For the past 4 years in Portland, Oregon my partner and I have celebrated ‘International Darning Day’ in January or February. I made up this holiday on a whim when I was talking about all these holidays that come around that no one every really knew about ‘Secretary’s Day’, Granparent’s day etc. I decided to make up my own.

We determine the exact date and send out invitations (our first year we did not, we called and left messages. no one showed! They thought we were joking so it was just the 2 of us).

We have friends over to darn their socks, sew on their buttons, on hem their pants to make them last just a little longer. This year there were about 12 of us and of course there is lots of food and fun beverages.

I would love to see this tradition adopted by others as we will celebrate the 5th year next year! So please set your own date after the year-end and New Years Holidays have come to an end to bring friends together for a fun simple holiday to darn socks and make them last another year!

Sherri

the joy is that although these take an age to make, the technique involves making many tiny knots so your socks can’t run when they start to get a hole. they might actually wear away but then you have a very strong fabric around them to darn into. the satisfaction is immense, i must say!

i am currently saving all my chinese socks when too holey to fix any more (and they don’t take kindly to it in the first place, as you say) so that i can make a glorious rug with them.

hopefully i will by then wearing woolly ones, maybe home-made, and the rug will be a reminder of the insane profligacy of the oil years, being made from the stuff and having come all the way from china in the process as they are…