Not everyone in your life is knitworthy. It’s a lesson we makers sometimes learn the hard way. But, finding those people who really appreciate receiving a handmade gift is beyond measure. My cousins’ kiddos are among the most knit-worthy people in my life. I’ve been making handknits for my “tiny cousins,” as I call them, ever since the first was one month old. (None are very tiny anymore.) Last June, the youngest tiny cousin approached me with a request: could I repair (that’s right — repair, not replace) his handmade socks?
Keeping my face as neutral as possible, I examined the damage. Honestly, I was awed that he was still wearing them! Certainly, they couldn’t possibly still fit; Tiny Cousin No. 3 was almost 10 years old, and I had gifted these socks at least 3.5 years ago. Once I had the socks in hand, it was evident they no longer fit, partly because of the extreme wear patterns. The bottoms of both toes were completely shredded, almost down to the instep. One heel was equally hole-ridden, and the other positively threadbare. These socks couldn’t be saved by darning. If I were going to salvage them at all, the only solution was surgery.
That’s right, I needed to cut out the problem areas. While slightly terrified to do it, I also knew I had nothing to lose. A mangled repair was no worse than no repair attempt at all, and possibly better. As a knitter, I’ve always been motivated to try hard things when it felt like more was on the line, and making a soon-to-be 10-year-old happy was extremely motivating.
I made a plan: first, I would buy yarn that complemented the original, since finding an exact match for a well-loved, often-washed, hand-dyed yarn wasn’t going to happen. Then I would begin removing the problem areas. I would cut out the holey heel, and if replacing it went well, I would cut out the threadbare one, too. If the attempt went poorly or was unnecessarily challenging, I would patch-repair the second heel instead. Then I would cut off the toes and replace them with new ones.
Weave in the ends, and presto! I’d hopefully have good-as-new socks. So I put my plan into action.
What happened was that before cutting out the heel, I slipped my DPNs into what I believed would be the “live” stitches after the big snip. Then, I took a leap of faith and cut my knitting. With the help of super-sharp tiny snips, the stitches came free with no issue. I picked out the extra yarn and counted my stitches to ensure I had an equal number divided evenly around.
Next, I began to knit. Using the afterthought heel technique in Susan B. Anderson’s Smooth Operator Socks, I closed the gap.
With the heel safely in place, I could move on to step 2: replacing the toe and increasing the length. Following my plan for the toe, I slipped my small-circumference circular into a row of live stitches just slightly before the damaged area. Once I snipped, I picked back the excess yarn to leave a tail, since I would need something to weave in at the end to prevent more holes. I added a beginning-of-round marker and started knitting. I tried to line the stitches up as best I could with the midpoint of the foot, where the toe shaping would start. However, an exact alignment truly didn’t matter as long as I knew approximately where those midpoints were, so I could make the transition to the toe as simple as possible.
I repeated these steps on the second sock, ultimately choosing to replace the second heel rather than patch it. The cutting was much less scary after a couple of rounds, and it was evident that the socks were so well-loved that even a patch might not last very long — and I want these to last as long as possible!
After a couple of months of problem-solving and knitting, I returned the socks to the now 10-year-old recipient, along with a brand new pair of sparkle socks, so he could rotate between the two pairs. (He’s already requested a third pair!)
With the first project for this column finally complete, I can finally move to the next project in my knitting queue of unfinished business!
Yarn used: Miss Babs Estrellita (acquired at fibre space’s annual trunk show!) and Miss Babs Yummy 2-Ply Toes
