Darning Socks

[virginiagirl]

I now know why it’s called “darning”. I was exceedingly put out by the little bug that ate a hole right through my hand-knit wool socks. :angry_smi I have patched the hole as best I can but would cringe to ‘fess up to the workmanship.

So for future reference how do you ladies (and gentlemen, do not feel excluded, I know that many of you are much better with a needle then I myself) darn those little catastrophes that occur?

I found a website suggesting a “duplicate stitch”. It looked promising but… I’ll be darned if I can figure it out. :sarcastic

I was hoping to enlist the advice of those who has seen some original repair work.

The second difficulty I had was that this particular little bug decided to chomp this particular little hole right amid the ribbing so I was hard pressed to know how to darn it even if I did have a considerable knowledge of darning.

Darn insect…..

[BHoover]

Re: Darning Socks

I found a website suggesting a “duplicate stitch”. It looked promising but… I’ll be darned if I can figure it out.

I've seen people doing a "weave" darning, but I did a web search and foound this article which explains a knitted darning repair. It is in stockinette, so won't address your issue about the rib knits, but maybe it will help. (Diagrams seem pretty clear).

[KarinTimour]

Re: Darning Socks

Dear Kathryn:

First of all, the bugs that ate a hole in your sock are probably moth larvae, and if you leave the sock as is, they are still in it and will keep eating it until they graduate to become adults, when they will fly around...and you get the picture. Put that sock (and anything else with holes in it) in the freezer for at least a month to six weeks to kill the larvae and any other eggs that might be clinging to the fibers.

Second, the website that Bruce referenced is a very nice, detailed, step by step break down of the duplicate stitch, which is a way of replicating knitting using a darning needle.

I could talk for some time about darning, but it's late so I'll attempt to keep this short. Most of the time this is what I do when I darn:

1. Get something to be a darning egg. If you don't have a real darning egg, a light bulb is a great substitute (so long as you aren't in the field).

2. If the hole is in the heel or the toe, you want to insert the bulb so that it keeps roughly the shape of your foot in the sock, and helps you keep from sewing the two sides of the sock together.

3. Examine the hole. If there are loose threads, cut them off. Take a darning needle and darning thread (I like to use fairly thin wool yarn -- fingering weight or thinner. Thread your needle, DO NOT PUT A KNOT IN THE THREAD. Carefully start sewing by sewing back and forth in a part of the sock that is close to the hole but not too close. One or two stitches back and forth in the weave of the sock will serve to anchor the non-working end of your thread better than a knot, and the act of wearing and washing the sock will cause the end to "fell" in with the sock texture over time, but without the bump that a knot would leave.

4. Now sew around the edge of the hole, outlining it in fairly small stitches in a short running stitch. It should start to look like this around the edge of your hole:

- - - - - - -

5, On your second time around, go on top of your last row of stitches, bringing the needle up where you put it in the last time around, so that your running stitch is now starting to look like this:

--------------------------

6. When you have gone around the whole twice, you have now stabilized the further spread of your hole, and provided a secure anchorage for the next stage of darning.

7. Now visualize a row of vertical lines across the height of your hole. You are building a grid across your hole. The vertical threads come first. Keeping the intervals between the grids fairly small (1/8 inch or less), stitch in vertical "bars" across your hole, being careful to start outside your running stitch circle.

Your hole should now have a series of lines of thread going from top to bottom across the hole:

l l l l l l l l l l l

8. Now you are going to take your needle like a tiny weaving shuttle and make a series of east-west weaving passes across your lines. Go over the first vertical thread, under the next one, over the next one, under the next one.

9. When you start back in the opposite direction doing a west-east pass over your hole, make sure that you start opposite of the last line of stitches. If on the last line of stitches you went under last, on this line of stitches you will start by going over that vertical thread, under the next one, over the next one, etc.

10. The idea is that you are now "weaving" a little patch of fiber over the hole, using your needle and thread. When your hole is completely filled in, carefully weave the remaining thread in and out of the texture of the sock itself a few times, the cut off any excess thread.

Hope that's helpful, it will make more sense if you try it with your sock in front of you.

Sincerely,
Karin Timour
"Stories in the Socks" Women in the Civil War conference, Richmond, VA, June 2003
Period Knitting -- Socks, Hats, Balaclavas
Atlantic Guard Soldiers' Aid Society
Email: Ktimour@aol.com
8. Once you have Using your needle, staring at the bottom left of your hole, start making a series of long stitches that go from the southern border of your hole staight up to the northern border, then slant back down to the southern border of your hole. But rather than putting the

[MrsArmstrong]

Re: Darning Socks

I also found this site that has great pictures along with directions for darning.

http://www.hjsstudio.com/darn.html

Susan Armstrong

[virginiagirl]

Re: Darning Socks

Thank you all immensely,
I decided (after much scrutiny and deliberation) to rip out my prior attempt and try my hand at the duplicate stitch. I feel a little better with this work and it looks merely as if I purled when I should have knitted across one section of the ribbing. The quality of darning is to-be-determined upon the “field test” this weekend. Perhaps I shall hang out a shingle and take up darning for spare change (and an opportunity for the practice). ;-) Thanks again for the help.

[Clark Badgett]

Re: Darning Socks

John Billings in "Hardtack and Coffee" has some rather humorous antidotes about socks and darning. I seem to not worry if my toes are protruding from the end :wink_smil

[Huck]

Re: Darning Socks

Anyone out there darning socks, mine from Perryville have a nice hole in there from my toes....

[Spinster]

Re: Darning Socks

Huck,

Depends on who made them, and what they are made of.

For example,
I'll mend a pair of Karin Timour made wool socks with a proper period heel. And that's providing Karin can't get to them.
I'll mend socks I made.
I won't mend Mickey Black cotton socks with a 20th Century short row heel.


Pictures or it didn't happen. ;). If the hole is the size of a baseball, that's a different job. It's called refooting.

[Elaine Kessinger]

Re: Darning Socks

Well, Fellows, I have asked on various fora frequented by those likely and no one admits to a professional darning service.
As Mrs. Biederman suggests, ask the maker. :-(

[Huck]

Re: Darning Socks

I don't know who made th m, I've had them for over 12 year or so. Not thin single ply but heavier wool. Black/dark blue with white toe and heel...
Not my old county cloth ones, could have been a patch from some WIG thing years and I mean years ago...

[Spinster]

Re: Darning Socks

Huck,

Make a good picture of both socks and send it to me at Thlawson@bellsouth.net. I'll tell you whether I'll do them.

My customers will tell you I'm dammably slow.

Except when on the spot and employed as a military laundress at a good event. The next time that takes place is at some godforsaken place out beyond West Jeebus sometime next summer. If I'm not murdered in the Uprising. Only the Moostasche knows that. All I know is where to climb in the wagon.

[Huck]

Re: Darning Socks

Sent an email with photo...