Good morning, DMV! It’s Thursday, May 21.
I wrote last week about my darned socks and clothes, and readers sent me a few questions.
My socks I’ve mended the most, with my darning kit. (Alisa Tang)
Q: Don’t the sock patches feel lumpy inside your shoes?
A: No, they don’t. They surprisingly feel quite flat. The only mended parts I feel are those at the balls of my feet, and they don’t feel lumpy, just palpable when I first put my socks on.
Q: Are you using sock yarn for the mending? It comes in so many colors and is really strong as it's wool with some nylon.
A: I haven’t tried using sock yarn yet. My husband bought me a mending kit that included a lot of embroidery floss, so I’m just trying to get through that first. That said, I do have a few skeins of hand-dyed merino/nylon blend yarn that I plan to knit into socks. I’ve knit about five pair and gifted them all. After I finish a few more tank tops, I’ll start on socks again.
The darning mushroom inside a sock that needs mending. (Alisa Tang)
Q: Do you find the spots you've repaired rub blisters?
A: Nope — not yet anyway.
I did another repair last night on my favorite dark blue socks.
The part on the right is the newly mended section. The photo looks quite orange because I took it at dusk yesterday by lamplight. (Alisa Tang)
And lastly — a reader writes: “If you host a mending socks workshop, I’ll be there!”
My question: If I plan a workshop (with someone who has more expertise in this area than I do), would you join?
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📰 News around the DMV
The 51st’s D.C. voter guide (The 51st)
📷 Your joy
(Tom Des Jardins)
Tom Des Jardins sent this photo he took Sunday of his jacket and his dog, Mulligan.
“This is my 20 year old Barbour jacket … much mended and our 8 year old Chocolate lab,” Tom wrote in his submission. “He is from Maryland and we are from Alexandria VA. It was taken … in our home in Wetherby, UK which is between Leeds and Harrogate. We moved to the UK for work just before Covid and enjoy the Yorkshire countryside.”
A few other readers sent photos of their mended items.
Merino wool socks that have been mended several times. (Phoebe Smith)
Slippers mended with grippy socks from an outpatient procedure. (Lynn Bufka)
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