Darning socks

We've just had the pleasure of a visit from my grandmother for a few days. She took the 6-hour train ride without my grandfather for the first time and handled it very well. She's not one to be knocked down by hardship, although she can be a bit careful about new things.

This evening, we sat together, my sister doing a cross-word puzzle, my mother playing the piano, my grandmother darning some of my socks and me working on my tunesian knitting skills. I'm really grateful that she can be bothered to darn my socks. I do it myself sometimes, but it's generally not something I get very excited about, kind of like weaving in ends. So I was very happy when she also volunteered to help weave in the ends of the granny square blanket in progress!!

You might wonder why we even bother to darn our socks instead of just throwing them out. The thing is, it feels terribly wasteful to throw something as great as a woollen sock out simply because it has a small piece missing! I have a great love for all of my woollen socks, but especially the ones made for me by my grandmother; they will be darned until there is nothing left!

My grandmother used to knit because she had to; the only way for her three girls to have knitted sweaters was for her to knit them. In the 1950s and 60s you could buy ready-made clothes, but they were extremely expensive. Coats weren't so easy to make at home, so my grandparents bought them, but even a child's jacket cost a month's wages. So now, my grandmother only ever knits for fun and to relax, and therefore prefers to knit woollen socks for the family. We absolutely love them - I even have a cousin who, when she was younger, used to wear them during the summer! I'll be showing off some of my fantastic stripey socks very soon, so look forward to it!

A few other interesting things in my world of handmade: I have just learned to do Tunesian crochet and I just love the structure that it creates! It has a very carpet-like feel to it, and the result is quite a stiff piece of fabric. Tunesian crochet is a funny hybrid of knitting and crochet, you might say; you work it on a crochet hook, but go back and forth without turning your work, casting on new stitches when going from right to left, and crocheting them when going left to right.

The other new texture in my life is waffle-crochet, as my mother calls it. She made a hat and scarf for her baby sister when she herself was quite young, using this particular pattern of crochet. She tried to recreate it so I could see the technique - she doesn't remember it precisely, but it was something like this:

I think this pattern might have great potential, so we'll keep working on it until we get it right.

Coming up soon will be some more family blankets, fantastic socks and then I think it might be time to show you some of the projects I've been working on.