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.
jmn 
Hi Judith, Lucky friend of yours to have you repair the socks to look like new!! Do you save the yarn from each pair so you have the right color? Pat
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Pat, I don’t keep the yarn from the original socks – in this case I was lucky and had a half a ball of the matching colour in my stash – if I’m just replacing heels I use something from my small ball stash that will blend with the sock. If I have to redo the entire foot – I use something (sometimes a variegated, sometimes a solid with bits of colour interspersed in stripes… I get bored knitting solid colours) that will work with the existing sock. I keep reminding myself that the foot is inside their shoes!