Thursday 25 February 2010

VTT 7 - Darning

Yesterday I needed to darn a pair of technical sports socks for my Dear Mr. K. who has been so busy with pushing snow that there was a new hole in his sock. So of course I took my big box of darning things and tried to find a matching thread. This is what I saw:


My mother gave me the box when she found out that I actually darned socks, not just the hand knitted ones with the leftover yarn, but also other socks. The collection is from my grandmother, from the time when stockings were darned and nobody could even dream about nylons and panty hoses. Therefore I own lots of brown shades:



From the time of silk stockings!



Anyone remember these?


There were several manufacturers in town - Tampere, my home town, was for a long time the textile industry capital of Finland. Suomen Trikoo and Nanso were big names.



OK, Nanso was not in Tampere but in the neighbour, Nokia. And it still is a big name, for T-shirts and nightgowns and children's wear.



There were some smaller manufacturers as well, they all knitted the socks and provided the mending thread. Kesto means durability, and Amor is such a lovable name for grey stockings!

After the silk, wool and cotton came a new material for light summer socks and stockings, Crepe Nylon, the lovely, elastic synthetic material. One brand name was Helanca:



With time those socks turned hard and lost the elasticity. - Did I find what I was looking for? Yes, the last bit of some black thin wool yarn, and now DH can use his favourite socks again. He may well have ten pairs of all kinds of heavy use socks to use in boots, with high-tech qualities of moisture transportation, left and right foot design, snug fit and felt soles, but one pair is always the best, softest, warmest and coolest, so I better get some more darning thread for that pair!

This was my story for Vintage Thingies Thursday with the Coloradolady. Enjoy your tour through her list of links!


19 comments:

  1. Thanks for the textile tour Ulla, you have some real treasures in your collection of Finnish textile history.

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  2. Great post! It truly reminded us of times past...darning silk stockings!

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  3. I remember them and I even have some somewhere! But I confess I have never used them!

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  4. Love the original packaging. Funny how sometimes we have a favorite item, like socks, that we'll wear until it disentegrates instead of buying or wearing new.

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  5. Lovely! I've found some things like this at sales sometimes and usually they werent cared for well and smell bad :( No matter what I do they are moldy smelling and I can't fix it! I wish people cared for things like this...like you do :)

    Happy VTT!
    Tracy

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  6. I have never darned socks, but lately I have been wishing I had some darning supplies. My favorite socks are all getting holes, and I can't find any new ones of the type I like.

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  7. I remember my mom darning socks with a mushroom. I still have the mushroom and a bit of darning yarn but I do not darn socks.

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  8. I don't even know how to darn a sock - never mind a silk stocking. this reminds us of the thrift of our mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers.

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  9. Ulla you are so good. I would just bought him a par of new socks...

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  10. I do not intend to darn a single sock...however, I certainly enjoyed looking at all your darning supplies! How fun and different this post was! Happy VTT!

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  11. I used to darn hubbies white socks.
    You have some wonderful yarns here. You should display them in something.

    Debbie

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  12. That's a lovely story. Those yarn packets are so decorative especially the round zig-zag ones.

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  13. I have some darning eggs but no threads. And no skill at darning socks or stockings. Love all things needle art related. Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed the tour.

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  14. Those darning threads are really nice. You have a large variety of thread to choose from. I think it is great that you darn socks rather than tossing them out and buying new ones as most of us do.

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  15. I remember my mother darning my father's socks when I was very young, but never stockings!

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  16. Who knew there were so many types of darning thread! And I never heard of darning hose.

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  17. How wonderful that you have your grandmother's things.I can't sew a button on, but I love and as I look around ...apparently collect thread spools,button cards...very lovely.Thanks for sharing!

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  18. Oh, diese Stopfgarne kommen mir SEHR bekannt vor! Meine Schwiegermutter (96) benutzt sie heute noch. Ich bin allerdings nicht so "begabt" im Flicken, d.h. ich flicke so, dass es einfach wieder ganz ist ;-) !
    Liebe Grüsse,
    Barbara

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  19. I can't darn either... That's such a beautiful collection of thread! Lovely!

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