Mending
So for a good solid year after I broke my leg, I either had to wear this oh-so-stylish compression brace or my ankle was puffy enough that knit socks were tricky to wear. Which is Something Of A Disappointment if, say, you have a giant basket of hand knit socks that you love dearly and wear constantly.
But…just lately…the ankle has started behaving itself, and I’m back in my socks. These are particularly stretchy and so were one of the first ones back in rotation. I noticed they had a tiny little bit of a thin spot on one of the heels, so I patched it up before it went back in the basket this time.
I’m a firm believer in mending my socks. They take an age to knit, I’m not throwing them away before I absolutely have to. These are nine years old, and there’s no reason they can’t last many more years with just a bit of attention. Before you ask, I have a lot of socks so each one only gets worn once every few weeks at most (I try and enforce even wear by waiting until they’re all dirty and doing one giant load of sock laundry rather than just wearing the same five socks over and over), and I’m picky about my sock yarn, and I knit socks with a seriously tight fabric…that’s how I have nine year old socks.
So how about you, any old socks in your sock basket? Do you mend your socks? Or is that taking things a bit too far?
Now that I have a washing machine with a woollen cycle, I too wait to wash my hand-knit socks until I have only a few pairs left— some knitted in 2012 are still in rotation. It’s probably time for some new ones, knitted with double-thick soles or in heavier yarn; thicker socks feel so much cushier in my winter blundstones than light ones.
Just checked on Ravelry and wow! My very first pair of socks will be celebrating their tenth birthday in June (anniversary of first wearing a few months after that since I had to wait for cold weather). They and every pair I’ve knitted since are still in my sock drawer and being worn every winter with only two socks ever ending up in the mending pile (one sock each from two pairs made from a 100% merino yarn that I knew wouldn’t be long lasting but makes decadently cushy socks; they still made it five years before developing holes, which was pretty good for being worn pretty much weekly because my handknit socks were few at the time … knitting tight and dense makes even a soft yarn wear reasonably well).
I cut the tops of the socks off when the bottoms get too worn or holey and then make a quilty-blankety thing with them so they live even LONGER! I love hand knit wool socks!!! Working on some hand SPUN ones now!!
Yes to mending hand knit socks! I prefer to do as you, reinforcing threadbare areas with duplicate stitch before it becomes a hole that requires a more substantial mend. I’m not a fan of a woven darn for socks, so use a knitted method for an actual hole. If I can’t match the yarn or get close enough to make it blend-y, I go for something completely different to make a statement patch. Nothing like a pop of orange or crazy pink on grey socks to make me smile!
Definitely mend the socks!
I am currently knitting a favorite pair of socks in different yarn because after seven hard years of wear the first ones wore thin in a couple of places. Those were my worn in boots, whether for work or hiking, and yes they have worn well. They once even got machine washed when they weren’t suppose to. I have thick regular, cotton and wool, and bamboo and wool socks to last through the many weather days of late autumn to early spring. That means I wear the cotton and wool blends ones when the weather is getting cooler. I even have one pair of alpaca blend super soft socks with cables all over. I wear those on really cold days when I sit in front of the computer all day. I don’t wear them more than a few days out of the year, but I am so glad to have them when I do. Nice to have options.
I have a pair of socks in my rotation that I remember knitting on a commuter bus in 1997. My car had died and I couldn’t yet afford another one, so the bus was it for me. I remember knitting these socks so well because of the gentleman on the bus who looked over at what I was doing and said, “What are you making with those toothpicks?”
What is your go-to method for mending socks?
My husband insisted that I mend the socks that I knit for him. He wouldn’t let me even consider discarding them. It’s nice to be appreciated.
I don’t know exactly how old my first pair of socks are but I know they are at the very least 10 years old. How do I know? Because I knitted quite a few for me, then a couple pairs for my mother and aunt, several more for me, then one for my father. My father died nine years ago this month with a pair of socks knitted by me on his feet. Of course, I’ve knitted loads of socks since then.
As for repairing, I should have done that with my first pair. I continue to wear them with a hole in the heel! Maybe I’ll give it a go soon with a pair!
I also knit my socks densely (2 mm needles). An early pair I knitted (and wore a lot) lasted about 7 years before any holes – and they were 100% Merino. I mended them and still wear them occasionally. I have loads of hand knit socks in my sock dresser so it can be quite a while before socks rotate back into use. However, I tend to wear my favorites a lot and, for unknown reasons, don’t like to wear new ones right away. I have discovered that the biggest sock-hole-producing activity is walking in my winter boots, so I try to remember to wear only socks (with Opal/Regia type yarn) I’ve knit on the CSM with those boots. Hand-knit socks are totally worth keeping in wearable shape. Thanks, Hunter, for all the wonderful sock patterns that have made my socks not just practical but beautiful.
That’s a beautiful mend! How do you do it?
I have a big pile of socks that need mending. I just can’t seem to find the time to do it. I used to wear an ankle bracelet, and the clasp would catch in the socks (usually when I wore boots), so all my holes are on the ankle! I have enough pairs of socks that I won’t run out any time soon, but I really should do some patching…
For future reference, how tight is your gauge for socks? I’d like mine to last as long too!
It totally depends on the yarn (because worsted is going to have a different gauge than fingering). But basically ‘as tight as I can manage without destroying my hands.’ So for thin yarn, 9spi is usually good. For dk/light worsted, sometimes more like 7.
I live in Sunny California, and I don’t have a very long Wool Sock Season, so my handknit socks tend to last a long time. That said, I do have a pair that’s waiting in the mending pile because the toe got a hole in it before I noticed it, and so now I have a large bit of mending to do. (And of course, that was my favorite pair of handknit socks, too.)
I have a slipper of yours to mend, actually. Not due to wear, though it got a fair deal of that, but thanks to a little toerag of a dog who took a chomp out of it. Somewhere in our move I have even seen the remnants of the yarn, however it seems to have escaped the collected project scrap yarn holding bin and is on the loose. Partying with my address book I bet.
My oldest socks date from 2000, knitted very firmly in Froehlich Wolle special blauband. I’ve mended thin spots on the heel once, but that’s it! I have a pair made from some Koigu, from 2002 which have been mended a few times now (and need some attention so they are in my sock hospital currently.
My rule on socks I knit for others is that I won’t mend the mends. I try to get enough pairs into circulation that they last a good long time before I’m called in to fix them.
Also – glad to hear your ankle is improving!