Yesterday at my mother-in-law’s house, I found a clay bowl filled with the handknit socks that I knit her. It was only surprising because they’re usually on her feet. The story was that she has just washed the socks and they had been hanging on the stove handle, and when she began cooking our dinner she moved them to the bowl.

Noreen taught me how to mend socks, and when these started wearing thin I gave her the leftover yarn and she darned them herself. They are wearing thin in places and are due for another mend.

These were knit in Trekking XXL, color 100. I don’t think they make these colors anymore, which is a damn shame because it is one of the best colors ever for socks. Noreen calls them “the green socks” and they are her favorite.

The others were knit in Lorna’s Laces, and she wears them, too, but prefers the Trekking ones.

The Lorna’s socks haven’t needed mending. The bottoms are fuzzy, but with no apparent holes or weak spots. She owns another pair that were knit in Lion Brand Sock-Ease and of the three pairs, she likes them the least.

I have another pair of socks-in-progress for her, and I really should get to finishing them. No one loves and appreciates their handknit socks more than Noreen. I always say, she would give you the shirt off her back if you asked for it, but she would not ever give away her handknit socks.

Speaking of socks, I’m working on a new design! When Elinor announced her new sock contest, it sounded exciting and I was instantly inspired to take up the pins!  In the next couple of weeks, I should be ready to show you! It’s colorwork!

The socks I am mending today are an odd choice.  They are EZ’s Moccasin Socks; it would be ideal to re-sole them completely instead of repairing the hole.  But because I am a darning maniac these are the last of my holey socks.  Besides, a hole is a hole is a hole.

Gather your supplies.

• Holey sock.
• Matching leftover sock yarn.  If you no longer have any leftovers, choose a close match.
• Long darning needle, blunt tip if possible.
• Scissors.
• Darning egg or mushroom. As you can see, I do not own a tool specifically for darning.  I have used a softball but this plastic football is my current favorite.  You could also try a lightbulb, or a baseball, or anything round with a hard surface.

Before you begin darning, turn the sock inside out and pull off any fuzz balls that are in the sock.

Begin now.

Turn the sock right side out again.  We’re going to darn from the right side.  With 3 or 4 yards of matching yarn (I’m using contrasting yarn so you can see what I’m doing), thread your darning needle.  The thread should be double — the needle is at the center, and the ends of the threads meet.

A very long thread is used because the darn will be stronger if you have fewer breaks in the yarn.  Ideally, you would mend the entire hole with one length of yarn.

Insert your darning football, er, mushroom.

Pull the sock tight, and center the hole over your darning tool.  Hold it with your non-sewing hand at the back.

And here we are ready to begin.

The patch of darning will go beyond the edges of the hole, and it will be square (my personal preference – round is good, too).  Begin by sewing the needle through the knitted fabric in a running stitch.

Pull the thread through, leaving just 1/2″ – 1″ of a tail.  This will be trimmed later.  Insert the needle again, parallel and close to the first line of stitches, and work back down over the hole.

Continue in this manner, working up and down over the hole.

At the edges of the hole, the knitted fabric is very thin.  Keep this flap of fabric on the outside of the work by keeping the sewing needle under it as you prepare to cover the distance of the hole.  Like this:

Continue until these parallel running stitches completely cover the hole.

Now sew the running stitches perpendicular to the first stitches.  I have changed my thread, but that is only for demonstration.  You will continue on with the same length of thread.

Continue back and forth, weaving the running stitch up and down through the fabric.

When you come to the hole, with no knitted fabric to sew through, weave the yarn over and under the threads that cover the hole.

I never knew it, but when you darn a sock, you’re creating a woven patch to cover the hole.  Simple, really.

When you’ve covered the hole with weaving, you’re done!  Well, almost.

All that’s left to do is neaten things up.  With scissors, trim the flap of fabric close to the work.

Also trim the ends of thread close to the work.

Now you really are done!

Admittedly, a darn is not the prettiest thing, especially in my garish colors here.  But the point is that a sock on the foot is a hundred times better than a sock at the back of your drawer.

A few thoughts.

• Using a doubled thread is optional.  I prefer it because the repair is Very Strong.  Stronger than the original sock, in fact.
• Darning a big hole takes about 30 minutes.  A smaller hole will take less time to mend.
• You can use this same method to reinforce a weak spot even before a hole appears.
• After wearing your mended socks the patch will begin to felt together.  It will even out and look pretty.  I promise.

RS or WS?

When you darn from the right side, the wrong of the sock is very, very neat and tidy.  Much prettier than the right side.

Then why do we darn from the right side?  Wouldn’t we rather have the lovely, smooth surface on the outside?  No.  The smoothness of the inside is perfect for next-to-skin wear, and the outside will soon mat down with wear.

On the other hand, if a few bumps on the inside of the sock don’t bother you, then by all means, darn from the WS.

Thanks

Big shout out to my mother-in-law, Noreen, for teaching me how to do this.  Also, I should thank Cindy for bringing up the whole darning issue in the first place.

And dudes, in the poll I mentioned at the beginning,  33% of respondents answered the question “Do you darn socks” with , “Yes, of course I darn.  Doesn’t everybody?”  That made me pretty happy.  If you are an experienced darner, I’d love your input!

Phew, a whole post about mending socks with not a single “darn” pun.  Score!