Sock Darning

Teri, no one ever taught me to darn, but whenever I've had a ladder in a
knit (usually a fine-guage sweater), that is the way I repaired it, even
back when I was a kid. I never used the woven method unless it was a
woven fabric. Maybe because I was self-taught, and it just made sense to
do it that way?

Karen Maslowski in Ohio

wrote:
I'll bet a warp of closely laid stitches could
be latched up to repair a hole, using sock yarn instead of thread.
What do you think?

Teri

Dear Karen,

Yes, that does make sense. The problem with a hole, though, is that
there are no warps or cross threads to work with. You still have to
form a warp in some way. Like I said in my original response, I'd
rather make a whole new pair of socks than bother with darning,
although I was taught to darn when I was very small. Oh, and when I
make socks, I use a slip one, knit one method for the heel to make it
extra strong and thick. I do it whether the instructions recommend it
or not.

Teri

Well, I have done it with a hole, too. You just basically recreate the
knit, but using additional yarn or thread. Surely I haven't invented
something new? This method makes it look pretty much like there was
never a hole, except for the thicker edges of the former hole.

Karen Maslowski in Ohio

wrote:

Dear Karen,

Yes, that does make sense. The problem with a hole, though, is that
there are no warps or cross threads to work with. You still have to
form a warp in some way. Like I said in my original response, I'd
rather make a whole new pair of socks than bother with darning,
although I was taught to darn when I was very small. Oh, and when I
make socks, I use a slip one, knit one method for the heel to make it
extra strong and thick. I do it whether the instructions recommend it
or not.

Teri

On 1 Feb 2005 09:29:35 -0800, wrote:

You've given me an idea. I had never thought of using buttonhole
stitch for darns; however, I have two knitting machines that have
taught me tricks to use with my hand knitting. One of them is
repairing a dropped stitch, without the need of taking the piece apart
down to the dropped stitch. It is simply latched up and incorporated
into the present row. I'll bet a warp of closely laid stitches could
be latched up to repair a hole, using sock yarn instead of thread.
What do you think?

I think it would be easier to knit a patch -- but I've never
knitted a patch.

From hearsay, you ravel the hole out square, pick up
stitches on one side, knit the missing rows while running a
slick thread or narrow ribbon through the turning loops
(Each time you turn to work the other way, you wrap the yarn
around the ribbon or thread so that you'll be able to find
the loop later), graft the patch to the other side, then
pull each raveled thread though the loop where you turned to
knit the corresponding row and weave it back into the thin
fabric, following itself duplicate-stitch fashion.

I imagine that it would be difficult to match the gauge,
even if you knitted it yourself and still have the yarn and
needles -- because both you and the fabric will have
changed.

I don't think I've ever run into a hole so large that it
wouldn't be easier to fill it in with nalbinding.

I don't think I've ever replaced more than three stitches
with nalbinding, and even then my results are usually in the
"egad, I'm glad this yarn is black!" class.

(For mending purposes, we can define nalbinding as duplicate
stitch worked over stitches that aren't there. EZ's
"casting-on cast off" is one form of nalbinding.)

Joy Beeson
--
http://home.earthlink.net/~joybeeson/ -- needlework
http://home.earthlink.net/~dbeeson59...HSEW/ROUGH.HTM
http://home.earthlink.net/~beeson_n3f/ -- Writers' Exchange
joy beeson at earthlink dot net

On 1 Feb 2005 11:54:19 -0800, wrote:

Oh, and when I
make socks, I use a slip one, knit one method for the heel to make it
extra strong and thick. I do it whether the instructions recommend it
or not.

I hate working heel stitch, so I thicken the heel with
stranded knitting, which I love to do: knit one stitch with
the yarn in your left hand and knit the next stitch with the
yarn in your right hand.

(For people who can't control the thread with both hands, I
imagine that stranding is even more tedious than heel
stitch, but I started out with the yarn in my right hand and
hand to switch because of mouse damage, but the right hand
can stand up to controlling the yarn when it works half
time, so stranding feels faster than plain knitting. But
I've never timed either; if you have to know how long it
takes, you can't afford to knit.)

Stranding has the advantage that I can continue the thicker
fabric into the sole of the sock without putting in short
rows -- on the other hand, it didn't take me very long to
get tired of socks with striped and speckled heels! I like
to start the heel high enough to show; my shoe rubs hardest
right at the edge. But if I can't see which yarn is which,
I tend to switch back and forth between stripes and checks,
and that makes the heel lumpy and uneven. (Checks, by the
way, are smoother than stripes.)

The last time I knitted a heel, I used one strand of natural
white 3/12 worsted (the main yarn) and one strand of
bleach-white crewel yarn, thinking I could tell the yarns
apart by the texture. It didn't help a bit; three-ply yarn
and two-ply yarn look exactly the same when wrapped around a
needle. But by then I had enough experience that I could
tell by counting the stitches and watching how the strands
overlap. But the crewel yarn is denser and stronger than
the 3/12, so at least the heel will hold up longer than it
would if I'd used two balls of the same yarn.

Joy Beeson
--
http://home.earthlink.net/~joybeeson/ -- needlework
http://home.earthlink.net/~dbeeson59...HSEW/ROUGH.HTM
http://home.earthlink.net/~beeson_n3f/ -- Writers' Exchange
joy beeson at earthlink dot net