On 10/03/2014 16:17, Joan Erickson wrote:
On 3/9/2014 6:23 AM, wrote:


I didn't learn to darn this way - I was taught with a decorative
wooden mushroom - you used a 'darning' needle (so called because the
eye was generous enough to accommodate threading wool through it) and
you first made lines of yarn back and forth one way across the hole.

Then turn the mushroom and weave, over and under those threads.

I'm not as "mature" as Sheena & Gill, but my mom taught me this way,
too. Mom didn't have anything as fancy as a darning egg, though. She
used a lightbulb in the sock instead! I actually darned a few of
DH's socks when we first got married!

Aaah, memories!
lol


Since we were using gas lights we did not have any light bulbs.

A clenched up fist was pushed in the sock to be darned.

As a young girl we lived in a small village and the only way my mother
could get to the "Women's Institute" meetings was to take me with her.

I used to collect all the "Make do and Mend leaflets" issued during W11.
One was for darning which I used to learn to darn. Another was how to
patch putting a patch on both sides of the of the tear in fabric.

I have a Bakelite darning mushroom with the dome. When the darning was
done the darn was a hump that went after the first washing.
In fact during the war often the socks were more darns than original
knitting.

In my collection of old needlework tools I also have a gadget that was
used for weaving the darn. When new it cost two shillings and sixpence.
I have not attempted to use it.

We also used to use small round flat tins pushed in the socks with the
hole on top of the tin lid. Then using the warp and weft method of
weaving neatly catching in the edges of the holes.

Hanks of darning wool was bought but they had the ends cut so we could
not use them for knitting, since knitting wool had to be bought using
precious clothing coupons.

Hope you enjoyed my trip down memory lane I would have been about 8
years old then.

Hugs
Shirley



--
Shirley
www.allcrafts.org.uk