Mending socks and other lost skills

February 23, 2012 by Diane · 4 Comments

Think About This Thursday

I cannot sew…my proficiency with a needle and thread ends at putting a button back on a shirt. I find this very sad and one day, when I am graced with much more free time than I have now, I would like to learn this very useful skill. My grandmother used to make my clothes when I was little in addition to the baby blankets that my children are still using today. She made her own dish rags, rugs, and could mend socks as well. Sock mending is a lost art. Sure, there are a few people out there who still know how to do it but there are a lot more holey socks than there are sock menders! My laudry room alone is filled with socks who’s soles have worn out and are now destined for the rag bin.

Our lack of sock mending skills isn’t the only thing we have forgotten how to do. We no longer fix vaccume cleaners, glue coffee mug handles back on or find creative uses for broken flower pots. We are a throw away society. Generations before us learned how to reduce, reuse, and recycle their old stuff because they had no other choice. New socks cost money….repairing holey socks only took time and a little bit of thread. We used to have more time than money. Not anymore. Now we have money and our holey socks get tossed out in the next day’s trash.

Here is a random piece of trivia for you to Think About This Thursday: In the United States, approximately 150,000,000 socks are sold each year. Where do a vast majority of these socks come from? China. (Yiwu, China is actually know as “sock town” and produced over three billion pairs of socks for Wal-Mart, Pringle and Disney last year.) Where do all the holey ones go? Right to the dump.

Now, I am not recommending you go out and learn how to mend socks…I am certainly not taking up that particular skill any time soon. What I DO hope to leave you thinking about today is our ‘throw it away’ attitude. If every person chose to fix just one broken item instead of tossing it aside to buy new we would be well on our way to easing the burden on our landfills. Can you imagine how high a pile of 150 million socks would be? That’s a lot of socks!

If you are feeling ambitious and DO want to learn how to mend socks, here is a video from YouTube on how to do it:

Not up for sock mending any time soon but don’t want to throw away your holey foot coverings? Here are a few things you could do with them instead of tossing them into the trash can:

1. Use as a dust cloth: Obvious but very useful if your house gathers as much dust as mine does.

2. Cut off the ribbing and use as a can or glass cozy to absorb condensation.

3. Stuff with catnip and voila, instant cat toy.

4. Use a sock over your hand as a bath mitt to wash your small child.

5. Keep one in your car to use as an umbrella sock. It will absorb the rainwater and keep it off your floors and seats.

6. Fill with ice and use as an icepack for a skinned knee or bruised elbow.

7. Fill with rice or dried beans and sew the end shut. Microwave for a minute or so and you have a nice, heavy heating pad.

8. Use a bean or rice filled sock as a draft blocker under doors or windows.

9. Give them to your children to use as art supplies. They make wonderful puppets!

10. Cut them into long strips and use them to tie your plants to posts in the garden.

Have any other old sock suggestions? I have a laundry room full of old socks just waiting for a job to do!

Comments

Ellen says:

February 23, 2012 at 1:51 pm

I know how to mend socks but sadly it’s not something I generally do unless we are talking my warm wool socks.

Pam says:

February 23, 2012 at 4:02 pm

I hadn’t thought about this before. I don’t mend socks either but I do keep wearing them if there is a hole in the toe.

Beeb says:

February 23, 2012 at 5:28 pm

I taught my fiance how to mend socks a few years back! I also like to use them as rags.

Katie says:

February 24, 2012 at 10:28 am

You are correct…we waste too much as a society. I love your Thursday posts!!! Anyway…my favorite use for holey socks is an ice pack for my sinus headaches…as long as they are clean of course..haha