Monday 14 February 2011

Grandma's Darning Basket

I've had this "darning basket" for a long time. My Old Russian Grandma (who died when I was sixteen) used to darn all the socks by putting this wooden "egg" inside the toe of the sock and darning back and forth until the 'hole' was covered. My Mother kept the basket for years and when my Mother passed, I kept this wonderful basket. It seems like it is made of Raffia wound around and around--and now there are little pieces sticking out of it. But I couldn't do justice to painting all the little strings sticking out of it. Also, tried to capture the doily that was my Mom's. We used to have a doily on the back of upholstered chairs, and on the arm rests for protection.
Doilies were very "in" among the Europeans in those days.
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2 comments:

Elizabeth B Merriman said...

So nice to see this treasure.... my daughter, Kate, is loving that I passed down my mother's sewing things to her... she also received a wooden darning "egg". I actually darned a few socks when I was first married but my husband said they were too bumpy so I stopped. It was kind of meditative doing the back and forth.

Unknown said...

Wow that is really cool. You captured it so well. I remember my grandma darning socks. I didn't know until recently that your heritage was Russian.