Verena Mullins Naalbound socks..

[Martin Moser]

Hi Paul,

However I want to point out that she is the expert when it comes to knitting/naalbinding, and all matters dealing with string. She insists that there are extant socks that were not naalbound(binded), but were indeed knitted.

I find this very interesting and would like to know what actually is the earliest dating of such finds. Could you please ask your wife whether she has any sources on that?

Here is a drawing of how a sock found at Achmim Panopolis was made. Unfortunately there is no dating to it so it could be anything between ca. 150 and 850 AD (according to other, dated finds from there):



from: Frauberger, Heinrich. Antike und frühmittelalterliche Fussbekleidungen aus Achmim-Panopolis. Düsseldorf: 1896

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Would have been easier to just weave it..... hock: hock: hock:

[Crispvs]

The socks I have been using for the last two or three seasons are made from woven material. Knitting is much more flexible and so a knitted sock can be made to fit more snugly around the foot and the knitting can stretch somewhat. Woven material will not stretch in this way, so woven socks need to be fairly generous in size, especially at the instep to allow the foot sufficient movement.

Crispvs

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

So Crispus! Are knitted socks period authentic? Are they archaologically attested as being used by the XIIIIth during our time period, in Brittania?
psssst ....(Gotta spare pair for a poor tiro?) :wink:

[Crispvs]

Unfortunately textiles are rarely well represented in British and northern European archaeology as they have a tendency to rot in the damp atmosphere before they can be preserved. However, we know that soldiers could recieve gifts of clothing from family members in other parts of the Roman world, in addition to the army ordering supplies of clothing from sometimes quite far away places. Therefore the physical position of the soldier might not be the only deciding factor in some of the choices of clothing he ended up wearing. There are of course the Vindolanda 'sock' and the Gallic examples to use for contemporary examples of woven sock as well as the Egyption examples (which I believe date from the second century on) made using the sprang work technique (which I believe is the same as the single needle knitting being discussed here.

Crispvs