It’s impossible to have been a knitter over the past couple of weeks, and not to have noticed that knitting men have featured in the news. . . . Mainstream perceptions of our craft and its gendered connotations notwithstanding, men have always knitted – and – like the women hand-knitters of rural and working class communities, what was most often on men’s needles was a pair of stockings. So here are some industrious and creative stocking-knitting men for today’s sock of the week . . .
Who doesn’t envy the nifty, portable yarn holder sported by Annibale Caracci’s peripatetic stocking knitter?
The shepherds of France’s (then) poorly-drained Landes region were often depicted knitting stockings on their stilts . . .
Like Scottish women, men of rural and working class communities in Scotland routinely knitted stockings to augment their household incomes during the winter months . . .
The same was true in Wales, where the “last stocking knitter” of the town once famed for its Welsh stockings – Bala – was said to be this man, Edward Lloyd.
Sailors were among the many working men who routinely knitted in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries – the disgruntled discharged sailor from Paul Sandby’s London Cries is presumably hawking the work of his own hands about the city streets to supplement his income.
Sandby’s depictions of working people and their clothing is my current eighteenth-century obsession – I’ll perhaps say more about him another time!
As our bluestocking club draws to a close this Sunday, I’m retiring sock of the week (though the series may well return at some point in the future . . . watch this space). I hope you’ve enjoyed exploring the fascinating and varied history of socks and stockings with me over the past three months!
PS – you’ll find all socks of the week to date neatly gathered together into their own wee sock drawer here!
KDD & Co 
Thanks a lot for all the pictures and stories! Now I wonder: that image of the 16th knitter with two rolls of yarn – could it be twined knitting?
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I think this is entirely possible!
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My husband is 72 – his grandfather in rural northern Scotland did all the knitting for the family, and this was not unusual in that time and place.
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My father (almost 99) remembers one of his uncles who worked on the family dairy farm knitting socks but he did it in the evenings! ( My father’s Scottish grandmother was apparently never without her knitting and she taught all her eleven children to knit.)
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I put down my socks-in-progress to read this. Such great pictures! In my own family most of the sailors could knit but they rarely, if ever, did so at home. The work was very gendered except in necessity. They were also expert menders – such neat darning! – and that they would still do sitting by the fire of an evening. My Uncle Angus said his wife’s repairs were too lumpy, so he did them himself. For her part, Mary said she always had too many to do, so she had to rush while he only took up the needle at his leisure.
Thank you for a most enjoyable and insightful series.
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Kate,
I have loved this series as much as 10 Years in the Making. I just taught myself to knit the toe-up version of socks with the Elizabeth Carter pattern. I can hardly wait to finish these so I can get on to the other patterns, now that I know how to do it!!
My father could knit, taught by his mother, his sister knit garments for Hollywood actresses in the 1930s and my mother and her mother both knit. My father also hooked rugs. He hooked so many rugs there was no wall space left in our house as they usually were 4′ x 6′ big! He called himself “The Happy Hooker”!
When I lived in South Dakota, USA I worked at a yarn store during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. A man and woman came into the store after parking their motorcycle outside and inquired about sock yarn. The woman was needing some to finish a sock and he needed more to continue knitting his own socks. He said he was in his “late 70s” and had learned to knit at age 6 so that he could have socks on his feet, just like all the other children in his family. He was doing stranded colorwork by age 8 and loved to knit still.
Thank you soooooo much for this series and for the next one that you probably have on your needles already! I am so glad that my yarn shop owner introduced me to you in 2015.
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Annibale Carracci died in 1609, so his work is mainly xvii century. Probably this drawing was put together with other drawings in a collection album dated 1646.
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This series has meant a great deal to me, and I can hardly wait for the book to come out. I am a textile history buff and loved reading about these amazing women and men. I have knitted socks in the past but, for some reason, got bored with them. With these beautiful patterns I think I may start knitting socks again. Thanks so much, Kate, for an inspiring club.
Maja Stone
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When I was learning to spin in the ’70’s, one of my husband’s colleagues, another law professor, told me that when he was growing up in a small community in northern Saskatchewan, he and all his siblings were taught to spin and knit their own socks from the yarn they spun. And that’s definitely post WWII!
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Great, I cannot wait to send this to a friend who was surprised that men knitted back in the day! This has been a great series. Thank you.
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I’ve enjoyed every minute of this series, not least the personal accounts offered in the comments. And I can see why you’re obsessed by Paul Sandby. Please tell us more, if you will!
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I’ve enjoyed this series greatly. Thanks!
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The ‘sock of the week’ series has been fascinating, thank you very much for researching and sharing!
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Crazy fun images. Loved this series & club, love all the previous posts. I also do not knit socks. Kate, thanks always for all the history that you teach, all interwoven with creativity. I love all that you do and enjoy every club. Hugs
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Inspired by you I have decided that I will knit socks for Christmas presents .. the trouble is that I have come to this late in the day and missed the Blue Stocking Club, so wondered if and when you are going to release the patterns onto the open market?
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Hi Bridget, the book & patterns will be out in September
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These etchings are inspiring me! I may have to run and get out my micro pens to practice hatching and cross-hatching.
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Husband learned to knit with the younger children in a two-room schoolhouse near Aberdeen at age 8. I wish he’d kept it up!
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Enchanting and delightful and mind-expanding reading. andglad to see the sockeries have their very own sock drawer… thank you for reviving this cottage industry.
I even mentioned you at length in my own more amateurish blog: https://writingpresence.com/2021/07/14/__trashed/
which, contrary to its name, wasn’t (trashed) but is still out there celebrating things woollen and foot-warming.
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Though I don’t like sock knitting, I’ve loved this series. Cheers for so much fascinating footwear history!
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One of my grandfathers both knitted and rag-rugged in any spare time he had whilst working as a stoker in the merchant navy in WWII. Not unusual, I don’t think. It’s a shame that that generation of men (certainly the working class men) regularly undertook craft to both supplement income, as pleasure and also relaxation (my grandfather’s rag-rugging continued after the war, as a hobby), but their involvement has been almost completely forgotten, to the point that any man undertaking craft is now seen as unusual. Interestingly (to me), my mum, and my gran-in-law both had to knit socks as kids/teens, and have never enjoyed it since- it wasn’t a hobby, it was a necessity, and that impacted their ability to get pleasure from it. Mum has picked up knitting again as a hobby, but my gran-in-law, up to her death, just did not get the idea of knitting, or indeed sewing, for pleasure.
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Thanks for the past weeks of socks. Not knitted any of them (yet) but really enjoyed the essays. Will be returning to them. Regards to all involved from sunny (almost too hot to knit) Sweden. Christine
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I remember my grandfather (born 1890) knitting his own socks on 4 pins. I belive he learnt while recovering from being buried alive in the trenches and he could knit lying down. Tthey were all in the army green. He was on the beaches at Dunkirk as well
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My father was a Commander in the Royal Navy, and as such was discouraged from spending his free time with other members of the crew. He used the solitary confinement of his cabin to do needlepoint (he sewed a whole set of dining chairs seats we use to this day) and knitting. He knit me a candy striped bathing costume when I was about two, which was quite beautiful, if a little soggy in the water!
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Of course men have always knitted – yay General Ignorance! Though in a day when more information than ever is more easily available – Boo General Laziness in fact checking!
Loved the series, still knitting the Elizabeth Montagu Bluestockings, it’s the texturing wot does it!
BTW – very impressed with Tom Daly’s Olympic jumper, and gold medals – knitting for relaxation and stress management, & he’s been a very busy man recently. I was telling someone the other day that Russell Crowe also knitted. Well, all that time on set between takes . . .
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