How to darn your socks.

 I have learned that knowing how to darn a pair of socks actually isn't common knowledge.

It was passed on to me by my grandmothers 

I don't think they learn it at school anymore. Here in Norway it's red listed as a skill that is in danger of disappearing 

In hop that some of you might want to learn this skill I have made a little tutorial. 

Here is what you need. 

A blend yarn with nylon or darning thread. 

Why you want to use a blend yarn is because pure wool is not so strong and will tear faster than a blended yarn. Socks 🧦 get a lot of wear especially on the heels and toes. 

If you don't have a blended yarn you can use a sewing thread 🧵 together with your wool yarn. This is also a good tip when you are knitting socks to put in a sewing thread together with your sockyarn when knitting the heel. 

You also will need a needle if you have home knitted socks use a darning needle. I didn't and used a longer and smaller needle. 

It's helpful with a darning mushroom 🍄 but you don't need one. There are a lot of other things you can use instead 

I like the orange as you can eat it when you are done 👍 🔝 

You start with creating a base with running stitches. If you don't know running stitch it's just up and down 

Here I have come all the way to the hole. 

There you need to just make the stitch all the way over the hole to the other side and stitch on the other side of the hole. 

Now I have covered the whole thing and the base is ready. If you like you can continue with the same colour thread. I used to diffent as it will be easier for you to see. 

Now it's time to work the other way. Still the same stitching up and down. When you get to the long threads covering the whole, you must weave up and down on thead over the needle on under all the way. Make sure you do opposite one your way back, under the thread you weaved over last row and over the thread you went under 

And you keep going until you have covered the entire hole and the rest of the stitches 

Congratulations you have managed to darn your socks 🧦 

Want to learn more about darning? 

You can listen to the Podcast from Seworganisedstyle

There I'm talking about darning and mending with Maria  

Want more mending inspiration follow our mending community Mendingmayhem

More hearts 💕 and a bit of mending

I hope you are having a lovely Easter 🌷 🐣 🌷
I have made some more hearts 💕
I crochet a few from a Pattern I found on Pinterest.

 Me and Suzie  have launched an initiative to make, create, spot, and search for 2020 hearts - to symbolise hope in 2020.   Over at our mending community Mendingmayhem at Instagram.

They can be sewn, painted, knitted, drawn in the sand, crocheted, chalked on the pavement, found in the shape of a stone or a leaf - a shadow, a cloud!

When you start looking for hope you find it everywhere, and you can make your own too!

So please will you join us in spreading hope during this crazy year? 

Share your hearts by tagging #2020heartsforhope and please tag #mendingmayhem too.

Feel free to share this initiative.
So if you are on Instagram please join us to raise hearts.

Since the weather got warmer our snow chicken melted. I still wanted to share some hearts with people passing by so I made two hearts out of some branches and put some solar light on them. I'm really pleased with how they turned out

I finally found time to replace a fabric with holes on a friend's pillow. I hope he likes the cadillac.

I also had to repair my hubby's denim jacket, it's very much worn and it got a lot of holes since last time I mended it.
First I machine darned the holes but I didn't think it looked so good and made elbow patch.

My hubby is definitely over the mend my clothes invisible 😜 as he also wanted an embroidery on the back.

Wishing you a lovely Friday
Stay safe and well
Katrine 🌼 💚

I'm marching on with Mendmarch

If you read my previous post you know I'm joining the Instagram challeng mendmarch.
It's a fun challenge hosted by  Kate @visiblemend who have listed fun prompts for the 31 days of March.
It's also very satisfying to meet up with other menders and of course to get a lot of mending done 👍

Since the last time I have darned a pair of well worn bought wool socks 🧦 for the prompt holey

 I usually tossed bought socks when they got a hole 🕳 as they usually just keep getting new ones when they came to that stage. Averagely they lasted a year
This pair has now lasted 2,5 years. That is quite a difference don't you think?
As I always have left over yarn from sock knitting, it doesn't cost me any thing but time. Darning is kind of meditating as well.
My assistant is being very helpful 😆

For the prompt wooly I mended a hole in a woolen shirt.
I'm always happy to have wool clothes as they keep you warm even if you get wet and they don't smell so bad as for example cotton or microfiber underwear, and yes I am a frozen person 🤣

Wool underwear is also very expensive and so it's very much worth mending.
Here I used a bit of felt fabric. A little lace flower from my stash and some beads from my jewellery making days.
I darned the hole first and sewed on the decorated heart after with some golden thread.

My sister wanted me to fix her dress 👗.
That was really lucky as I didn't have anything for the prompt dress.

