That Darn Sock

A few weeks ago, I watched a sweet movie called Kit Kittredge: An American Girl.  The American Girl's company has done several movies based on their characters.  Of the three movies I've seen, Kit Kittredge is my favorite.  It's totally family friendly, lots of fun and sweet.  The actors in it are great.  If you have Netflix, I highly recommend it.

The movie takes place during the 1930's and the Great Depression.  Kit's mom talks about how hard they work to save everything, repair everything and reuse everything.  I thought about how wasteful my life tends to be.  So, I decided to do something my female ancestors have done for years: darn socks.

My oldest son puts holes in his socks like you wouldn't believe.  While doing his laundry several weeks ago, I noticed how every single pair of socks had at least one hole.  I'm buying him new socks often.  Well, I'm tired of buying socks.  Most of the holes were quite small and if I fixed them, they wouldn't get bigger.  I've probably repaired 10 socks in the last few weeks.  That is almost equal to one package of socks.  Most 6 pack of socks are $7- $10.

These socks I just fixed today.  I must have darned 7 holes in just these four socks.  (By the way, the socks are clean, but we live in a desert filled with orange dirt, so the socks tend to turn orange too.)

 A close up of what the darning looks like.  The first sock I darned, see below, I used red yarn.  It really doesn't matter what color you use when the hole is on the bottom of the sock.  That part is in the shoe and isn't seen.  However, I have more of the white yarn, so that's what I'm using now. 

To darn a sock, you need a larger darning needle and what is called a darning mushroom.  I don't have a darning mushroom, but necessity is the mother of invention and so I use a large plastic Easter egg.  It works perfectly!  I think I'll have to do a separate blog entry to show just how to darn a sock.

So, all this comes down to: I'm repairing and reusing something that is still 90% good.  I fixed the holes and the socks are wearable again.  I asked my son if the repair yarn in his socks bothered him at all and he said no.  I have learned a new (yet old) skill and I'm saving my family a bit of money.  Not bad.  Not bad at all.