I saved this special pair of socks for today’s theme, history. These are the first pair of socks I ever made. They’re crocheted, from a free pattern over at Lion Brand Yarn. I didn’t know how to knit yet, only crochet, and I knew that I wanted to learn how to make socks. I had to frog them back once because the instructions weren’t completely clear to me, but I got the idea on my second try and finished these.
They’re made of Lion Brand Wool Ease yarn, an 80/20 blend of acrylic/wool, in the Blue Mist colorway. I blogged about them here. Can you believe that they’ve been unwearable all this time and all they need is a mend?? Admittedly it’s not an easy mend; one of the heels has a hole so large my darning egg can fit through it. That may be the reason I’ve put it off for so long. And I’ve been busy with other things. Whatever the reason, I’m gonna attempt a fix!
I began with the sock that had the smaller hole. This one fit on the darning egg:
I held 2 yarns together, 1 a cotton/silk blend, and the other wool fingering. This is my standard way of mending socks. I have no other progress pics of this sock, only finished.
The next sock was the trophy winner of mending challenges.:
As I mentioned earlier the darning egg was too small for it. I had to think of what to use to hold it in place while mending. I tried my ball of yarn and that worked but it was too soft and I might sew into it accidentally. The smaller end of the bobbin from my spinning wheel was the right size for the sock to fit over:
I had some spare thread left when I finished the weave, so I just sewed around the patch, reinforcing the weak areas of yarn surrounding the gap. I mean, why not use up all the thread.
And… the finished mends:
With them on my feet:
These socks are truly historical in my life, and I’m happy that I finally fixed them. I don’t think I’ll actually wear them much because they’ve been worn a lot in their youth and are showing signs of wear in other places. I’ll probably be archiving them now that they’re mended. I plan to store them in a ziploc bag, safe from wool moths until I can figure out an appropriate way to display them.
Happy mending, see ya on the next prompt 🙂
Sewcoordinated 