How to Fix a Worn Heel in a Sock

Knit socks are a thing of beauty, and a thing that’s meant to be worn and enjoyed. But socks are under a lot of pressure, particularly in the heel and toe areas, so the odds are good if your socks have been well loved and well used for a long period of time, they’re going to get worn spots.

With store-bought socks, we’d probably just throw them away and buy new ones, but who could bear to do that to a knit sock? Not me. So it pays to know a little bit about hoe to repair socks and even tear out and reknit sections of worn socks if need be to get them back in good wearing order.

Jennifer at Tinking Turtle has a great tutorial on replacing an afterthought heel in a pair of socks. Yes, it involves cutting the knitting, ripping out the old heel, picking up stitches and working a new heel in its place. And all of that sounds kind of scary, but her big pictures and calm language should reassure you that this is a great way to go.

Have you ever had to repair a pair of knit socks? I’d love to hear what you did!

[Photo via Tinking Turtle.]

Next Pattern:

I can’t resist a pattern that’s both useful and a little silly, and that’s exactly how I feel about the Rybka pouch pattern from the delightfully named Rat and Sea Witch.

I know you’re going to ask, because I did, too. Rybka means little fish in Polish. (And because you’re also probably going to ask, Rat and Sea Witch comes from people’s attempts to say the designer’s name, Ratasiewicz, which if you say it fast kind of sounds like rat and sea witch.)

It’s easy to make a little fish bag in different sizes to suit your needs. The pattern has specific instructions for an Airpods Pro case and a pencil case, but you could change the length easily to hold more stuff, and change the size in general by working with a different weight of yarn.

The pattern calls for sock yarn and mohair held together to make a fingering weight gauge, but you could try it with heavier yarn and see what size bag you end up with.

Whatever size you make it, this looks like a fun project for holding trinkets or everyday items. The mouth of the fish is the mouth of the bag, and it closes with a drawstring that is also the strap. I wonder, too, if you could make one of these with a small clasp frame that could be the fish’s mouth and then you could just work I cord straps that would attach to the sides of the fish.

I could also see stripes, or fish of different colors to use up your yarn leftovers. How about a sunglasses case with a little loop to attach to your bag? Once you start thinking about all the ways you could use a fish-shaped bag in your life, I think you’ll see that you probably need more than one.

If you make one of these I would love to know how it went!

You can grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Rat and Sea Witch]

Next Pattern:

Have you read?