Darn socks

[antithiscully]

My husband is wearing through the heels of his socks very quickly. I've started darning them, and he's now wearing through the darns! Is there some sort of extra-strong way to darn or otherwise mend socks? I have some reinforcing nylon thread to run with whatever mending I do, but I don't want to bother if it's just gonna wear through again

Comments

[antithiscully]

Unfortunately, I only recently learned of reinforcing nylon, and these socks are the first and second pairs of socks I'd ever knitted, and they're both out of regular sport weight, not specific sock yarn. So I'll definitely be using only sock yarn from now on as well as nylon in at least the heels.

[onewomanshow]

I agree with the above. Knit with reinforcing nylon to begin with. You could also double the yarn on the heels along with the reinforcing nylon as well - double the yarn to get through. :)

[hugh_mannity]

Seconded, or thirded.

Also, why not knit the ,a href="http://www.socknitters.com/lessons/afterthoughtheels.htm">afterthought heel when knitting socks for him. Then instead of darning, you can re-knit the heel (in a contrasting colour if necessary -- the it becomes a Feature!) which I suspect will wear better than a darn. Also: I'd rather knit than darn.

Do his shoes fit well? because if they're slopping at the heel, that will increase the wear on the socks.

Another thing to consider is your gauge. A tight gauge gives a firm fabric and is much less susceptible to abrasion. I knit socks on either US #1 or US #0, getting about 9 st/in. At that gauge, my socks last quite a good while (I've got Regia and Opal socks that are 5 or 6 years old which look pretty much as good as new).

[antithiscully]

That's a really fascinating pattern & idea, thank you! I will try that with the next socks.

My gauge on those first pairs of socks was definitely much looser than it should've been, and I'm starting to realize that using the smaller needles is worth it in the end.

[hugh_mannity]

Yea, sorry about the busted HTML, but I'm glad the link works.

Smaller needles do make a difference with socks and although they do take a little longer to knit, the improved durability is worth it.

I love your icon BTW -- My cat would kill me if I got in one of her boxes (i.e. any box in the house!)

[neotoma]

It won't be much help now, but you could also knit the heels on a tighter gauge than the rest of the sock. Eye of partridge heel is supposed to help too -- probably by making the fabric denser than plain stockinette.

[sarakate]

The reinforcing nylon should definitely help the repairs to last longer; it's much less subject to abrasion. Also, inspect his socks regularly, as it's much easier to do a darn on a sock that's wearing thin but still has intact stitches than on one that's already got a hole.

For your future socks, knitting with a tight gauge helps, as does using a yarn that's got a significant content of nylon or mohair. Afterthought heels lend themselves to easy replacement; a short-row heel can also be clipped out and replaced with an afterthought heel in a fairly simple fashion (or if you don't mind half a row of grafting instead of just a few stitches, you can do a new short-row heel on half the stitches and graft it to the other half). If you're doing flap and gusset heels, and they're wearing out on the back, then either heel stitch or eye-of-partridge are supposed to be more durable; if they're wearing out underneath, you can continue the heel stitch or EOP through the heel turn, although it takes a little thinking to keep straight what you're

[torrain]

Coming here *very* late, but thought I would offer up an icon. >.>