Darn it!

Last time I was in Illinois, Mom informed me that the socks I had knit her for Mother's Day one year had a pretty nasty hole in the bottom. I inspected the damage and, confident, able knitter that I am, I said, "Oh I can darn those, no problem!"



Judging by the placement of the hole, I'm blaming the damage on a wood floor mishap, rather than regular wear. It wasn't a bad hole, really. Sure, it had gotten a little out of hand with some dropped stitches, but the problem seemed to be a snagged thread on just one row.

Now, darning is not difficult.
No.
It's not.

But, like seaming, I always have a hard time reading the fabric well enough to pick out where to put the new stitches so everything is seamless. So last night I got a nice bright light, and kept the sock very close to my face while I worked. Often times a large hole is repaired with a weaving technique. However, since there was only a break on one row, I decided to try to mend with something more like a Kitchener stitch. (Oddly enough, while I hate seaming, I do love Kitchener. I use it all the time!) I was going for a subtle mend that wouldn't be too different from the rest of the sock.

First, I picked up the dropped stitches. A tiny little crochet hook would have been just the thing, but the only hooks I have are a smidgen too bulky to get into the little stitches of the sock. So I fiddled around with the darning needle until I had things picked up on both the top and bottom of the snagged row. I really wished I had a hook by the end.

The other tool that would have been helpful is a darning egg, or mushroom to hold the sock taut while I worked on the hole. It would have helped to keep the tension even and made it easier to see the stitches I was securing together.


I did run some black sewing thread through the stitches to give a solid background to work on and to pull the hole back together a bit. Then I took some spare yarn, the closest color I had to the Koigu I used in the sock, and Kitchenered the drifting stitches together along with a few solid stitches on either end of the loose ones. That's all it really took to fix the hole.

To keep things stable though, I went back over the strong stitches a few rows above and below the snag. I know from experience that the yarn in the repair will wear about the same as the Koigu. It will soften and bloom and felt just a bit and be plenty strong.



So there you have it! About an hour's work saves a perfectly good pair of socks. Does it take some effort? Yes, of course. But far fewer hours go into a good repair than into a new pair of handknit socks.