Last week, I found the very first socks I had knitted by hand almost 5 years ago, while I was tidying up my sock drawer. Unfortunately, I also noticed that they had a (large) hole in the heel.
These socks are special to me. I learned to knit when I was 13 with a friend of my mother. She was a great knitter and showed me all the basics of knitting, but she wasn't able to teach me more advanced techniques. For years I only knit scarves and squares of all sizes for a blanket that I never finished.
I had no idea how to read a pattern or what a sample was. I didn't know the fibers and for me, acrylic was wool.
Until the day when CÉLINE MAKES ME EMERGE FROM THE DARK SIDE OF THE FORCE by making me knit this pair of socks. It was absolutely necessary to save her! I IMMEDIATELY THOUGHT OF THIS ARTICLE BY KATE GILBERT , Editor-in-Chief of Twist Collective, grabbed my finishing needles, leftover sock yarn, and started darning.
There are several techniques for darning a sock. As the hole was still big, I chose to do a “grafting” and when I started, I realized that this technique resembles weaving: we weave around the hole to cover it and to prevent the stitches from unraveling .
After some extensive research I noticed that this method can be used to repair not only socks, BUT SWEATERS ALSO .
My sock was fixed in less than half an hour. During this time a lot of beautiful memories came back to me; first my grandmother and HER WOODEN DARN EGG and her grandmother's tricks. I thought of the beautiful moments spent next to this extraordinary woman. I've always said that hand-knitted objects have a magical power…Power that can now last even longer by darning them!