Well, I finally did it – I mended one of my knitted items. Not many of my hand-knits have worn out on me yet, and the few that did I just threw out. However, the last thing to get a hole was one of my stripy Christmas socks. That is a relatively new pair of socks, and I am not sick of them yet. So I decided to take the plunge and get a darning kit.
If you are in the market for a darning tool, this is a pretty handy one. I have not tried out darning eggs or similar, so I don’t know how they compare, but this tool is pretty slick. Here is a YouTube video on how it works, which explains it better than I can. I wish I had watched the video before I mended my sock, but it worked out OK anyway 🙂
Once I decided to mend, the next decision was visible mending, or trying to blend it in. The thought of visible mending was intriguing, but then I though “maybe don’t draw attention to the first time you are doing something you don’t really know how to do”, so I went with blending. The area with the hole is dark gray, and I happen to have quite a bit of that hanging around, so that worked out.
So it doesn’t look amazing, but not terrible for a first time. I think my biggest mistake is I set the loom piece a little far away from the edge of the hole, so after the hole was covered, I had quite a bit of weaving left to do to use up the yarn loops you start with. The next few times I do this will likely still be blended, then maybe I’ll move into the visible mending world 🙂
Hope everyone had a good weekend!!
Quite A Yarn 
Nice job. I have only used a darning egg. But it was a great tool; so fundamental.
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I may still try one of those! I don’t get a lot of things wearing out, but it’s still worth trying different methods.
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A darning loom – that is so cute it makes you want to repair things! Nice job!
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It is cute! Thank you! The patch is pretty wonky, but it gets the job done. Practice will improve me, hopefully 🙂
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I haven’t used a woven patch on a sock, but I’ve made woven patches on swatches for a mending class I teach! I didn’t use a loom; I just used yarn to make the warp.
I have used duplicate stitch, before a sock wore all the way through. It’s easy to just go over the thin spots.
Woven patches can be pretty firm. For the real socks that I repaired, I really liked the knitted patch. You can see it here: https://pdxknitterati.com/2021/02/06/sock-repair-knitted-patch/
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That is a very neat fix! It looks really secure and like it’s going to last a while. I will have to try that out! I have duplicate stitched over thin spots and found that pretty effective too 🙂
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I have that loom too. It is remarkably fast to use, yet I put it off for weeks. I’m impressed with your mending.
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Thank you! Your blog may have been the first place I saw these looms in action – it was either you or Alissa. You’re a mending influencer!!
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Your thought process made me giggle. I’ve used mine twice now. My second time was definitely better! The first time I made an Ohio. By accident. In visible contrast. So it did work out okay, but it was a fluke.
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I remember the Ohio! That looked so cool 🙂
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🧦🪡😀
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