Swiss darning

Thanks Witzend. I loved your cheeky bagpiper. You're very clever

This was a thing for the vertical stripes of my cheeky bagpiper’s kilt. I’d never heard of it before and couldn’t get on with it at all - there was a lot of cussing as I tried - mind you I’ve always been cack-handed with any sort of embroidery.

In the end I unpicked my messy efforts and just did them in a small back stitch. TBH they looked absolutely fine.

Thanks, I'm not the tidiest sewer so will have to be careful. Luckygirl that's sounds what it is. Thanks all

I am not sure what this is - but I am assuming it is what I did on a jumper I made for my DD many moons ago. I just knitted the basic jumper then created the motif by sewing over the basic stitch, following the lines of the knitting stitch, stocking stitch - so my sewing stitches were like little arrows. It turned out fine.

If it's a very big picture, I suppose you will have to tackle it as you would a counted cross stitch, by doing a lot of careful counting to make sure it ends up central and that you don't go astray.

Thanks so much for your replies. I always forget youtube. I'll get practicing

You will find plenty of videos on YouTube. Put ‘Duplicate stitch’ into the search and loads of videos come up. Watch a few and perhaps try a simple example using spare yarns to make a small sample square with a basic motif. I am sure it will be fine.
My friend , a novice knitter, learned this way. Difficult bit was knowing how to find the videos!

I did it for the first time a couple of years ago.

To begin with, I found it a bit fiddly, but by the time I had finished the small motif I was darning, I was an expert at it, and would now chose that method over knitting the pattern in many cases.

In fact, I am just starting a garment right now for my little dgd, and am replacing a cabled panel with a stocking stitch one onto which I plan to darn a pattern or some flowers once it's finished.

If you have an old stocking stitch garment, perhaps you could practice on that first, or knit a small swatch to try it on?

Yes, but ages ago. It can't have been too difficult or I wouldn't have done it!