The Dear One always said No when I asked if he'd like a pair of hand knit socks. I thought that maybe it was because he thought the colour would be too bright. Finally in 2015 I simply knit him a pair of hand knit socks in Patons Kroy Sock Yarn, my favourite for socks (75% washable wool for warmth and comfort and 25% nylon for strength) in this colour, Flax. I gave them to him for Christmas. He put them on and had an epiphany: hand knit woolen socks felt GREAT!!! Turns out he always thought they wouldn't feel good. Since then I've knit him six pairs of socks.
Because it takes a lot of time and effort to knit a pair of socks, and because they tend to get holes under the heel and ball of the foot while the rest of the sock is still in prime condition, it is very worthwhile to repair these holes. Here's a small hole and a very thin area in a pair of socks I knit for him in February of 2017. And here's how I fix holes in socks. First with a very thin double point (dp) needle I pick up the stitches in a row below the hole.
Then I begin knitting these picked up stitches with the regular size sock needles. At the beginning of each knit row I pick up a stitch from the sole of the sock, in the same vertical column of stitches but the second row up. I slide that stitch onto the needle ahead of the first stitch and knit the two stitches together.
I knit to the end of that row of stitches. Before the last stitch I pick up a stitch from the sole in the same vertical column of stitches as the last stitch on the needle and knit those two stitches together.
Turn the knitting and purl back to the beginning. Repeat until the hole and thin area are covered with the new knitting.
When you are a good long way past the hole and worn out spot cut the yarn quite a distance from the last stitch at the end of a purl row. (The picture shows the working yarn at the beginning of a purl row. Don't let that confuse you.)
Thread the end of yarn through a yarn needle. Thread the yarn needle through a stitch in the sole, bring it up purl-wise through the first stitch on the needle. Pass the yarn under the needle tip, pass it under the point of the "v" of the corresponding stitch in the sole. (Sorry, no picture.) Now pass it under the point of the needle and through the first stitch knit-wise. Slide that stitch off the needle. Repeat with the next stitch--first passing the yarn through that stitch purl-wise. This is a modified version of the Kitchener stitch which is used to connect two pieces of knitting invisibly, by creating a hand-needled row between the top and the bottom of two pieces of knitting.
Sorry about no picture. The next time I do this procedure I'll take and post pictures.
Here are the mended socks: The left sock looks a little different. It's just a change of yarn after a few inches on mend on that sock. Just started the mend with the wrong yarn, but who will notice on the sole of the sock?
This repair will extend the life of these socks considerably. This pair is one of my favourites because of the cable design on the top of the foot and on the legs. Several of his pairs of socks are this same Flax colour, but I make each one somewhat differently so that when they come out of the wash I can match them to their mates.
There was another pair with even bigger holes in my mending basket, but I thought I'd try something different. The Dear One only recently told me that the reason he likes hand knit socks so much is because they are softer and cushion his feet more than bought socks. He has Peripheral Neuropathy in both feet and legs which makes them feel "pins and needles" much of time. These socks help with that by cushioning his feet somewhat.
Well, that gave me an idea for the next "hole repair" session. I picked up and knit a whole other sole with this difference: I stuffed bits of roving between the "holey" sole and the new sole, thinking: this will really give him a good cushion.
This pair had been mended earlier--you can see the mend on the heel at right, but now the mend had a hole in it and beside it where it joined the sole.
This time I started at the toe and picked up extra stitches along the side of the toe. When I got to the side of the sole I used the method described above. As I went along I stuffed the cavity between the new and old soles with cut up roving (roving is unspun yarn). The majority of time yesterday was devoted to this project. I finished by 9 p.m. (having taken out time to have a hair cut, buy groceries and go out for lunch).
It looks like a sock with a foot in it!
When he tried it on he asked, Will it compact a bit? Probably, with some wearing and washing. But what a lovely new sole for this sock!
Next week I'll try to do up the other sock of this pair. It's still a LOT less effort and time compared to knitting a whole new pair!
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