How to Darn a Wool Sweater

Work under strong light.

Retrieve yarn from the sweater hem or from an extra long sleeve, if possible. Yarn from the garment will match perfectly in darning. Resew any area you unravel. Needlepoint yarns come in many colors and may be used if there is no area on the sweater to unravel.

Unravel just enough of the threads around the hole to see the weave and what stitch ends are free.

Place the hole over a hard surface. Move the errant yarn ends out of the way.

Use a crochet hook to create new stitches in a crocheted sweater.

Graft a machine-woven hole loosely together by hand-stitching the top of the hole to the bottom with sewing thread.

Thread wool strands onto a darning needle to darn a machine-woven sweater. Pick up loose loops to make a section of vertical lines with spaces between them, over the hole

Make three rows above and below the hole. The broken ends of the hole threads provide a guide for your weaving.

Weave in the other direction. Pick up the wool at the edge of the hole, and take your needle over and under the vertical threads to form a new section of woven fabric over the hole.

Stitch over both edges of the hole, and pick up two stitches from the original sweater fabric to anchor the darning. Do this on both sides of the darn and on every row.

Feed the tail of your sewing yarn into the body threads of the sweater to hide it. Cut the needle off to finish the darning.

Launder the sweater after repairing it to set the new stitches in place.