Worn Away

I've just worn out my first pair of hand knitted socks. I had them on while I was out last week and didn't realise until I got home that I'd made such big holes. These were knitted in a snuggly wool/alpacha mix and I really liked them, which is probably why I had them on so often. I'm sorry to see them go, they really were beyond darning, but I'm not sorry that I wore them such a lot, I'm not in favour of keeping things for best. I come from a Yorkshire farming family that excelled at make do and mend whilst having an ample supply of things put away for either best or a rainy day. My gran always did the darning on Sunday evening, a pile of socks and woollens beside her, a selection of wools and one of those wooden mushrooms to make a suitable surface to work on. Things sometimes got to the stage of having the darns darned. In many ways I understand and admire her frugality, she coped during the war years with evacuees and troops billeted at the farm, but I well remember when she died my mum had to sort her things out and found so many lovely items that had never been used simply put away for best. There was a sadness to this that she never enjoyed what she had but I don't think gran could have lived any other way. Although in some ways it denies my heritage, I try not to keep things for best, not that I'm sitting here in my finery, of course not, but I don't have clothes in the wardrobe that haven't been worn or linen or crockery that doesn't get used.
Quite a few people have told me that they worry about wearing socks I've given them, or just wear them in the house or fret about washing them. Please please wear them and stick them in the washing machine, I'd be much happier if you wore them to destruction and loved them while they lasted, its not as if sock wool is rationed, I am living proof of that.