darn

Today I did something I've never done before.

Last year—I'm pretty sure for my birthday—in the middle of the hottest summer the UK had experienced for years, my parents-in-law David and Jenny gave me possum and merino wool gloves for my birthday. At the time, they didn't make a whole lot of local sense, but I've sure appreciated them both winters. Last winter I developed a hole in the tip of the index finger on both gloves. I've been nursing them carefully since, making sure not to extend the hole, with the plan to eventually fix them. About a month ago I even visited our local department store, Elys, and extracted from them black darning wool and their minimum packet of about ten darning needles... (Lifetime supply?) Total cost: c. £1.50.

Today, in a fit of productivity during a break from playing, I reduced a box of papers to a little filing and a lot of recycling. To complete the occasion, I decided to finally fix my gloves. I had no idea how to darn things, though I'd heard of it and recall being vaguely aware of my Mum doing such things in the past. So as usual I turned to my ever ready teacher, the interweb. Typing “How to darn a glove” into Google immediately hit gold... a detailed, photographically illustrated guide to darning, even using the example of a glove.

Who knew how cunning darning was? I'd always presumed darning just involved criss-crossing a bit of wool about the place to pull the hole together. This guide opened my horizons! It was basically about using a needle to re-knit over the section with the hole. The heights of ingenuity. I gave it a go.

Admittedly, I wasn't able to follow all of the instructions... such as, “make sure you have your bifocals on”. But I did move to more light (twice). And that thread framework thing with the cotton is genuinely cunning, and ultimately worked really well, when I got the hang of it. I was genuinely impressed.

It's a fiddly and detailed job, with the original stitches on these commercially knitted gloves being small. But I was surprised with just how effective this was... I really have re-knitted a repair over the holes, and it's robust and not too obvious. The wool I used is not as soft as the merino and possum gloves, so that stands out, but the repair itself is pretty well seamless. I gleefully showed them round the flat and being honest I think I can say we were all surprised at how well I'd managed to get it to work. As a 30 year old male, I can't fully subscribe the author's final sentiments—"Sometimes you may feel like the women in stories and paintings prior to the 20th century..."—but there is a certain back-to-basics satisfaction about this. And since these gloves are an essential part of my survival here at the moment, it's a job I'll keep on appreciating.

Well darn. Who would have thought!

Back to work tomorrow for me...