The most sacred place in Calcetinia is the Shrine to the Holy Sock.
To preserve our revered yarns of sockmaking, we sealed our Sacred Texts
in a glass cube at the base of the monument.
In honour of your visit to Calcetinia,
we have opened the Tome of the Holy Sock so that you too
may be guided by the threads of wisdom found in its pages.
[Socks of the Ancients | Love Triumphs Over Knitting | Spanish Style, ¡Ole! ]
[ Sacred Socks | Threads of Revolution ]
Socks of the Ancients
Most experts believe that the first Stone Age socks were made of animal skins, which our ancestors tied around their ankles.
By the 8th century B.C., Greek poet Hesiod wrote of piloi, socks made from matted animal hairs. Often this soft footwear was worn by actors of comic plays.
The Romans began by wrapping their feet in strips of leather or woven fabric. By the 2nd century A.D. they were wearing udones, which were sewn from woven fabric and pulled over the foot.
But it was in Egyptian tombs of the 3rd-6th centuries A.D. that the first real knit socks were discovered.
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Love Triumphs Over Knitting
We have Cupid's arrows to thank for the invention of the first knitting machine. According to legend, William Lee, an English clergyman, invented the machine in 1589 because the woman he was in love with barely looked up at him from her knitting needles!
We don't know if he got her attention with his knitting machine, but the world noticed. Many of the principles Lee developed can still be found in modern textile machinery today.
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Spanish Style, ¡Olé!
The quality of Spanish fabrics and the flair of Spanish design has long played a leading role in the history of socks.
Queen Elizabeth I refused William Lee the first patent for his knitting machine because she didn't like the feel of the stockings it produced. She was used to fine silk stockings imported from Spain. His machine, she complained, made wool stockings that were far too coarse for the royal ankles.
European fashion during the 16th and 17th centuries was also influenced greatly by Spain. Flush with the wealth of the New World, Spanish cloth of the time featured beautiful fabrics adorned with embroidery and fine jewels. Men's socks were typically made of knitted silk and embroidered with the emblems of clocks.
Socks play a visible role in one of Spain's most enduring customs: the bullfight. Along with the famous red cape used to tease the bull, the bullfighter sports bright pink socks!
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Sacred Socks
Knowing what to wear before a deity has always been regarded as a matter of grave importance.
Moses was instructed to remove his shoes before Yahweh at the Burning Bush. (We don't know if he was wearing socks.)
In Japan's Shinto religion, priests wear special footwear called tabi, which are stiff white socks with a divided toe. These socks are worn during all sacred ceremonies, accompanied by asagutsu, which are special black laquered clogs.
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Threads of Revolution
Every shrine needs its legends. Our Tome of Wisdom contains an interesting one too, thanks to the folks over at The Missing Socks Bureau.
According to their on-line catalogue, the World's Smallest Socks, "less than a quarter inch long" were made for the pet mice of Tsar Nicholas II "to see them through Moscow's brutal winters." However, the story has an equally brutal ending. "The art of micro-knitting died with Olenka Lanskova, sockmaker to the Romanov dynasty, who was assasinated in her work room by an enraged peasant who shouted 'If the people don't have shoes, the Tsar's mice shan't have socks!'
When someone suggested to Lenin that those few, simple words should become the catch phrase of the revolution, he replied, 'I think we'll pass on that one!'"
What to do? Fact or fiction? You be the judge!
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