Darning egg inside holey sock.
Hand knitted socks are one of life’s small pleasures. Particularly if you have non-standard sized feet, wearing a sock that actually fits the way it is supposed to in a luxurious fiber to boot, is simply heaven. There comes a time in every sock’s life (commercially made or otherwise), however when a hole forms. With a cheap commercial sock it is easy to just toss it out, though some of the more frugal among us may try to sew up the hole. This invariably leaves a pucker in the fabric and makes ill-fitting socks even more uncomfortable. A hand knitted sock is not a commercial sock. A hand knitted sock has taken some soul hours and hours and thousands of stitches to construct. Even with all of this work, there are still those who ascribe to the Yarn Harlot method of standing over the trash and exclaiming ‘Darn Sock’ as one drops the poor knitted dears into the trash.
I cannot bring myself to do this. I am not a prolific knitter who owns a pair of socks for every day of the year, so my precious 7 pairs shall not be subjected to such harsh treatment until they are beyond salvation. Unfortunately, sock darning was not a skill that was taught to me in my early years. So armed with a darning egg, tapestry needle, leftover sock yarn, and my wounded sock I trolled the internet for a guide. What I found is that there are probably as many darning methods as there have been knitters in the world. Some are quite clever, while some I find are not much better than just sewing the hole shut. In this mini-series I will try to outline my favorite darning methods.
So check your closets for any knitwear that needs some freshening up. Find some matching yarn, a needle, and something to use as a darning egg. And old style halogen light bulb works pretty well, so do billiard balls. Part 2 will address how to repair knitwear that is still in the threadbare stage and not quite to the full-blown hole in the heel phase.
The holiday season has been a bit of a dud, I must admit. I am not a Scrooge and I have nothing against holidays in general (Valentine’s Day is by far my favorite), but I have been overcome with a sense of holiday apathy. I think this is because I live in France. On the whole, I love living in France. I am surrounded by mountains, but can also head to the lake in Geneva if I want. I am close to so many cultural gems and the wine and food are fantastic. The people are generally nice and becoming more fluent in my second language is a lifelong dream that I am getting to live every day.
I like living in France, but some things are just different from home. It all started over Halloween. Usually I love planning out costumes. I have sewn many an outfit, some without patterns, and love getting the details just right. I like seeing what costumes the trick-or-treaters come up with and going to the adult parties are always a blast. This year though we lived in France. There were no trick-or-treaters. There were no costumes and no adult party. Many of our friends were out-of-town, so an impromptu adult party was not even possible. So we skipped it.
Then Thanksgiving came. I was telling my mom about the logistics of getting a turkey in November in a country that does not celebrate Turkey Day and I realized while discussing this that I did not really care if we celebrated or not. It was just dinner right? I surely did not feel like cooking a feast if not necessary. Hum-bug indeed. Luckily our friends grabbed the torch and hosted a party. I did find a turkey and I did make stuffing. I did have an absolutely fabulous time at the party and am so glad that we went, but still. Christmas was coming.
Christmas in Europe, like the previous two holidays, is really different. Our little village has erected holiday lights. It snowed a picture perfect winter scene last week and you really couldn’t have asked for better. I was still on the fence about decorating the house or buying a tree. Why so much holiday ho-hum? I am attributing it to lack of holiday vomit over everything. The city lights are pretty. The snow is beautiful. A few stores are selling holiday decos or gift goodies and you can feel a hint of holiday spirit there, but then you walk into the main part of the mall and there is nothing. No lights. No carols. No Santa. There are a few new booths selling gifts, but with the lack of decos, carols, or any specific features, they might as well be selling gifts for Bastille Day. Very few stores are decorated and if they are it is more with twinkly lights and not the customary elves and reindeer that I am used to. No carols on the radio.No ads on TV. Not a single house in my village has lights or lawn decorations of any kind.
As much as the overblown American Holiday ‘you will listen to carols and LIKE IT!’ craziness drives me kabonkers sometimes, it may well serve to get me into the holiday spirit. I mean, the display in the NAF NAF window was certainly classy with its lack of cartoony clichés, but it was so different I think I just am not used to it yet. I did manage to de-Scrooge-ify myself. We have lights indoors, a real tree, and ornaments hung. I have a poinsettia centerpiece and I just might play some music at some point. I am really looking forward to the holidays with family in Belgium. I am sure it just takes some getting used to. These were our first holidays in a foreign country. Next year should also have the added excitement of an infant to share them with. And I shall be much more prepared to deal with the differences then.
Happy Holidays