Final Sock Remake
Finally done with remaking and repairing socks. Four pairs (one was too far gone to work on so I discarded it). Three pairs have been returned to their home. I’ll get this one back later in the week.
Now to return to making new socks. I have a good supply of yarn in the yarn stash – enough to keep me going for the next three-four months.
Restored this pair last evening. Straightforward heel replacement. No fussing. I was even able to come close to the original yarn I used for the heels.
Now working on pair #4 – another full foot replacement. That’ll take 4-5 days. Then back to new socks.
New Again – Sept 2017
5-6 hours later and here’s a new pair of socks – restored with new heels (Click here for the socks before I reknit the heels). If you’re a dedicated knitter and want to know how I do it check out my instructions.
Knitting a heel itself doesn’t take long – each heel takes about an hour – it’s all the preparation, picking up stitches on a carrier thread, carefully pulling out excess knitting (from the cut edge), and then finally grafting the instep onto the new heel (this last step requires slow careful stitching – done loose and then tightened just enough for an even finish, stitch by stitch).
Obviously replacing heels goes a lot faster than reknitting an entire foot – but I can only get away with this easier repair if the holes aren’t too big. If the worn heel includes some of the instep, I have to cut off everything, retaining just the legs and building a new sock from there.
I returned from Toronto with a couple of pair of worn out socks. One pair was beyond salvation. The holes in the foot and heel were too large to repair. I’ll save the legs and knit new feet, I thought, but there was so much lint embedded in the yarn I knew I’d never be able to restore the legs to a wearable condition. That pair got trashed.
The second pair, on the other hand, had possibilities: one sock had a hole in the toe and both heels were worn through, but the main part of the foot wasn’t worn too badly. So I cut out the heels and removed the cast-off toe portion of both socks and started to work. I knit new heels and toes and those socks are now just like new!
They’ll go in the mail In the next few days.
So it started out like this — the heels were worn (in the blue pair the wear extended into the instep). I’ve created a way of replacing heels so that was what I was planning on doing. I picked up stitches around the worn out heels, ran a holding thread through, cut out the worn part a short distance away from the holding thread, then removed the excess knitting until I reached the holding stitches.
The procedure then involves picking up the stitches at the leg edge of the heel, knitting a regular heel, then grafting back the instep to complete the sock. That worked on two pairs. Shaved the nubbies off the socks and they’re like new.
The blue pair required a bit more extensive surgery! I knit the heel and the gusset and was set to graft back the toe when I discovered the toes and underside of the foot were too threadbare to warrant using. So I continued knitting the entire foot. I scrounged around my leftover yarn but I had no variegated yarn to blend with the leg so I elected to finish the foot in a solid dark grey yarn.
These will now last another couple years of hard wear!
A week ago I was handed three pairs of socks in need of repair. Two pairs need new heels; the third needs new heels and instep.
What you see here are the socks with the damaged parts cut out and a yarn stitch-holder in place. It’s taken a couple of hours to do this prep work. I did two pairs last night; just finished setting up the more damaged pair. I don’t have leftover yarn that matches exactly but I can come close. So now all three pairs are ready for me to begin knitting.
Once the repairs are done the socks will get a good shaving to remove all the pills and they’ll be as good as new. I’m willing to do the repairs – takes a fraction of the time needed to knit a whole pair!
However before I start working on these socks I want to finish the pair I’m currently working on. It’ll be three-four days before I get to these.
jmn 