We have a bunch of linen kitchen towels of varying age and origin. The most interesting one among them is this one. I don’t remember its provenance. It is a simple square of relatively coarse unbleached linen, no woven pattern or anything. It is monogrammed AB, and the embroidery is as simple as the towel itself. And the towel has been darned, carefully, in the middle.

Nowadays most of us don’t mend holes in clothes. We just throw them out and buy a replacement. When did you last see a darned sock? When did you last darn a sock yourself?

I mend minor holes and tears in the kids’ clothes and in some of mine. (Expensive tights in particular, if the hole is in a place where it won’t be seen.) I restitch unravelling hems and seams. But I can’t imagine darning a towel.

I wonder what made the previous owner care so much for a simple towel that they would mend a hole in it. Was it a question of economy? Or did the towel have emotional value for them? A gift?

It makes me really like this towel.