In days of yore when socks developed holes on the bottom, they weren’t just discarded. One employed the use of a darning egg to mend the hole and breathe new life into the socks. Along came the mass production of cheap socks and it no longer seemed like a good use of time, resources and labor to mend them. I remember my mother owning a beautiful darning egg made of wood that had been stained and finished. It even had a handle to hold it by. Perhaps there was a day in those early frugal years of marriage in which she needed to darn socks, but I never saw her use it.
By some strange happenstance, I own two darning eggs. Darned if I know where they came from or why I have them. I love wooden things, so I have kept them, more as decor in my craft room than anything else. By another strange happenstance, I have knitted four pairs of socks for myself. It is strange because when I first began knitting and observed a friend knitting socks, I thought it was a ridiculous waste of time. “Why would anyone spend so much time knitting socks when they’re so cheap to buy?” I kept that thought to myself, of course. In addition, I’m not that fond of the feel of wool on my skin. Too itchy. It required a major plot twist to bring me around to knitting four pairs of wool socks to wear – didn’t see that coming.
So here I am with these four lovely pairs of socks that I invested time, resources and labor to make and I love how they warm my feet (with no itchiness whatsoever). When one of the pair developed holes on the bottoms of both socks, the glory of the darning egg was made manifest. I did a little YouTube research and made my first attempt. Since they are knitted socks, it’s actually possible to pick up and knit over the damaged heel so that it looks as nice as when it was new. To quote one of the sages of our times, “Ain’t nobody got time for that!” No, give me the simple and quick route of creating a simple weaving on the heel of the sock.
It looks rather messy, but if I can keep wearing the socks, I don’t care. I can’t pick up another pair of these at Walmart for $2.00.
I’ll be weaving new words to replace the holes in this post in the morning.
Lynniebeemuseoday 
they look like darning footballs to me.
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Anonymous, is your name T. Brady by any chance?
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Loved this post, Lynn. I have my mom’s wooden darning egg….with a handle, and I have used it over the years, not so much anymore, but I like it enough to keep it.
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Too bad I didn’t keep the one my mom had!
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