You get a great deal of satisfaction...

[martelvonc]

when you can knit a pair of socks and then are able to repair a hole in the heel so they can continue to be worn. (this morning saw me darning a hole in the heel of the very first pair of socks I knit)

I have learned a new appreciation for why medieval people did not have a lot of clothing.
Everything-
*from growing the flax or sheep,
*to processing the fiber,
*to spinning and weaving the fiber in cloth,
*to acquiring the cloth if you did not make it yourself,
*to hand sewing the garment
takes SO LONG.

Forget the cost, forget the sumptuary laws, making clothing by hand is SLOW work. You just cannot make oodles of clothing and have time for all the other things that were done by hand with no electricity or gas engines. Folks in the middle ages probably did not feel badly about this because it was what it was. They had no other method of work to compare to like we do today. To clothe a family of four by hand was a never ending process. Then add in the time for repairs to existing clothing. This does not include time for decorative needlework. Modern people do not have a clue with our bulk machine made garments. We run out and there it is on a rack.

Comments

[martelvonc.livejournal.com]

I've been using the weaving method because I only had one pair of knit socks to repair, the rest are all woven linen. You get going with the darning and just keep going! :-)

As I type I'm in the middle of darning the toes of a pair of green linen hosen.

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

the weave style darning works best on big holes. the "duplicate stitch" darning doesnt work as well unless you are able to do extremely good visualization of "where the stitches were"

[martelvonc.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately I was lax in my repairs and I had worn a hole the size of a quarter on the bottom of the heel.

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

some of my socks went from "maybe a trifle worn" to hole big as a quarter overnight... so its not always laxity.

[martelvonc.livejournal.com]

It is when you've been able to see skin through the thin spot for weeks and was in denial! lol!

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

looks at asocks. scooches them down so the thin spots dont show...
naaaah....:-p