There is a small grey cardigan on the desk in front of me, and a hole the size of a pea on its right elbow. The piece belongs to a six-year-old in Newcastle, who wore it most days for two winters and then lent it to her younger brother, who wore it for one. It is on its third year of being a favourite. The hole is the only thing wrong with it.
This is exactly the kind of repair we set MENDED up for.
Darning is one of the oldest skills in textile work. At its simplest, it is the act of weaving a small patch of new yarn into the existing fabric to close a gap. Done well, the repair becomes invisible. Done very well — by someone who knows the original yarn and the original stitch — the repair is indistinguishable from the surrounding knit. The piece looks as though nothing ever happened.
Cashmere, of all the fibres, is particularly well-suited to darning. Its long fibres want to bind together. A small hole in a cashmere piece can almost always be closed if it is caught early enough. A loose thread can be re-anchored. A weakened seam can be re-knitted. Even significant damage — a snagged ribbon, a missing button, a stretched cuff — sits well within what an experienced hand can repair.
When a MIKA & MILO piece arrives at the studio, it follows roughly the same path every time.
One. The piece is examined. A senior knitter holds it up to the light and turns it slowly, looking for what the customer didn't think to mention. The visible damage is rarely the only damage. A small note travels with the piece from this moment until it leaves.
Two. The piece is cleaned. Not aggressively. Cashmere returns to itself if you handle it gently. We steam it, brush it by hand, and let it relax. Already, by the end of step two, most pieces look 70% better than they arrived.
Three. The yarn is matched. This is the part that distinguishes a brand-led repair from a generic one. We hold small reserves of every season's yarn for exactly this purpose. The yarn the knitter threads on her needle is the same yarn that was used to make the piece in the first place — same lot where possible, or as close as the records allow. The repair will eventually be invisible because the materials are continuous.
Four. The mending happens. This is the slow part. A small hole takes anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour, depending on the stitch and the location. The knitter works from the back of the piece outward, threading new yarn through and around the existing knit until the gap is closed. There is no glue, no patch, no overlay. The new yarn becomes part of the original fabric.
Five. The piece is finished. Steamed again, gently. Folded. Placed in a cotton bag with a hand-written card. Sent home.
The whole process takes us four to six weeks, mostly because of the time it spends in transit and the queue of pieces ahead of it. The actual mending often takes less than a day.
We are happy to do this work. It is, as I have written before, the same work that built our family's mill four generations ago. But we are also realistic about what is worth sending in and what is worth managing at home. So here is a short list of things you can do yourself, before a piece needs us at all.
Light pilling. All cashmere pills slightly with wear. This is normal and, contrary to what many people are told, a sign of good cashmere fibre rather than poor. To remove pills, lay the piece flat and use a cashmere comb (a small wooden tool, very inexpensive) gently in one direction. Do not use a fabric razor; it can catch and tear. Five minutes of comb work returns most pieces to looking new.
Mild stretching. A jumper that has been stretched at the cuff or the hem can usually be re-blocked at home. Wash gently in lukewarm water with a wool detergent, lay flat on a clean towel, gently shape it back into its original size, and leave it to dry away from direct sunlight. Don't hang it. The shape will return.
A loose thread. Resist any temptation to pull it. Thread it back through the inside of the piece using a blunt needle, and tie it off with a small knot on the inside.
A snagged ribbon or a button hanging by a stitch. Re-stitch with a matching thread if you are confident; if not, set the piece aside and send it in. Either is fine.
When to send a piece in. Anything beyond the four points above is worth sending to us. A hole, however small. A weakened seam. A button that has gone walking. Pilling that won't comb out. Shape loss that won't re-block. We would rather see a piece earlier than later — small repairs are quicker, cheaper, and more invisible than late ones.
The cardigan from Newcastle is finished as I write this. The hole has gone. It is on its way back to its owner now. Whoever wears it next will not see what was done.
That is the goal.
— Aiko
