One of the things I’m finally getting around to this week is a pile of mending. It was easy enough to ignore the socks my husband put there last summer but harder to ignore my son, who came up to me with his very favorite-ist sweater and showed me the snag he’d put in it. It wasn’t an expensive sweater and it’s seen better days, but he was so sad about the hole and had such faith in my ability to fix it, I had to give it a go.
A friend of mine taught me to darn a few years ago. Does anybody do that anymore? For the most part it’s easy enough to replace socks (not in Egypt, but that’s another topic!) so it seems that no one bothers with mending them anymore. There are some cherished items for which you’re willing to make more of an effort – that would include my son. I did my best. I’m sure that anyone who is really good at darning would roll their eyes at my effort, but at least the hole is gone and it looks pretty good – unless you look too closely.
I even did my husband’s socks while I was at it. All I can say is that I’m glad they will be hidden by his pants.
Another lost art that I’m going to make an effort to revive in my life is letter writing. Oh, I write tons and tons of email but there are a few people in my life, like my father, who don’t do email. As a result I don’t communicate with him much unless I call or am visiting in person. I remember exchanging letters with my grandmother when I was a child. I loved checking the mailbox every day and writing letters. Now that we live in a place that has home delivery again, I’d like to not only introduce my daughter to the pleasure of letter writing but get back into the habit of it myself.
And I’d like to take the time to write the letters out by hand – so much more personal that way. However, another casualty to email has been my handwriting. It wouldn’t be so embarrassing if my father’s handwriting weren’t so perfect and lovely.
But he’s a lousy typist so I guess it all balances out.
I used to love receiving letters and postcards as a kid, too. Heck, I still like getting things in the mail.
Not so keen on the darning thing. Actually, I’m sure they make socks that don’t last on purpose!
by Shelley Munro January 30th, 2008 at 8:16 amI greatly admire your abilities and dedication to the Lost Arts. I’ll send your Dh a big box of new socks. Colors?
by Betsy January 30th, 2008 at 4:13 pm