That's exactly how I would be if I tried to make my socks match in any kind of way! Luckily I just go rogue and don't match the stripes at all. Saves me some heartache 😂
I won't lighten the yarn. I will be adding color to the gray base color. I've done dyeing experiments before with natural colored wool, but I was comparing dyeing the cream natural to dyeing a colored natural. In this case, I will be using the natural color, plus a color that was dyed over the natural color.
That gray seems like a mid value gray, so for getting a readable design the dye color should be darker I think. Blue or purple sounds lovely, to get yellow or orange I think the first step should be bleaching
What about a petrol blue as a contrast colour?
When looking at the inside back of the sweater, through the neckline, I noticed that the gray loops that attached to the pink were either loose or disintegrating. Do you cover repair of those areas in a different video?
I believe those were just yarn tails. I checked the inside of the sweater for other holes, and saw that there were a few places with tails poking out here and there.
Excellent repair! What is intarsia? It looks like stockinette.
It's a technique for working blocks of color, rather than alternating two colors every few sts, as for stranded colorwork (stranded colorwork and intarsia both typically create stockinette fabric). Here is a video about the general categories of colorwork: czcams.com/video/j0KoBMNeNmE/video.html Here is a video about the basics of intarsia: czcams.com/video/fZngUEJDo6Q/video.html
The child in a sweater with shoulder pads over a collared shirt and the world's skinniest tie is the most '80s image I have ever seen. I felt transported back in time looking at that.
So this sock yarn was named after Hundertwasser, the famous architext who was known for wearing two different socks? 🤣