Why do darning – a throw back

Mai Quynh on 17. July 2023

I continue with my very loose series called „My darning life“ (working title). I started with the post Darning, (my) a starting point. Today it’s some background stuff and a throw back.

A timeline: How did it start?

In fact, I wrote about the reasons in previous posts, long before I knew I was going to write this series. The first post on the blog about darning was About the sock siblings and darning and kind of prosaic (…at least I tried). It starts with beloved socks of mine having a hole at the heel and me being sad. From here on I quote from the post (english translation):

One day, the owner [me] was in a sewing café and heard for the first time about an activity called „stopfen" (eng: darning). They said it was a way to close holes. But not by pulling the edges together and sewing them. No – new fabric will be created at the spot where once there was a hole. The owner was confused and could not imagine such an activity. Creating new fabric where there is nothing?

How the story continued is no longer known. What is known is that the owner followed an Instagram account that focused on repairing and preserving garments and that’s how she learned about the word „mending“. The possibilities fascinated her.

And at some point, the sock pair owner understood: the technique she saw on the Instagram account was called "stopfen" in German.

But:

  • How does the technique of darning work at all?
  • What materials do I need?
  • Who can explain me how to darn?

While there are plenty video tutorials for other handicrafts like knitting or crocheting, it was not so easy for darning. I hardly found any video tutorials at that time (who knows what keywords I used to search; I probably only used the German keyword which was not so fruitful) and if I did, they were not satisfactory. Not much showed up in my trusted search engine either. In the end I found books on the subject and then ordered one: Modern Mending by Erin Lewis-Fitzgerald [1]. Even though I mainly just flipped through it since then and don’t work with it that much (because I only use two techniques anyway), it was an anchor for me. Being led by someone who has been working on the subject for a long time and has a clue.

With this little smorgasbord of information, I darned the first socks. And then I continued. When I’m darning, I get into a really strong pull and want to move forward. I’ve never experienced that with any other handicraft. In contrast, sometimes several months lie between two darning pieces.

Fascination about this fiddly work?

And now please answer the question: What does fascinate me so much about this fiddly work (which it is)??

This question is answered by the following quote from my other blogpost Back! with a repaired piece of work

Repairing culture is something I’m really fascinated by, in every way and I also think that repairing is healing. Not only for the piece to be repaired but also for myself. It’s like this feeling when you create something with your own hands and feet.

But on top, there’s this feeling of taking away the pain because you cared about the spot that has hurt.

And that is how the topic self-efficacy comes into play again. Often, it’s not even beloved clothes of mine that get darned/repaired. It’s honestly this fact of being able to repair something and make it usable again that makes me feel great. To learn a skill and then actually use it. The most impressive thing is to vizualise this skill by taking before/after photos. This is also tip 3 from the book mentioned above. The issue of sustainability also plays a role because I don’t think it would be okay for me to dispose a garment because of a hole without having tried to find a solution. And these two points lead more or less to the reason why I’m blogging about this - not only for me but also for you: sharing is caring. Sharing of: Feeling of self-efficacy; and also the knowledge to repair broken clothes.

 

And what happened next?

Thanks to Instagram’s algorithm, it was enough to find one account on that topic. After that, a whole world opened up to me like magic and many posts and corresponding accounts showed up. Other media forms also discuss this topic but not nearly as well as Instagram does as a photo platform in my opinion; in this respect, Instagram is currently my favourite medium on this topic.

Finally (I won’t end the post without) two Instagram accounts as a recommendation to start with:

If you’re interested in more content, just click yourself through their Instagram 🙂

And the book I mentioned:

[1] „Modern Mending“ by Erin Lewis-Fitgerald, available in Australian and UK/US editions.

June 2023 | study logbook. Being a scanner

Mai Quynh on 2. July 2023

I was recently reminded by the blog post „Wie erstelle ich einen Handarbeitsblog?" (DeepL translated: how to create a handicraft blog) from the german blog verdrehtemasche.de that I also wanted to share my insights from failures – lessons learned so to speak. To do that, I need a bit more space for words and text, so I’m splitting the monthly review for June to have a try. And then I will see if/how that works. Today’s review will cover the more general / the „Being a scanner“ part; the „Something with photo“ will come separately.

Concert, workshop on how to read out loud, adult education courses

I was at a concert and it was a seated one- which ended up being fine for the artist and his music as the songs were played to piano music and a surprising string quartet (oh, so nice!). But for the previous supporting/opening band it didn’t fit at all as it was very (!) danceable music and just swaying your shoulders isn’t even half the fun. I can imagine that it’s a bit sad for the supporting band when people can’t/won’t dance along at all.

Quite spontaneously I took part in a workshop with the topic „Lust an Büchern wecken" (DeepL translated: „Awakening desire for books“) – it was about how to make books palatable to small children (nursery age). It was very interesting and I learned a lot! Let’s see how and when I can apply it.

My adult education classes came to an end and I have to look elsewhere to bridge the summer break. One course was a language class and I want to keep up the language skills at least into this year’s autumn (planned travel). The second course was a bit of exercise to counteract all the sitting. My weaker self is very strong but sitting a lot remains and I should overcome it. Hopefully I will be motivated to do something in July :‘)

Elderberry syrup

The elderberry syrup which I have set up in May- is ready! The recipe (german) according which I prepared the syrup is this one . Sterilising the bottles was a bit tinkery but making the syrup itself is quite easy. It’s quite good and I like Elderberry syrup most as a spritzer. I offered the syrup also to my colleagues and I think they liked it as well and they enjoy it on the one or other hot summer day. I still remember my colleague’s comment when he smelled the glass for the first time: „It smells like summer“ – isn’t that a wonderful comment?