The splits in the side of the dress was way to big and it had a hole in the hem and it was just very boring. Cold I fix it?
Sure I could.
I decided to crochet the split together and adding a crochet lace to the hem. It would cover the whole, making the hem a better heavier will make the dress fall better. And not being so boring 💤
To make sure it wasn't a tiny bit boring anymore I added a crochet lace to the neckline and added a little heart pendant to it.
I used running stitch around the split and hem and crochet in the stitches.
 This is also called crochethacking.
You can find a lot of inspiration from Emma over at Instagram.

 And my assistant is still eager to help out 😊🐶
She even started on her own the other day 👍🐕finding a sock 🧦 in need of reinforcing and a yarn.

And I discovered it before she made a mess 😂 and I was really supposed to use this socks for the prompt confess, as it's actually the only pair I have knitted for myself and I wanted to mend them with duplicate stitch.I am not enjoying duplicate stitch but I didn't make tommuch mess either. 👍

Confession time

Kate was afraid I wouldn't have any thing to confess for today's prompt in #mendmarch 🤣🤣🤣 she should have known better... I always have something I can confess to if I want... 🤣 🤣 🤣
So I confess
✅To buying this lousy fast fashion winter coat a few years back.

It's the worst jacket I have ever owned.
✅ To not have bothered to replace the zipper 🤐for over 2 years. I just used the snap buttons instead
✅ To not care very much how I patch this coat together.
✅To have made a hole 🕳 when removing the zipper because I plan to put in a new one but never bothered.

✅To just have Zigzagging sloppy over the hol and with what ever color was in the sewing machine

✅To just using this coat when I do something just outside our house and maybe to the mail box once in a while 🙄😜
Though being a cheap fast fashion coat it's very giving coat.
It gives new opportunities for mending all the time.

Seams break all the time. I have mended the most of the lining seams including pocket lining. The fabric is fragile and it tears very easily. Zipper broke very fast.
✅Over all I think it is my worst purchase ever.
First patch was from mendmarch 2018 it's the black and orange with the Eagle 🦅


Have a lovely weekend ♥️
Katrine 🌼 💚

Mend March

Good morning 🌷💚🌷
I'm joining Kate @visiblemend for mendmarch over at Instagram
It's a fun mending challenge and anyone can join in.
It's a great opportunity to meet other mending friends and get a lot of inspiration.

#mendmarch day 1.
Kate gave us the prompt slowly.
And this tablecloth have surly been a very slow process

Even my assistants wasn't very eager to help out after it was washed.
But very interested when I came home with it from the second hand store. [see video]

It was really in a very bad state and really quite ugly. But the crochet lace was just so beautiful 😍 I took it home anyway.

It was back in early May 2019 🤔😂🙊🙈

It went straight into a bucket of bleach as it was dirty, discoloured and something interesting I really didn't want to think about obviously had been interested in it.... 

So I stitched a few roses now and then over the holes in the fabric. But it was moving forward very slowly... 

But today I finally finished 👍😁😁

Did the last Roses 🌹🌹

And sewing a couple of stitches in the crochet lace. 

I keept the original darn as someone had cared so much about it earlier that they wanted to mend it. 

I learned to make those roses from my  friend Suzie. 

Didn't it just turn out beautifully? 

Day 2 of #mendmarch 

And today the prompt is needy. I had this winter overall in much need of some repair. 

I even though it needed a bit of feminine touch. 😆

Sleeves was beginning to show a bit of tear. Back pocket velcro needed replacing. 

Front pocket was frayed. 

And the arm pit was in need of some ladder stitch. The other armpit was done a while back. 

It's also time for Monday mending hosted by our friend Evelyn @evelyn_wood

I have started a pair of socks for the book I bought last week 👍
I had some time to knit 🧶 when we were on a car trip.

My hubby seemed to need a new hat so I crochet him one

Have a lovely new week friends 🌷💚🌷
Katrine 🌼 💚

Naughty dog 🐶

Someone have been very naughty during the weekend....
Her highness 👑 🐶 didn't seem to appreciate the collar I fixed for her.
The first thing she did was to roll herself in some smelly 💩💩💩🙊🤬
That involved a shower and a serious cleaning of the collar...
I can tell you she was not a happy puppy 🐶

Then someone had left their slippers in a place that her highness could reach...
She is a dog after wool and will steal anything she can get her paws 🐾 on...
I can never leave any knitting or crochet with wool out or she will take it. Not to mention skeins of yarn...
I don't know how many she actually have ruined but it is a few over the years...
Not to mention crochet hooks and knitting needles and even glasses 👓...

Strangely enough she will mostly leave cotton yarn alone and crochet hooks and knitting needles aren't that interesting any more.

This time she managed to eat of the needle felted dog, so lucky as it was a easy fix.

It was so lovely and spring weather before the weekend. I even found snowdrops.
But now we got quite a bit of snow

Have a lovely day
Katrine 🌼 💚