This workshop looks at the humble and everyday sock – and those pesky holes that strangle the toe and make our heels cold. We’ll start with slides looking at the earliest known sock, explore the odd intimacy of worn socks and some of my past projects with socks. We will then explore textile repair on socks – practicing a woven darn technique, with a variety of plain, twill and wrapped warps. At its heart the workshop considers the tenderness and care of mending. Why you might do it for yourself or some else.
Please bring along a sock with holes in or a sock you are happy to practice mending on. You will need a darning needle or sewing needle. A medium/large orange or a darning egg/mushroom. Scissors and wool yarns. No previous darning, knitting, needle based experience is necessary.
Date
Wednesday October 23rd, 2024
Time
12 – 2:30 pm ET
Location
Zoom, a link will be sent to participants the day before class
Cost
$65 for the individual class, $300 for the series
*All sessions will be recorded. A link to the recording will be emailed to all those who register following the live session. This link is live for one month after the end of the series for you to watch at your convenience.
Class Materials:
- Participants own socks in need of repair or to practice on.
- Selection of wools for darning – recommend similar weight to the sock weight – this will give a flat mend that blends easily with the sock. Recommended yarns Jamieson’s Spindrift, Lang Yawoll Sock Yarn, for something a bit more lux – Ito Karei
- Sajou Laine St Pierre Darning Yarn – note of caution about the Sajou Darning Yarn it is a very fine – excellent for stockings or very fine socks/knits but hard to use if you are not a fan of super fine work or you are beginner.
- *If you want to be creative can test out variety of different weights of yarn
- Darning needles – I like a long needle to gather a couples stitches on it in one go. There is a lot of debate about whether to use a blunt needle or a sharp needle. I think it is personal preference. For years I favoured a sharp needle but recently have moved to a blunt needle. The key is the you need to be able to thread the needle and pull it through the fabric. For sharp needles I like these packs of Yarn Darners by Prym and Cotton Darners by Prym they have a selection of sizes, are sharp and are fairly long. I usually recommend buying both packs to accommodate all sizes of yarn. They have been my go to needlefor years. More recently I was teaching children and discovered that I love plastic needles like these – other sellers are available. I also like the clover darning needles.
- Sewing scissors small – my favourites are Fiskars
- Darning egg – I like this one by Sajou or a medium sized orange – I like a naval orange. It’s fun darning with an orange – there is nice smell!
- Pencil and paper – to make diagrams to take notes
Our Teacher
Celia Pym is an artist living and working in London. Pym has extensive experience with the spectrum and stories of damage and has worked with garments that belong to individuals as well as items in museum archives. Her interests concern the evidence of damage, and how repair draws attention to the places where garments and cloth wear down and grow thin. She says “I like that darning is often small acts of care and paying attention to where things fray and wear out.”
Her work has been exhibited internationally, most recently in Bags, (2024) (solo) Hweg; Cheongju Craft Biennale, Korea (2023) ‘Connect. Reveal. Conceal’. Make Hauser & Wirth (2023) Threads Breathing Stories into Materials, Arnolfini (2023); Waste Age, The Design Museum (2021). In 2017 she was shortlisted for the Woman’s Hour Craft Prize and the inaugural Loewe Craft Prize.
www.celiapym.com