So for a while now, I’ve had a pile of hand knit socks, 5 pairs in total that have been taken out of circulation to repair.
They don’t have holes as such, yet… but after losing several pairs of socks to unexpected holes, I’m a lot more vigilant now at spotting trouble. That is the stitches around the heel and or the ball of the foot have become thin and thread-bare and recently, some of them were just holding on when I discovered them. Whilst I know you can repair socks that have said holes in them, that’s a lot more work and darning; and to be honest those socks have gone to ‘sock heaven’.
I took the opportunity of the long weekend to tackle some of these repairs.
Before:
See that sneaky little spot emerging under the ball of my foot…
And my Noro socks, just a random thin row of knitting, I didn’t want to chance it.
So I duplicate stitched EVERYTHING, bad/thin looking stitches and the stitches that were holding hands with those stitches.
The repairs were almost invisible on my Wollmeise socks.
My lilac socks (Dream in Colour Smooshy), needed a larger area of duplicate stitching and it took some time to cover it. Interestingly, of all these pairs, these were the quickest to wear… I even had the foresight to use ‘knitting-in nylon’ when knitting the foot… it didn’t help.
And my Noro socks, took no time at all to cover over the weakened row of stitches.
That’s 3 pairs of socks back into wearing circulation and I’m pumped. Just 2 more pairs to go and I’m sworn off ever knitting another pair of socks without any nylon content.
There must be something in the air as I’m about to do the same thing.