Last Sunday I visited a friend and as I was leaving she handed my a shopping bag with six pairs of socks all needing new heels.

Now I should explain I’ve been knitting socks for her for over a decade and repairing them when she wears through the heels. I’ve got her to the point where she gives them to me for fixing before the holes are so big I can do nothing except cut off the whole foot and reknit a new one. (That’s still half the work of knitting a whole new pair!)

That was almost the situation with this pair. The holes were large enough that the sole further into the foot was weakened and all I could salvage were the toes. There the knitting was strong enough to reuse.

I did what I usually do when just replacing a heel – this time, however, I cut out more of the damaged sock. I knit a new heel, did the gusset, then added another five rows for good measure before grafting the toe back on.

Too bad I didn’t take a “before” picture.

Took me three evenings to repair this one pair of socks. This morning I shaved off the “pills” – they’re absolutely like new!

Just five more pairs to go.