A re post in honour of zero waste week:
This sock should not have needed darning, because it should never have been knitted! I was entranced with the yarn and thought I might get away with it as this had a variety of fibres in the variegation…but no, it became an ankle warmer the other day 
Lesson learned: sock yarn!
always ALWAYS always use sock yarn when knitting socks…and darning the holes in previous aberrations, sigh..
and buying socks is fraught with disappointment! 2 washes and these alpaca slipper socks had potatoes on the heels, gggrrr…but I have a LOT of pretty sock yarn so I thought I’d make a feature of the darns…Eleanor of Knit Nottingham fame was outraged at this waste of regia, whereas I felt it made the job more fun, and the darns show as i wear these socks with crocs (omg!!! the fashion police reach for their charge books, while the disabled nod and say, aah, the anti-slip technique…)
Anyway, this gives me the prod to do a mini tutorial: darning socks
tools: darning mushroom or smallish tin or tennis ball if you are darning bigfoot’s toe cosies
darning needle: large blunt needle with big eye/tapestry needle/bodkin
yarn of choice: super smooth darning demands 1 or 2ply yarn, but if you are in a hurry 4ply is fine, match or contrast according to taste and remnants 
-place the mushroom behind the hole
-weave first thread in and out of yarn 2 rows in from the hole
-keep going backwards and forwards, and as you cross the hole, if there are any original threads left, try and weave through them
-continue to two rows after the hole
-now turn sock round by a quarter so you are stitching at right angles to your rows
-weave in and out the lines of yarn, as close as you can to the previous row, till you reach the other side
-remove mushroom and stretch the darn with your fingers from the inside: can you see a lot of gaps? these will HURT when you walk!
-put the mushroom back and weave extra rows through to make the weave more solid and tighter, I often strike through at an angle or make a spiral at this point as I was taught this strengthens the darn
- does it feel and look solid but not clumpy? job done!!
Because a favourite pair of socks is worth repairing, whether hand knitted or not.
It is a very enjoyable task when you are only doing 2 or 3, though in the old days, darning for a big family might have been a bit dull… but even then, I think a lot of people found it satisfying. I remember reading one of the Antarctic exploration teams had competitions for the best darns and of course it is the root of most embroidery stitches in countless traditions round the globe.
