What’s a person to do on a boring Sunday afternoon? Well… make socks! I really wanted to make some progress on my Skjoldehamn garb project but on a Sunday all thrift shops are closed where I live. So, I rummaged through my fabric stash and found a lovely wool.
Dan Lovlid’s thesis has quite an fantastic analysis of the socks on page 123. Please tell me you have bookmarked this document by now! Anyway, page 123 is what you need for the socks. The fabric pieces that were excavated are a tabby colour, the original colour was either white or a very light yellow.
To be quite honest, I don’t understand how a seam right under your heel (top part of the pattern image) can be comfortable. This also goes for a seam right on top of your foot where your shoe is…. This type of construction, the way I see it, only makes sense if the sock is made of left over fabric and therefore consists of ‘shrapnel’…..
Back to the drawing board. I am not making socks like this, I can see blisters in my future…. I didn’t want to abandon the idea of a fabric sock, so I started drawing a new pattern, that I am happy to share with you here.
Ok, so in PURPLE is the actual foot. The ORANGE line is the seam allowance. Please don’t forget that because you do need a bit of room to get into your sock. The pattern piece on the right is for the instep, as you can see, I added 2cm on both sides to create a comfortable instep.
Now, sew the instep to the sole. Leave 0,5 cm because that is where you need to attach the ankle shaft. The ankle part is a rectangle folded around your ankles, from one point of the instep to the other. So, it is a shaft open on one side. This is the only piece of the pattern I used following Lovlid’s finds: 17,5cm high.
The shaft, as you can see on the pattern, is not a perfect rectangle. You must cut 2 corners here, to fit the curve over your foot, attached to the instep. Please send me a message if this is unclear!
I really had fun making these! They need a bit of decoration but I will get to that. A boring Sunday afternoon wasn’t so boring after all!
Ava's Corner 