No, I haven’t pricked myself with a needle (again). It’s not that kind of darning. This is the type of darning you do to socks.
When there’s a hole in one, not when you can’t find the match.
Anyway, with store-bought socks fairly inexpensive, darning has fallen out of common usage for most of us. But if you’ve ever worn a hole in a pair of hand-knit socks or found a moth-hole in your favorite sweater, darning might just be the skill that keeps those items from the rag pile.
It’s a visual process, and this video from Greenfibres shows the process very well:
Those darning mushrooms always reminded me of the bulb syringes Mom would use on my brothers’ runny noses. In fact, if you’ve got one of those around or anything fairly round and sturdy, I’m sure it would take the place of the turned wood variety, at least while you’re learning.
I’ve always wanted to learn how to knit! Thanks for the Christmas card–it was so sweet! 🙂