adventures in darning
tonight i decided to make my first attempt at darning. my socks wear out in an odd place—just above my heel—because of my orthotics. my arches are so non-existent that my orthotics take up 2/3 of the depth of most shoes. even shoes that are supposedly designed for orthotics aren't deep enough for my feet to sit in properly. so most of my shoes wear out from the inside of the heel first. c'est la vie.
none of my socks actually have holes, per se. just areas where most of the cotton has worn away to reveal the base weave underneath. i wanted to start darning them before there was any more wear because i love these socks so damn much.
behold, the not-quite hole of my socks. i think i have eight or so pairs that all look pretty much like this. some of the holes are bigger or smaller.
the outside of my first sock. i tried to weave through the existing web to bind it all together a little more securely.
sock number two, the innards. thank heavens sock darning isn't supposed to be very neat.
for sock number two, i decided to darn as if there were a complete hole in the sock and just ignore the web. it doesn't look very good on the outside and i suspect it won't hold up as well as doing it the other way.
what i found most difficult was getting the tension right (spoiler: i pretty much didn't manage it). the socks are a little stretchy, as cotton is, so i didn't want to stitch it in a completely relaxed position because then when i put them on there'd be more stress on the rest of the sock around the darn site. but it was basically impossible to maintain a consistent stretch while i was darning. i guess maybe it just comes down to practice. and i'm about to have plenty of that.
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This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth. If you feel inclined, comment there.
none of my socks actually have holes, per se. just areas where most of the cotton has worn away to reveal the base weave underneath. i wanted to start darning them before there was any more wear because i love these socks so damn much.
behold, the not-quite hole of my socks. i think i have eight or so pairs that all look pretty much like this. some of the holes are bigger or smaller.
the outside of my first sock. i tried to weave through the existing web to bind it all together a little more securely.
sock number two, the innards. thank heavens sock darning isn't supposed to be very neat.
for sock number two, i decided to darn as if there were a complete hole in the sock and just ignore the web. it doesn't look very good on the outside and i suspect it won't hold up as well as doing it the other way.
what i found most difficult was getting the tension right (spoiler: i pretty much didn't manage it). the socks are a little stretchy, as cotton is, so i didn't want to stitch it in a completely relaxed position because then when i put them on there'd be more stress on the rest of the sock around the darn site. but it was basically impossible to maintain a consistent stretch while i was darning. i guess maybe it just comes down to practice. and i'm about to have plenty of that.
--
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth. If you feel inclined, comment there.