Darning is an old sewing skill that can be brought back into play to help save money. It can be used for many purposes other than fixing a hole in a sock; it can repair torn knees in pants, fix a hole in a nice wool coat, repair an heirloom tablecloth that gets used for holidays. The term "reweaving" is also used in reference to repair a hole in a woven fabric.

In darning a sock, you can use an embroidery needle and embroidery floss to match the color of the sock. A light bulb can be used if you don't have a darning egg (that pear shaped wood thing with a handle that used to be in every sewing basket.) Put the light buld or darning egg inside the sock, and stretch the sock where  the hole is over the rounded part.

The basic instructions for hand darning are: First of all - NO KNOTS.  Starting about 1/4 inch away from the hole, weave in and out several lines of stitching, when you get to the hole itself lay threads across the hole, anchoring them by weaving in the 1/4 inch area next to the hole, and turning to go back the other way. When you have thread laid across the hole one direction, then turn and weave in and out on the threads that were first laid down, going across. Anchor the end in the 1/4 inch area around the hole. The repaired hole will look loose at first, but with washing it will become as tight as the rest of the sock.

Darning can also be done on a sewing machine. I haven't done this, but I do remember seeing my mother do it on her zigzag machine, using a hoop made for this purpose that came with her Singer sewing machine. She would stitch over the hole first one way, then turn and stitch over the other direction. The instructions for doing this came with the special hoop. It was done much the same way as modern machine embroidery is done now. 

 Reweaving can be done at some dry cleaning places but is very expensive, as it is a time consuming skill that not many know how to do. Older sewing books usually have instructions on how to darn and how to reweave. Check out the library for a book that will give clear instructions for both darning and re-weaving.

I know that new socks don't cost that much but with the huge jump in prices of everything lately, and people trying to hold on to every penny, this is another thing that can be done to help save.  Edey

Edey, thanks for the lesson.  Darning's something I've always wondered how it's done.  I don't know that most of today's socks are worth darning, though, especially the cheap ones I buy, lol.  But I'd like to give it a try someday...

The book that we're talking about in another thread, "Little Heathens", gives this information about socks...  "When the hole was at the toe, mama would cut that part away, sew it up, and that sock would then belong to the next-smallest child.  It would continually be repaired in that way until it was down to the cuff.  Then the cuff would be sewn into our coat sleeves to keep the snow off our wrists.  When the hole was at the heel, she would carefully darn it, but that could only be done so many times.  Whatever was left of the sock was either used for polishing rags for the floor or cut into 2" squares and clamped into a reusable mop handle designed for that purpose."  Very resourceful folk!  Liz

I darned a sock once, but wasn't very happy with the results.  But I think I used regular thread, not embroidery floss.  I will have to give it another go.  Almost all of my socks have a hole in the heel and I have not been able to find my kind of socks in stores anymore.  What happened to ankle-high terrycloth socks (sometimes called tennis socks)?  Everyone's gone to either tube socks or booties, and I'm WAY past the wearing of booties, no matter how in-fashion they might claim to be. 

Gigi:

I have darned socks using embroidery floss to match.

I always use embroidery thread on lightweight socks because you can separate it to the weight you need and because there are so many colors, it's easy to match up. For socks I knit, though, I try to keep a little matching yarn to darn them when needed. 

I remember Mom teaching us to darn socks when we were young.  I have two or maybe three of the darning eggs, which I bought at antique or thrift stores/flea markets.  It's not a hard task by any means, and is a good thing to keep in a basket to pick up if you have the TV on, or near the washer when there are 9 minutes to go after re-balancing a load.  :-)  We would call these minute jobs, as they took a few minutes to do.

Good ideas for when the darn sock has just had it! 

my dh wears out the whole heel at once with his tube socks. maybe I should do the tightwad gazette method!

I knit socks quite often because it's a quick project, some of it mindless so my mind can drift off, but with enough challenge to not be boring.

Gigi:

Currently, I have well loved shoes that I am hoping will accommodate the hand knit sock

I hope you get to wear your socks.