Darning is where my yarn hoarding paid off; I still had some of the original yarn left over.

There are a variety of tools out there. The darning egg and darning mushroom are two variations on the same principle: stretch the material slightly while stitching so the mended area stretches with the rest. I had a darning egg that I found at a thrift store years ago and used that. I think a mushroom would be handy for larger areas or objects. There is a darning/mending loom that you can set up on the item and that will help you keep your stitches neat and even. I don't have one but I definitely see the appeal.

I think knowing the sock was already damaged and I couldn't make it worse helped to ~~steal~~ steel my nerves. I wasn't going to ruin the sock, it was a hail Mary attempt to save it. It was my "gateway drug" into mending. Since doing that, I have now used sashiko stitching to mend two pairs of jeans and have a few other things that I plan to mend.