darning egg or mushroom, Stopfei oder Stopfpilz

A simple darning egg or mushroom, printable without support.

At home we had a darning mushroom made of wood and I remembered this useful tool, so I designed one to print on FDM machines (i.e. Ultimaker, RepRap,...). It is designed for function and easy printability and not primarily for good design. I tested it and it works pretty well. And I think the design is at least ok while the Darning egg or mushroom is in the sock (see below for details). ;-)

What is a darning egg or mushroom?
A darning egg or mushroom is a tool to help fixing holes in socks. It is a hard, round object mostly made of wood or plastics which is inserted into a sock while darning (repairing) it. The darning egg makes it easier to stitch over the hole. With the help of the darning egg, the sock doesn't get deformed while you stitch, and you will not accidentally stitch two sides of the sock together.

How to use it?
You put the darning egg in the sock beneath the hole and stretch the sock and the hole a little bit over the top of the darning egg. While stiching you grab the sock from the outside with the darning egg inside. You hold the darning egg (with the sock around) on the handle with one hand, while with the other hand you stich the hole. With a little practice, in most thicker socks, the fixed hole can be more or less invisible after darning. At least if you use a matching color to the sock for the thread.

Here you can find a detailed 'how to' with pictures and video in english:
http://www.wikihow.com/Darn-a-Sock

And here you can find a detailed 'how to' with pictures and video in german:
http://www.hauswirtschaft.info/waesche/stopfen.php

Perhaps your grandmother also used a darning egg or something similar to fix the holes in the socks. Hope you find it useful, too.

Thank you for visiting!
Chris