Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Those Darn Socks! (some down-at-the-heels footwear)

About 2 years ago, I knit a pair of house socks in worsted weight yarn for my mom for the holidays.  She loved them, they were a big hit and kept her feet nice and toasty in her chilly house, and I've since knit more for her because I know they will always be appreciated.  Here is a picture of them:
They are Red Dwarf Socks (Ravelry link), which I have knit a couple of times, and which I like very much.

Of course, since Mom has been wearing them almost non-stop for almost 2 years, she has worn holes in both heels.  She also says she didn't realize they could be fixed, so she kept wearing them even after they got holes in them, because, heck, they were still keeping her toes warm, and that was the important part, so she could deal with holes in the heels.  Then she told me she had worn through them (new socks this winter? hint hint) and I said I could fix them.  Just wash them and send them along.

And so, when my husband went to her house this past week to do some minor plumbing repairs for her, he brought me some socks to darn.  Oh, my:

Here are the holes, along with my darning tools.  Both heels.  Fortunately, the holes didn't cross the short-row wraps, so it was just a rather large section of straight stockinette stitch that needed to be filled in.  And, since I don't generally care for the look of woven darns, I did it right.  I followed the suggestions I found here, and it worked out very well (once I figured out what the heck I was doing, and was able to line up the lines of stitches at top and bottom of the hole).

This is just another view of the ginormous hole in one of the heels - sorry it's so blurry, but my camera doesn't take very good pictures that close.

And here are the repaired socks - I think they came out very nicely, if I do say so myself.  I hope Mom will get several more years of wear out of them before I have to fix them again.  I did tell her that if any of her handknit socks develop any more holes, she should get them to me when the holes are SMALL!

   


Not perfect, but definitely wearable.  I'm happy with them, and I know Mom will be.

No comments:

Post a Comment