Sock Darning: How to Darn Your Socks

I always have mixed feelings about spending time darning socks, but favourite things are always worth mending, even if the repairs will be on the soles of the feet. This pair of cashmere socks are so cozy in Winter when I want a bit of extra comfort that I wanted to save them when they started wearing through.

I haven’t quite managed to take photos of every step from beginning to end, but I have captured the socks in different states of repair. The toes had worn in patches, the balls of the feet were worn down to the nylon and even worn through in one spot, and the heels were badly worn too.

This has been a train project for me, worked on long train journeys when I was in the mood (because I didn’t feel I could justify spending this time on them when I could have been doing something else). I started darning these socks in June last year I think, and have only just finished them- nothing like having some extra time due to coronavirus to finally get things finished!

I darned the toes first, then the balls of the feel and left the heels to last. Heels are my least favourite bit, as keeping the shape of the heel makes it a bit more complicated. Sock heels are also the only time I really use a darning mushroom- much as I love them as objects, I don’t normally use them when I’m mending.

Darning these socks have been a real labour of love, and they’ve taken many, many hours. I estimate serval days worth of work have gone into them! From now on they’ll be bed socks only I think!

If you’d like to learn how to darn, I have created several visible mending guides, and regularly run online visible mending workshops.