Summer 2014 Bucket List

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Holey!

Oh noes! On Sunday I found the first hole in a pair of my own hand knit socks. I had noticed a lot of pilling on the inside of the socks the last few times I wore them. The heel on one sock is almost totally worn through, and the other is not far behind. I have never darned a sock, though it is a good skill to learn if you are a knitter. 


The yarn used to knit these socks is from Yarnpirate. It's a merino/tencel blend which I'm now thinking was not a good choice for socks. I have read that merino isn't the best choice for socks anyway as it's very soft, and also there was is no nylon in this blend. I have loved the socks on my feet though. The yarn feels great on and was cool to knit with. I have wondered if maybe I should start knitting my socks at a tighter gauge (I normally knit on 2.25mm) because I've read that a tighter gauge prevents wear for longer. 

So, how to proceed? I could teach myself how to darn socks and I can even use the original yarn for that since I have some left. I have noticed some thinning in the toes and other heel too so I will either have to reinforce those too or just darn them eventually. A second option would be to unravel both socks, cut out the weakened yarn and reknit them at a tighter gauge using up the leftover yarn. A third option is to reknit the socks at a tighter gauge but use a different yarn, a wool/nylon blend, for the toes and heels. I think I like that idea best because it might lengthen the overall life of the socks. I'm not really sure since I haven't had this issue pop up yet with any of my other socks. Thoughts?

Now I guess I should look at the other socks in my drawer and maybe learn how to knit after-thought heels too. 

2 comments:

  1. As we have both been learning about knitting socks, both toe up and top down, my daughter told me about knitting the heel with a k1 sl 1, then knit or purl the next row. It's one way to strength stress points.

    If you choose to darn them, Knit Daily (from Interweave), has a really good tutorial.

    Good luck!
    Ellen

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  2. Hiya! I have done the reinforced heel before but for a while I was doing short row heels, like in the sock above. I found that type of heel doesn't fit my foot very well so I'm now going back to doing heel flap with k1slip1 (I usually knit toe-up).

    I should check out that tutorial because it's always good to know how to mend clothing. A lost skill for sure.

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