Today’s Friday Find from the Sewing Cabinet is a darning egg…I think. It is 7 1/2″ long and 1 3/4″ diameter at the larger end.
The darning egg is made of wood and the end has little scratches that look like they could be made from a needle.
Now, here is the thing I learned about darning a hole. I used to think it just meant bringing the edges of a hole together and whip-stitching them shut. But I was wrong. Darning actually entails weaving new “fabric” to fill in the hole (and sometimes adding fabric to strengthen the newly woven piece). Click here to watch a video on how to darn a sock.
Unless they’re hand-knitted, it seems that people don’t really darn their socks and sweaters anymore because they are relatively inexpensive to replace.
What do you think? Am I correct that this is a darning egg? Do you still darn your socks and sweaters?
I think it is a darning egg too. The narrower end looks like it is meant for darning gloves. I’ve tried darning wool things by the weaving method but it always looks like a mess. Maybe more practice would help!
Ah! I bet you are right about the narrow end being for gloves. I hadn’t thought about that!
I remember Mother darning our “anklets” and my dad’s work socks. She taught me to darn and I darned my Peds, if you can believe it. I wouldn’t waste my effort on most of today’s socks, but I might if they were expensive or wool. When socks were wool and handmade, I think darning was important, but it seems to me that with today’s six-to-a-package socks, when they have holes, they are worn out in other ways.
I wouldn’t have recognized the glove darner end if I hadn’t read a thread on Ravelry (a knitting and crocheting community) where someone was looking for one.