Honestly, I was pretty okay with the idea when I realized it would necessitate a trip to the antique store, maybe even a couple. Add in my favorite handmade socks have a hole in the pad of the foot, and there was no turning back. It did take a couple stops, but in the end Union Street Antiques in Rochester, NH had just the most darling darning mushroom and tonight I found a video with folks with British accents (very cool) and great close up video of how to darn a sock, so friends, tonight I darned a sock.
It's really not all that hard or time consuming. I have no idea why folks speak of sock darning with such disdain. Not, mind you that I hear of sock darning often, but when I do, it's not with kind words. I enjoyed it, and am very willing to do it again, should my handmade socks need the attention.
For my first attempt, I think it came out pretty well. I went with nylon sock enforcing thread, doubled, instead of using the original yarn. I figured that it would be more sturdy that way, and since it's the bottom of my foot, there was no need to worry about it matching, or showing. Looking at it, I think I would have done myself a favor by going wider than the actual hole, as the yarn seems a little thin across the whole pad, not just where the hole formed, but they are wearable again, and if another hole shows itself, I'm confident in my ability to thwart it's expansion!
I learned to darn socks as a child, because my mom did, and it always looked like fun. But when you are darning socks for a whole family (there were 6 kids) it can get to be a long task. I’ll have to say, early attempts didn’t look very good, but once you figure out a good distance apart to put the ‘warp’ threads, the rest of the darning (weaving the hole closed) gets looking pretty good fairly quickly.
We always used a burned out light bulb as a ‘darning mushroom’. It fits very nicely into toes and heels, which is where we got most of our holes. And I think perhaps the smooth surface made the darning part easier, as the needle didn’t have anything to stick into.
I can visualize my mom’s darning basket now, sitting on her dresser with a couple of light bulbs, several spools of darning cotton (which is difficult to find anymore) and a couple of needles. And usually at least one sock draped over the top, waiting to be mended.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful story!