Thursday, June 5, 2008

A Sock in Time

In response to questions on the last post, yes, I darned the sock. Promptly. A handknit gift is too precious to let go without at least an attempt at a repair! Here's the mended sock on foot with the darning egg I inherited from DH's grandmother.

Darned sock

Although I just noticed it, the hole was big enough to require woven darning, plus a patch of duplicate stitching, aka Swiss darning. (Why do sock terms have nationalities, at least in English?) The mended area feels very different to my fingers, but not to my foot.

These reminders of impermanence – sock and egg – and all the perky Summer of Socks chatter on Ravelry ("I'm making ABCDE... XYZ socks!" "I made my own kits!" "I'm finishing all my current projects!"ad naus) gave me so much sock agita that I finished two socks that had been languishing, Scar and Fawkes. Gah. Interior monologue, with attempted perkiness: They're a pair equivalent! No, not really. Ah well, at least I have two sets of dpns free for the June 21 start of SoS.

Pair equivalent

Today's New York Times has an excellent article on the trauma of dealingBun Bun with garden pests, "Peter Rabbit Must Die." I praise its verisimilitude and fault it only for mentioning Disney stars but neglecting the Warner Bros. masterpiece, What's Opera, Doc?, familiarly known as Kill the Wabbit. I've been known to sing a chorus or two, to the tune of The Ride of the Valkyries, not the heavy metal version. (Photo credit: Bunbun created by Michelle and copied from Lolcats.)

Allison at Simply Socks Yarn Company is having a third anniversary contest. Go give her good wishes and some market research for a chance to win yummy prizes.

7 comments:

Kaye said...

Ha ha! Kudos to them for citing the pesky Juneau porcupines. Those buggers used to scare the crap out of me walking to class int he woods--they make just enough rustling noise that you think they're bears!

Is that the same colored yarn you used to darn? I knew there was a reason I was holding on to those little scraps of yarn.

Anonymous said...

Good for you for darning. I agree that handknits deserve such treatment but am personally abysmal at mending.

craftivore said...

Nice work with the darning! Love the flying bunny. I was a bit disturbed by the woman in the NYT article who was drowning squirrels.

Amanda said...

Wow I had not read the NYT article but now I have to go over there and read it. I cannot believe someone actually was drowning squirrels.

I have to give you props,on repairing your sock. I have never been able to do that myself and end up getting to frustrated and will just leave as is until it completely falls apart. :)

Amanda
(Amanda's Weekly Zen)

Kim said...

I love the Kill Da Wabbit! Years ago when I went to my first NY Philharmonic concert, the music reminded me of Bugs Bunny episodes. Nice socks too. I'm very impressed with your darning skills. You might want to thin about teaching a darning class.

T. said...

Just wanted to say "hey" - looking forward to the TdFKAL and checking out your progress.

Darcys Knotty Knitter said...

Thankyou for visiting my blog and entering the drawing:)I knit a pair of socks for my hubby and when I washed them all the ends I weaved in came out and they are so short Iam not sure how to fix them and hubby is sad he doesnt have his socks any advice on how to fix them would be greatly appreciated:)I found your blog to be lovely and informative;)Hugs Darcy