How to embroider a knitted sweater

Have you ever had a great sweater that was just a little too plain? A touch of hand stitching on a handmade sweater makes it extra special, and Warunee Bolstad from Plystre Knitwear is here to show us how to do it!

Embroidery is a really simple and fun way to add additional embellishment to your finished knits. With just a few easy techniques, your sweater will literally bloom. We’re going to work with three stitches for this project: French knot, woven wheel stitch and fishbone stitch.

Before you start

Find a hand knitted or ready made sweater. I've chosen a blue hand knitted sweater to embroider with colourful roses.

When choosing a sweater, look for a knit that is smooth and has small loops. Chunky knits work as well but they are more difficult to embroider on evenly, so you need to stitch carefully."

How to stitch a French knot

Bring your needle up through the sweater where you want the knot to be. Wrap the thread around the needle twice. To finish the knot, insert the needle back into the sweater close to the hole you came out of, and slowly pull the needle through the wrapped loops to complete the French knot.

How to stitch Woven Wheel Stitch

Start with an odd number of straight stitches, forming a star. The odd number of spoke line allow the thread to alternate. Five is a nice number to start. Bring your needle up the centre of the star just between two of the straight lines. Now you can start weaving the needle over and under each stitch. Continue weaving over and under until the circle is filled in and you can no longer see any of the lines showing.

How to make a Fishbone stitch

Fishbone stitch is a favourite for leaves and consists of a number of diagonal stitches. Bring your needle up through the sweater and make a straight stitch. Now bring the needle up again, slightly to the top left side of the straight stitch and make a diagonal straight stitch ending slightly to the right. Bring the needle up again but this time on the top right side of the straight line and insert the needle to the left.

Continue working stitches on alternate sides until you have a leaf.