How to Patch a Hole with Crochet

October 21st, 2008 in fashion, restyle, crochet     

One of my favorite cashmere sweaters has had a nasty hole in the elbow for more than a year now, so it's been residing in the mending pile and I haven't worn it in ages. I miss it! It's pink, so I decided that now was the time to get it back into rotation (it doesn't hurt that it's also October). I found some alpaca yarn I had lying around in a similar pink, and here's what happened:

1. Trim the hole. Using a small, sharp scissors, cut away the worn and fraying edges of the hole. Also remove any runs because they will only continue to spread.

This unsightly hole is about to be replaced by a lovely crochet patch!

First you'll need to trim away the damaged edges of the hole.

2. Begin to crochet. Using your tiniest hook (you don't want to tear any stitches of the sweater when you poke the hook into it), join on your yarn with a single crochet stitch. Continue to single crochet around the circumference of the hole, keeping the stitches close together to enclose the cut edge inside. At the end of your first row, join to the first stitch with a slipstitch, and switch to a bigger hook if you want to.

Attach yarn and begin to single crochet around the edge...

...and continue all the way around.

3. Fill in the hole. Continue to fill in the hole with consecutive rounds of single crochet, decreasing as necessary. I guesstimated that I would need six or seven rounds to fill in the hole, so I began by decreasing every sixth stitch in the second round and increased more frequently as I progressed to the smaller rounds. When I got to the last two rounds, I decreased every stitch, and then finished off and wove in the end. A quick steaming with my iron made everything lie smoothly, and I'm so happy with the result! I'll bet you've got something that could be repaired this way in your pile of mending; now I like my sweater even better than before it had the hole.

You'll need to decrease more frequently for each round, as the hole gets smaller.

And before you know it, you'll be done!

posted in: fashion, restyle, crochet, yarn, sweater, pink, mending, patch, repair, darning