I knitted these socks with what I think is Corriedale yarn and I reinforced the heels when I made them, but I did not expect the toes to explode after just a few wearings.

I have no idea how to mend the toes and cannot guess how long any mending would last, so I am going to re-knit the toe part of these socks with some leftover sock yarn (Paton’s Kroy sock yarn, 75% washable wool, 25% nylon) and then graft the new toes onto the “old” socks. Over 90% of the sock will still be natural wool, but with a bit of a boost in the toes.

Here we have two new toes and each is now living on two needles. I find it easiest to weave sock parts when I have two flat surfaces to work with, rather than the tubes that leaving the work on three needles would create.

It is also much easier to weave two pieces of knitting together when there are no loose ends. Metaphor?

Time to find the row of stitches that are just above where I want to attach the new toe to the old sock. I pick up the left side of each stitch and put it on some waste yarn.

Next I put half of the stitches on one needle and the other half on another needle. It can be bit of a trick to pick up the stitches on the sole of the foot because they are pretty matted.

I keep the waste yarn on the stitches until the whole needle is full, and then I can pull the yarn out. Sometimes the yarn gets caught in the needle and has to be cut, but this way I am guaranteed not to lose any stitches.

No, I did not wash these before I performed this operation.

But this is where I remind myself that I have nothing to lose; I cannot wear these socks as they are, so I might as well try to repair them, even though the repair seems a bit drastic.

This will be bloodless, however. By the way, do you see the big bend in the middle of my needle? It was cracked.

A needle tip works well for this.

If you have ever knitted in the round, you know that circular knitting spirals. The beginning of a round is a bit higher than the end of the previous round. So, the two ends of my removed row probably won’t line up exactly. That is okay.

There are some extra threads here. I think they were threads that I wove in when I first made the sock.

but these are the last two stitches that need to be put on the second needle. Things look even. Luck!

For me, weaving goes much easier if all of the stitches are facing “knitwise” on the needles; that is, the first loop of each stitch is ready to be worked.

The edges of the toe part have to match up with the sides of the sock part, to avoid any toe-twisting. I don’t think that it would matter much if one or two stitches were off kilter; socks are conforming beings.

I weave the stitches loosely on purpose; it is easy to make them too tight. The next step is to tighten what I have woven and then move on to the second pair of needles (i.e., the bottom of the foot).

We all try to avoid this, but it can happen. Just pretended it didn’t. Start with a new sewing yarn and leave two long tails to deal with later.

I push through the ends so that the yarn either finishes a knitted “V” or doubles over another thread in a knit stitch.

But if you were on the other side of the room and looking at the bottom of my foot . . .

Here is another pair of socks requiring toe work; I knitted these with random leftover yarns, and the yarn I used for the toes has not been durable.