Mending
Somehow…and I have decided not to dwell on how (though I have refreshed all of our moth traps just to be extra cautious), a pair of The Boy’s socks got a hole. Right up at the top where you are absolutely not getting any serious wear.
I’ve never actually dealt with a hole involving the cast on edge, but I decided it couldn’t be that different than a hole anywhere else. Step one is find yarn…these were the options the stash offered.
From left to right that’s two yarns from a Frabjulous Fibers color morph on Cheshire Cat in the Yellow to Fuchsia color and two yarns from an Indigo Dragonfly Tornadoz set on Chameleon Sock in the Cahoots color. They’re all leftovers from upcoming Curls 3 projects (and I’m working on the assumption that the lovey yarn companies who sent the yarn won’t mind me using a yard or two of the project leftovers to mend a sock…because yarn people are cool like that). The closest match seemed to be the orange-er of the two Frabjulous Fibers yarns.
And the result isn’t exactly perfect (you can totally tell there’s a mend…the yarn isn’t an exact match and there’s a wodgy bit where the middle of the hole was). But when it’s down at ankle height, it’s not super noticeable, and it will keep the socks in the rotation going forward. Totally worth the 30 minutes it takes to do the mending!
The pattern is Xanthophyll, and if you’re reading this the day the post goes up and happen to scroll back and look at the post that went up earlier today, you’ll see something nifty.
It’s the mend that makes it beautiful. I’m sure you’ve come across that Japanese idea of making the mend beautiful )painting repaired cracks and chips with gold paint, darning with brightly coloured thread) and I love the inherent message of it all. The item in question was loved enough to be worn (especially if the wearing caused the hole) and loved enough to be thought worth repairing. And you did a beautiful job on the med! You’ve actually given the sock more value, and made it less disposable. A store bought sock would’ve been binned the second the hole was found.
Beautiful to begin with, more beautiful with the repair.
I love your repairs!
I have gotten holes like this from catching socks and mitts on brambles, and once from an overly energetic sweater shaver.
Hoping you don’t have critters eating your woolies. I had to deal with a major incursion I discovered a year ago, and ended up baking everything wooly in my studio. (I tried using the dryer for one batch. Don’t do this.) At the end of the day, 90% of the damage was in my samples box. What jerks! Everything in the stash including UFO’s and samples is now in ziplocs. I NEVER want to do that again.