DIY elbow patches

Confession, I’ve always had a bit of a thing for elbow patches. They seem to symbolise the traditional, heritage, day in the country style that I love at the moment, so you can image my delight when I saw a post from 'one sheepish girl' about a craft idea that combined elbow patches with knitting. Obviously I had to try it out and am so pleased with the results; it has completely transformed my plain old Florence & Fred at Tesco cardigan.

I used one sheepish girl’s tutorial, which you can see here.

I found it easier to go left to right, right to left and so on across the sleeve, rather than up and down. This took me three re-starts to find out, but I’m so glad I persevered. I also found it easier to miss a ‘v’ out in between rows (as you can see in the close up images, it gives a zig-zag effect) otherwise the wool became so compacted that it wouldn’t have kept enough movement to bend with my elbow. Once I’d got the hang of it the whole process was surprisingly quick, just two evenings (one for each elbow) and it’s ready to wear, perfect for our current in-between warm and cold weather.

It’s also a really cheap way to customise your clothes, as I used a cardigan I already had so the patches cost a mere £1.79 the price of the ball of wool, of which there is plenty left over to do a few more elbows...

What do you think?

Before...

After!