My husband and I both love our wool sweaters an socks, and it was inevitable that at some point I must learn what felt like the very daunting skill of darning. But really it's not that bad. I first came across Swiss darning in an old needle-craft book. It's the coolest kind! It practically recreates the original knitting stitch with a blunt needle and some yarn.
Last year I acquired some quality wool yarns intending to set myself down and get-er-done... but I didn't. 😏 With baby on the way, priorities shifted and the projects and yarn sat in my giant mending bag awaiting the time I'd finally bite the bullet and learn the useful skill.
This summer I pulled the bag back out and looked up Swiss darning on pinterest. I chose my husband's "chunkier" sweaters in need of darning for my first projects, because, well... I already tried to learn on a super-fine weight merino sweater of mine, and BOY is it hard to learn when you can barely see the stitches! A whole year off brought me to my senses and I started with the larger yarn size... and the larger holes.😬
After I darned one sweater with a CLOSE colored yarn, I felt like I had the idea down well enough to make the contrasting yarn look decent on his cream colored sweater. (What are his elbows made out of, sandpaper?) The second side didn't have a hole, but it was getting very thread-bare, so I darned in a patch over-top to match the other-side. That was SO much easier, folks! I'm gonna be examining the laundry for threadbare spots BEFORE they become holes now... a stitch in time truly saves "nine", or at least a lot of aggravation.
The sweaters under my belt, I went on to socks, a bit smaller stitches, but not needing to be perfect. After-all, it's under your feet and in shoes most of the time. 😊 Once again, thread-bare spots and small holes went fairly quickly and smoothly, boosting my confidence, but the large holes in the heels had me a bit confused and nervous at times as I tried to make heads or tales of the small stitches and the heel "turn", (or whatever it's called).
I'm pretty happy with how the first projects went. They're not perfect, and I have a lot of work to do to hone the skill, but with 9 pairs of socks and several more sweaters to go I should get plenty of practice! 😉
