A hole in a knit and a hole in a weave need opposite repairs

Why the structure dictates the repair

A knitted fabric is one continuous yarn looped through itself. Break that yarn and the loops on either side have nothing holding them, so they release in sequence and the hole runs. A woven fabric is two sets of separate yarns held by friction at their crossings, so a broken yarn leaves a gap that frays slowly at the edges but does not travel.

That is the entire difference and everything practical follows from it. In a knit the first job is to stop the run before doing anything else. In a weave the first job is to stabilise the edges so they stop shedding.

Applying the wrong approach makes things worse. Sewing the edges of a knit hole together closes it and puts tension on loops that are already loose, and the run continues under the repair.

Stopping a run before it becomes a hole

A dropped stitch in a knit — a ladder — is loops that have released without the yarn being cut. Nothing is missing. The same loop of yarn is simply sitting in a straight line rather than in loops, and it can be hooked back up with a small crochet hook, one rung at a time, and secured at the top.

Where the yarn is actually broken, the loops around the break need to be caught and held before anything else. A few small stitches through each live loop, in matching thread, will stop it travelling and buy time.

Speed is the whole point. A run caught early is a five-minute job with an invisible result; the same run left through a wash cycle is a hole several centimetres long. This is why a snagged jumper should come off rather than be worn for the rest of the day.

Darning rebuilds fabric rather than closing a gap

Traditional darning does not pull the edges of a hole together. It weaves a new patch of fabric in the gap, laying rows of thread across the hole in one direction, anchored in the sound fabric around it, then weaving a second set through them at right angles.

The result is a small woven panel bridging the hole, and it works on both knits and wovens because it does not rely on the original structure. It also keeps the surrounding fabric flat, which is what closing a hole with stitches fails to do — those pucker, and the puckering puts strain on the fabric next to the repair.

The classic tool is a darning mushroom or any smooth rounded object held under the hole, which keeps the area taut and stops the needle catching the layer behind. A darning egg is traditional for socks for the same reason.

Patching a woven garment, and where the patch goes

For a woven fabric a patch is usually the more durable answer, and it goes underneath, not on top. A patch of similar cloth is placed behind the damage, and the hole edges are stitched down to it, so the load passes through the patch rather than through the weakened area.

Fusible mending patches, which are glued on with an iron, are quick and are genuinely useful as a temporary measure. They stiffen the area, they detach at the edges after a few washes, and the adhesive can leave a mark. They are a stopgap rather than a repair.

Visible mending, where the repair is done in contrasting thread and made a feature, is a legitimate choice and not merely a fashion. A repair that is meant to be seen can be stronger and larger than one trying to disappear, and it lets you reinforce a whole worn area instead of just the hole.

Reinforce where the damage started, not just where it shows

Holes appear where fabric has thinned first, and thinning has a cause: elbows, knees, the inside thigh of trousers, the heel of a sock, the point where a bag strap sits. Repairing the hole and ignoring the thin area around it means a second hole beside the first within weeks.

The better approach is to treat the whole worn zone. Darning a thin patch before it opens is far easier than darning a hole, and running a few rows of reinforcing stitches through weakened fabric adds structure without adding bulk.

The inside thigh of trousers is the classic case. It wears from friction, both sides fail at once, and by the time a hole appears the surrounding cloth is usually too thin to hold a stitch, which is why that repair so often fails.

Knowing when to hand it over

Some repairs are worth paying for. Invisible reweaving, where a specialist takes yarn from a hidden part of the garment — a seam allowance, a hem, an inside pocket — and reconstructs the weave thread by thread, can make damage genuinely disappear on a good woollen garment. It is slow and priced accordingly.

Knitwear specialists can reknit a section by hand in matching yarn, which is a different and equally skilled job. Both are worth it on something valuable and worth nothing on something cheap.

For everything else, a needle, matching thread and twenty minutes will save far more clothing than most people expect. The skill required is modest. The main obstacle is that the repair is usually postponed until the hole has grown to the point where it is no longer a small job.