when you mend the patches of my clothing

Surprise! (Pretend to be.) More socks! These, however, present a new and fascinating problem...one has a hole worn through the heel! How to fix it more successfully (and more attractively) than this?

The answer was provided to me completely by chance. Like most knitting projects I'm ashamed of, I had tossed these into a closet. I didn't want to ruin them by with a half-assed repair attempt, so instead I ignored them. (Sounds familiar, I know.)

Knitting Daily rescued me! This is the first time I can say this- they send out (as implied by the name) daily knitting emails that are mostly obnoxious. I usually delete all of them while wondering WHY I signed up in the first place, but as my mouse hovered over the "delete" button, I realized this article could actually help!

I would link to the article here, but you have to sign up for Knitting Daily to see it. If you don't mind a gazillion new emails every day, by all means do so...otherwise, it's pretty easy to do without reading it. First, gather a darning needle, yarn, the item to be repaired, and something round-ish to stuff in the sock. I read about light bulbs, oranges, fancy darning eggs, real eggs...you know, anything vaguely round. I used a tennis ball from my well-loved Velcro Ball set.

So you stuff the roundish object in the sock, then sew (it doesn't have to be great, it's just an anchor) a square around the area to be repaired. Think of roping off a crime scene, you know? Then you're going to create a loom- didn't we all learn to weave in grade school?- by sewing across your crime scene to create vertical bars. Crime = jail time. Make sense?

Now weave back and forth through your bars to create a basket/rug/potholder sort of look. Make sure you alternate going under/over the bars (so says the article), but I think if you say "weave" most people would get it. I'm sorry if I'm wrong in assuming this. Think of this as Martha Stewart Goes to Jail, now you're crafting behind bars.

And ta-dah! Sock fixed. Now I can stop going home to see my Dad and evading his questions about these socks. Lesson: don't be afraid of wearing your socks or wearing THROUGH your socks...it's easy to repair. Really, really easy!

Of note: this is Smooshy sock yarn made by Dream in Color. The color is absolutely gorgeous...a blend of blues and blacks. The yarn was lovely to knit with, too! It's a little pricey, but totally worth it. If I find it again, I'm going to have to stash another skein away...