At 08:50 AM 10/19/03 -0400, Holly Shaltz wrote: >I've seen a couple people recommend continuing the heel stitch under the >ball of the foot. But doesn't that make the eventual (even if a much >longer eventual :) darns much harder to do? I'm trying to imagine >darning heel stitch and not having much success!
I darn over the boundary between festive knitting and stocking stitch without the slightest difficulty. Heel stitch might be a bit lumpier, but by the time it needs darning, it must have been pounded pretty flat. (I do have some heel-stitch heels, but I switched to stranding before learning where the wear actually occurs.) Note: I don't use woven darns on knitted fabric -- I use interlocking buttonhole stitch, which Mildred Graves calls Point de Venise Darn. I do sometimes weave strands of silk thread through the weakened area as a guide to keeping my stitches straight. The silk guides also help me keep consistent when darning over short rows. Another darn for weakened fabric is to weave strands of fine, strong wool up the columns of stitches, as if hiding an end. This shows very little on the knit side, and prevents broken stitches from starting runs. If the yarns are separate pieces, they will draw back into zig-zags before felting into the fabric, so it doesn't restrict the stretch too much. But you have to make them much longer than necessary, so they can draw back without exposing weak fabric. This is good under another darn, to feather the transition from full darn to undamaged fabric. -- Joy Beeson [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://home.earthlink.net/~joybeeson/ http://home.earthlink.net/~beeson_n3f/ west of Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A. where the leaves have not yet begun to fall in ernest, and we've had them hauled off twice. To stop mail temporarily mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: set nomail To restore send: set mail
