Great War historian wears replicated historic Great War socks

My epic sock project has come to a close.

I only blogged about this once even though I’ve been working on it since last October. Do pop over there if you want the full backstory. The short version is this: a grateful Scottish mother handknit a pair of socks for an American medic who cared for her son in France during WWI. The medic was a graduate of Gettysburg College (where I now work), and those socks stayed with his papers which were donated to the College Archives after his death. I studied them a bit and recreated them with modern yarn. They were made for Dr. Ian Isherwood, a local historian who specializes in memory and the Great War, who wore them for a lecture he gave yesterday. The lecture was in support of an exhibit mounted for the centenary of the war’s end.

I think we can agree that Ian is a very dapper sock model!

These socks took a loooonnnnggg time to knit because working on 1.75 mm needles was hard on my hands. The tips are especially pointy and if I worked with them for a long time, I got pin pricks on my fingertips that quickly became wounds (perhaps fitting for this recreation). My solution was to put myself on a quota of four rounds per day. This meant they were slow going, but my hands thanked me. I was surprised t what a difference a quarter of a millimeter can make. I make socks on 2.00 mm needles all the time with no problem, but 1.75 mm is a whole new world.

I searched for thin enough sock yarn for a long time, and I’m still not thrilled with the result. This is 85% merino and 15% alpaca, and the alpaca contributes some sagginess to the final garment. However, if any man on this planet will wear sock garters with his dressy, hand wash-only socks, it is Dr. Isherwood! (Well, he’s probably a close second behind Franklin Habit.) He also knows how to hand wash a delicate wool item.

I worked the toes just as the historic socks were made, with a 3-needle bindoff at the tip. It’s weird to my 21st century eyes, but the recreation is true. The heel is good old eye-of-partridge stitch, which is my favorite heel flap stitch anyway. I use it all the time. It has the same strengthening effect as the regular heel stitch that looks a lot like ribbing, but it creates a much thinner fabric:

More notes are on my Ravelry page if you want to make these. The stitch pattern is very simple. The hard part was working at this scale with modern materials.

I just started another pair of “regular” socks on 2.0 mm needles and they feel like they are flying off the needles by comparison. Everything is relative…