All Mended Again

A mending basket sounds like a piece of vintage nostalgia.  Rocking chairs. Quiet evenings by the fire.  Definitely not something hip and trendy! In fact, how many people would  even consider darning stockings? But then, have knitters ever been 'most people?' Recently, there has been a plethora of blogposts, tutorials, even contests on Ravelry encouraging people to mend and darn.

Initially I agreed with The Yarn Harlot's theory of holding said sock over the trash can and whispering, "oh darn," whilst dropping the well used knitwear.  After all, if you keep fixing them how do you justify making another pair (or 3)? I think it was Susan B. Anderson that finally changed my mind. Her (Video) made this look so easy! She sounded so relaxed while making all those little stitches and positively joyful with the result.  I had to give this a try.

But....my socks were a bit too far gone for this simple woven darn.  I found myself digging further.  Through a series of blogs, videos and various links I finally arrived at the article written by Kate Gilbert inTwist Collective on Mending socks. I would love to have one of the darning mushrooms made by her father.  Essentially, I ended up knitting a patch in place over the busted out heel.  A few kitchner stitches and I have a new pair of socks. And you know what! It was actually kind of fun!

With wear the ragged inside should felt into the patch. At the suggestion of several bloggers, including Susan B. Anderson, I took a deep breath and used a high contrast darning yarn.  I had plenty of the original left but if it didn't hold up the first time, why try the same thing again? Besides, this will be in my shoe-and the bright colors make me happy!

Now, I hope I get many more years of use out of all my hand knit socks. But, when they do wear thin, I might actually look forward to darning :)