On Darned Socks:

I don’t know if you will understand this but I hope you do. I like to darn socks.

The socks in the picture are Mountain Man’s mud socks. Mountain Man is very out door’sy. He is out there in all kinds of weather. So I have learned to segregate his socks into three piles Dress, Good, and Mud. ‘Dress’ sock’s need no explanation. ‘Good’ are nice clean white socks to go places in. And ‘Mud’ are the color of the ones I don’t bleach to within an inch of their lives so they can look good but the wear time is diminished by the bleaching. These are his work socks. And work socks get holes.

I love the process of filling the hole. Getting out the tools. Setting to the repair. Accomplishing the task. Darning a sock.

I take one of my darning eggs, I have a half a dozen or more, and get started. I set it in place in the sock and thread my needle with some cotton yarn with the ply’s pulled apart. A small knot on the out side to get a firm grip and off I go. Up and Down in uniform lines I start to fill the gap. I snake my needle to the side and weave away through the lines I’d laid down first. On the other side I turn and go back differing the threads. Under the ones I went over before. Over the under threads again and again.

I check to see how firm my patch is and always find some small gaps. I run the needle over two, under two until the patch is as tight as the original stockinet of the sock. I end with a small knot and neatly tuck in the tails with small stitches round the edge.

Another sock recycled for another day of gardening or rock wall building or what ever job needs to be done around here rain or shine. It’s not much in this ‘throw it away’ world but it’s one less sock in the land fill. And I just get satisfaction out of darning socks.

I would have gotten better pictures but as soon as I was done Mountain Man put them on and he is now weeding in the garden.