Make sure that your lamp is unplugged and that you're working on a dry surface.

1. Remove the lampshade and light bulb from the lamp.
2. Pull out the socket from the neck of the lamp base. 
3. Use your fingers to press and separate the base of the lamp socket from the upper part (the bit that normally holds the bulb).
4. Use a screw driver to loosen the screw terminals and then pull the old wires away from the terminals.
5. If there's a big knot in the cord, undo it or cut it off. 
6. Gently pull the old cord out of the bottom of the socket and then out of the lamp base. 

1. Thread the new cord through the lamp base and up through the throat of the socket.
2. Use a utility knife to split the cord for about 5 inches, right down the middle, separating the two insulated wires.
3. Tie an underwriter's knot in the new cord (see video - it's a really cool knot!). This knot will prevent the cord from being pulled out of the lamp.
4. Use wire strippers to strip off about half an inch of the plastic insulation from the ends of the two wires above the underwriter's knot.
5. Twist the copper wires in a clockwise direction (about 3 or 4 twists should do it).

1. Loosen the screw terminals to give yourself plenty of room under the head of each screw. 
2. Zip cord has a smooth side and a ribbed side (vertical ridges running the length of the insulation). Make a hook in the copper wire and attach the smooth-side wire to the silver screw with the hook lying in a clockwise position. (Smooth=Silver for those wanting an alliterative device).
3. Tighten the silver screw with a screwdriver so that the wire is held securely in place. 
4. Now do the same with the ribbed side of the new cord, attaching it in the same manner to the brass-coloured screw on the lamp socket. Tighten.
5. Press the top and bottom socket pieces back together.
6. Push the socket back into the lamp (some sockets are friction-fit, and others are screw-in or have gaskets).
7. Reinstall the lightbulb and lamp shade. 
8. Gloat.

1. When stripping the insulation off of wires, be careful not to cut the wire itself. If you bite into the copper strands, just cut the end off and start over.
2. Practice your underwriter's knot till you can successfully demonstrate it at dinner parties when the conversation gets dull.
3. Some people feel so good about their newly acquired lamp-rewiring skills that they carry the lamp around in their purse for a few weeks. This is not wrong. Lamp know-how is an amazing social unguent; show off our handiwork to relatives and even strangers at that gym. You won't regret it.