Third pair I've darned and every time the patch ends up as a stiff coin about the size of a 10p that rubs a blister after a couple of hours of walking. I'm using a darning egg, standard darning yarn, weaving over and under across the hole. The weave looks tidy from the outside. Am I pulling it too tight or using the wrong yarn?
Almost certainly tension plus yarn weight. Darning yarn is often thicker than the sock yarn, and when you add a stiff woven grid on top of a stretchy knit, you get a rigid patch inside a flexible fabric, which is exactly what rubs. Two fixes that work together: use a finer yarn, ideally a single strand of sock yarn or embroidery floss split down to two strands, and leave your rows visibly slack so the weave sits at the same tension as the knit around it. It looks messier off the foot and feels like nothing on it.
I've been pulling every row snug because loose looked wrong. Will try deliberately slack next time.
Do a test one and put your finger inside. If the patch resists bending over your knuckle, it's too tight for a heel.
Also check where you're anchoring. If you start and stop the rows right at the edge of the hole, all the bulk lands in one ring and that ring is what you're feeling. Spread the anchor points over at least 1cm of healthy fabric all around and stagger them so no two rows end in the same place.
Staggering is the step most tutorials skip. It also stops the patch tearing away at the join, which is the other classic failure.
Small thing that made a difference for me: darn with the sock inside out so any bulk from the ends sits on the outside rather than against your skin.
Just use a sewing machine with a zigzag, way faster and it lies flat.
A zigzag on a heel gives you a dense stitched slab with even less stretch than a hand darn, and it tends to tear out at the edges after a few washes. Fine on a woven patch, not great on ribbed sock knit.
@darning_dee · 3mo ago
For heels specifically I've switched to swiss darning over the thin area before it becomes a hole, and I only weave when there's an actual gap. Duplicate stitch follows the knit so it stretches with the sock and you basically can't feel it. Needs catching early, which is annoying advice for a sock that's already got a hole.
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