When I visited my father today for Father’s Day, he told me he wanted a pair of British Navy Seaman’s socks, but he hadn’t been able to find them anywhere, not even in England. I did a search on-line, but couldn’t find anything. I’ve also asked out at www.knittingdaily.com. Does anyone know where I could find a pattern for them? They’d be made of worsted weight or heavier wool and knit on fairly large needles. They’d need to be knee-length or longer, long enough to fold over top of Wellington boots. They may also be called “OrkneySocks.” If anyone knows of a pattern, please let me know. It could be interesting making them.
I’m racking my brain and not coming up with anything. I have not heard of this particular item before, and its description surprises me–given that authentic fishing sweaters are usually knit with quite a fine gauge yarn (Aran sweaters were invented for tourists), it would surprise me to find socks knit in a heavy gauge.
If I were trying to find such an item, I’d go straight for two books that are unfortunately not in my possession: Knitting in the Netherlands and Knitting in the Old Way. Both are heavily skewed towards sweaters, from what I remember, but have tons of valuable information about traditional fishermen’s sweaters and maybe, just maybe, socks.
Hmm, I looked in my “Classic Knitting Patterns from the British Isles” book and Nancy Bush’s “Knitting Vintage Socks” and didn’t see any references to any kind of seaman’s socks, much less British Navy seaman’s socks.
I did find a link to an old Beehive pattern booklet that mentions seaman’s socks, but can’t vouch for the accuracy or availability of the pattern. It’s also in Australia, and a little pricey.
Sorry for the double-post, but I asked the question on my blog and got an answer I didn’t find myself. Check this link and see if anything there works for you.
Archergal, that looks like it! The pattern didn’t print out to clearly, so I may e-mail the person whose address is at the bottom and see if I can get a clearer version. I had a look through Knitting in the Old Way and Vintage Socks at my local yarn store yesterday, but they didn’t have anything likely looking. There are, however, a couple of likely candidates in Nancy Bush’s Folk Socks and it looks like interesting reading.
