A Darn Good Lesson.

In my never-ending quest to save my husband's socks, before they get turned into creatures or Christmas tree ornaments, I have tried just about everything. I have patched, duplicate stitched, tried working with extra reinforcing fibre in the heel and toe. And to date, although they have prolonged life somewhat, they have not been the perfect solution. Perhaps there isn't one.

But there has been a lot of chatter lately about the re-emergence of the Speedweve Darning Loom, which apparently was a big fixture a few decades ago. After watching a couple of YouTube videos, I decided to order one and give it a try. The cost was not prohibitive, and I can always use a new approach.

Today I tried to use it. First of all, I am pretty sure I ordered the small and got a large version. Not sure what you would darn with this, but I decided to "give it a go" anyway. (Because there is nothing there for scale, the wooden holder is 5" in diameter, and it has 28 hooks versus the 14 that I saw in both videos. Even getting that disk into the sock was a bit of a workout.

And I haven't felt so "left handed" since I first learned the Kitchener Stitch decades ago. (I can now do that procedure left or right handed, but still avoid it whenever possible.) Just trying to set the thing up required more than two hands - my husband got involved. Remember, there are his socks at stake. 

No matter which way I tried to set up my "loom" stitches for weaving, it felt awkward and backward. But I pushed on. And after much swearing and do-overs, I got it done. The loom stitches were in and on the right hooks, and I was on to the "weaving" step.  It wasn't perfect (as the woman in the video stated), but it fell off twice. 

Here is a picture of my first results. Not horrid, but not great!! But the hole was covered. 

After a break and a walk outside, I came back to try to apply some of the learning from the loom towards my old technique, which involved putting a papier mache grapefruit into the sock, instead of a darning mushroom.

What the loom taught me was that the elastic tension around the hole made a big difference. So, once I got the grapefruit in, I put an elastic above and below the darning area. And I made the long stitches freehand, without any hooks. Easy, peasy. And so was the weaving. I think without the hooks in my way, I could just move around much for easily.

Here is the result "without" the loom. (And before the clean up and darning in of ends.)

Again, not perfect, but more symmetrical and not pulling on the sock. 

So, although the Darning Loom may have been a waste of whatever I spent. The lesson about tension on the darning grapefruit was worth every penny. 

I am pretty sure my technique still needs lots of work. Like a tighter weave, perhaps. But at the end of an afternoon, I have two socks with darned patches that may last a little longer.

My husband has been warned that as long as he refuses to wear slippers over his socks, and wears friction holes on the bottom of his heels from the hardwood, these will be his last home made socks. He can just go and buy much cheaper socks, which i would not waste my time on saving. Stalemate!!