Darning

At the beginning of the month I did a „darning workshop“ with someone who was interested in darning. Her socks had holes and so we sat down together. She sat down with her socks and I did with my equipment (darning yarn, needles, darning egg) and then I explained the darning technique to her. I used one of my own socks to darn and eventually it made it back to life: Abby. Abby had two small holes but since they were so close to each other, I darned them in one go.

It had been a while since I had used the weave darning method and I didn’t know exactly how to anchor the thread at the end. Abby was darned in two colours, classic black and white, thus the darning looks like a chessboard. The second sock, Ally, continues to be holey since I didn’t find the motivation to work on her after the „workshop“ evening haha.

Showing/teaching someone else is always a small challenge. But it worked out and the „workshop“ was successful, eventually she was able to bring three socks back to life! Half jokingly and half seriously, I wonder if I could set up something real in these regards?

Other handicrafts

At the moment there’s nothing much concerning other handicrafts. Even though I felt like crocheting more animals after I did the dino , nothing has grabbed me. And knitting - nada. I’ve often heard that knitting is more of a winter hobby, and maybe that’s just the way it is with me this year. In contrast, I’m thinking of trying embroidery again. Aren’t shirts with such small prints or embroidery on a chest trendy these days? It’s not that easy to find such things so I thought about making them myself and gifting them to interested people.

Apart from the realisation that nothing happened here, I have nothing to share. I don’t know how useful it is to write that down then.

~

In case your wondering why I’m done with my monthly review so early: Thanks to my holiday week I was able to collect my thoughts earlier this time 😀

April 2023

Mai Quynh on 12. May 2023

Tatsächlich war es nicht nur wenig, sondern zero auf dem Blog los. Dafür bin ich bei der Einrichtung der neuen vier Wände recht gut vorangekommen *yey*

Erinnerungswürdige erste Male

  • Kulinarischer Monatsauftakt: Ich erzählte bereits, dass ich am letzten Märztag die Zugstrecke von Mainz nach Düsseldorf nahm. Düsseldorf war dann auch das Ziel, denn vor Ort wurden ein paar japanischen Restaurants durchprobiert. Wir waren sehr happy 😀
  • Außerdem war ich das erste Mal im Palmengarten in Frankfurt/Main. Auf meiner Recherche nach botanischen Gärten in Deutschland wurde mir gerade dieser Garten mehrmals angezeigt und als sehr schön beschrieben. Hat mich der Palmengarten überzeugt? Ja, tatsächlich ja. Auf der Außenanlage war noch nicht so viel los, aber der Palmengarten in Frankfurt bietet vieles, sodass es ein Einfaches war sich die Zeit dort zu vertreiben. Übrigens: Der Palmengarten ist nicht der Botanische Garten der Stadt Frankfurt. Das sind zwei verschiedene Gärten wie ich gerade auf meiner Recherche gelernt habe 😀 (Notiz an mich: Botanischen Garten in Frankfurt auch mal besuchen)
  • Eine Freundin hat mich auf eine Kleinkunstveranstaltung mitgenommen, wo wir herzlich gelacht haben.

Something with Photo

Der Schwarzweißfilm ist voller geworden: Freundinnen haben Model gestanden für Portraitfotos, das fand ich wunderbar. Dennoch fühlte es sich ein bisschen awkward an so richtig und bewusst Menschen zu fotografieren. Eigentlich wusste ich schon, dass es awkward sein würde und ich hätte mich auch ein bisschen vorbereiten können, aber so war’s halt dann nicht. Also bisschen ins kalte Wasser gesprungen und gewissermaßen learning by doing.

Leider kriege ich den Film zurzeit nicht voll, weil ich es geschafft habe, das Batteriefach der Kamera so zu kaputtzumachen, dass es nicht mehr hält. Entsprechend schwer ist es, die Kamera aktuell zu nutzen und darüber bin ich echt traurig. Aber ich habe noch keine adäquate Lösung gefunden 🙁

Scanner-Fokus: Handarbeit

Obwohl ich vieles zurückgestellt habe, konnte ich meine Finger nicht vom handarbeiten lassen. Hat sich wie Kompensationsarbeit zum Planen und Überlegen der Einrichtung angefühlt xD

Ganz oben stand: Socken Socken Socken stopfen! Ich erspare uns heute die Fotos von gestopften Socken. Was nicht heißt, dass sie nicht noch kommen, denn ich finde meine gestopften Socken immer ziemlich cool und bin immer stolz, wenn ich Socken sorgenfrei(er) tragen kann.

Ein besonderes Projekt hatte ich noch: Einer Freundin habe ich einen Wunsch erfüllt und angefangen einen Dino zu häkeln (erste Mal so etwas gemacht).

Es war insgesamt sehr interessant zu sehen, was passiert, wenn ich ein Projekt/Tätigkeit im Privaten so hoch priorisiere: Ich habe schon echt viel geschafft für meine Verhältnisse. Mit meinen ganzen anderen laufenden (Mikro)Projekten als Scannerin wäre das nicht so effektiv ewesen. Aber ich merke auch, dass mich das schon auch irgendwie … „ausgelaugt“ hat. So richtig lassen konnte ich es eben nicht und habe nebenher doch noch andere Sachen gemacht. Bloß nicht so viele wie sonst höhö

Ich erhole mich gerade von dem doch sehr vollen April und wünsche dir in dem Sinne noch einen schönen restlichen Mai!

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