I’ve just finished knitting a pair of refootable socks. The prompt to do this came from thinking through ways of knitting no nylon Socks. I wrote about sock knitting tricks that help you to avoid knitting with wool that contains nylon, yet make a reasonably durable sock. Most sock knitting yarns now contain nylon (plastic!) for durability, as do shop-bought socks. At the end of my list of sock knitting tricks was the refootable sock. It’s long-lived because it’s easily re-mendable rather than reinforced or made from durable wool.
If you’re not a knitter, this might not seem of interest to you. After all, you’re never going to knit a sock. What does it matter? I mention refootable socks because it brings up a mindset – the mending culture mindset. It might not seem like a specific type of easily mendable sock would ever take off, but then I’ve been surprised at how mending and repair (generally) has become more popular than I would have thought a few years ago.
Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Refootable Socks (the Moccasin Sock)
When I first knitted a pair of moccasin socks, I wasn’t particularly interested in easily re-mendable socks. It was just because they were the only type of sock pattern available in a book I had at the time. I’d just bought Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac: Projects for each month of the year. A classic which first came out in 1974.
Nevertheless, what she said about the sock made sense to me. In her book, EZ, as she has become known amongst knitters, starts with a little preamble. She describes this sock as hot-off-the-griddle, a Breakthrough Sock, the Not-To-Be-Ground-Down Sock, the Eventually Totally Refootable Sock. The Moccasin Sock. She says “If you are a maker and mender of socks you have shared with me the heart-break of finding holes right next to the places which have been carefully strengthened with nylon [for she did knit in nylon at the heels and toes]”. “Many of the offending holes are right under the heel……”.
So her answer was to knit a sock that allows the sole to be unravelled and knitted back in, once it has been mended several times. The magic happens by first knitting a sock upper which is knitted flat. Start at the cuff, leave a few stitches on a safety pin at the point where the instep shaping starts, shape instep, then you can carry on merrily to the toes. You can then pick up stitches around the foot edge of the sock upper and knit in the sole. Of course, you will have carefully slipped a stitch at the beginning of each row of the upper, making it easy to pick up stitches later. Graft stitch the whole sock together.
This will be gobbledegook to any non-sock knitter. Even to a sock knitter it might seem odd, but it really is no more difficult to knit this kind of sock than a conventional one.
For the non-sock knitter more interested in the repair and mend culture; click here
The Magic of Elizabeth Zimmermann
I have several of EZ’s books and quite understand why many knitters love her writing. There’s something about the anecdotes and stories that accompany each knitted item. The thoughts about process, and the whys and wherefores. The independent thought and sound advice, followed by general guidance on how to knit socks/hats/gloves/sweaters and all things warm and cosy.
You’ll learn with EZ that she doesn’t need to tell you exactly how many stitches to cast on and by how many stitches to decrease or increase. You can work out yourself how many stitches to cast on, depending on the size you want. Then, it’s all about proportions and how to achieve the shape and finish. Instructions to shape an instep are as simple as decrease to half the number of stitches. Then decrease [this way] at each end of every second row.
The closest she gives to a conventional knitting pattern are, what she calls, pithy directions. She wrote these for an average size sock that you can size up or down as you wish.
Other Refootable Sock Patterns Are Available
If EZ style doesn’t appeal then there are other patterns available. Here are two from Ravelry knitters Caryn Ackermann and Dez Crawford.
When I searched online the other day for refootable socks I wasn’t expecting much success. But, I was surprised that they are becoming popular amongst knitters, perhaps giving us some hope that there really is a mending culture revival.
When Does Mending Culture Thrive?
It seems that Elizabeth Zimmermann wasn’t the first person to come up with the idea of the refootable sock.
I came across Sir Henry Cowan’s idea for refootable socks for WW1 soldiers – an idea probably already in existence. He wrote to the British Under-Secretary of State for War with the suggestion because the price of wool was preventing volunteers from continuing to knit socks for the war effort. So, he suggested the economy of returning the uppers so that they could be refooted. Soldiers usually threw old socks away or used them for wiping guns. A Mr Forster replied to say that it had been tried the previous year, but most socks returned were unrepairable. I wonder whether they had just gone beyond the point of repair (a stitch in time and all that)? After all, they were very busy with a dangerous and demanding/fatal job.
In The Loving Stitch: A History of Knitting and Spinning in New Zealand, Heather Nicholson describes the male sportsmen (cyclists and golfers) of the 1880s who preferred hand-knitted socks to the saggy ill-fitting machine-made socks available at the time. They could be more easily made in team colours and fit a shapely calf. Add to that the economy of refooting socks mentioned, and you can see why sock-making at the time was in vogue. Knitting pattern books were a hit.
War, Migration and Climate crisis
We’ll all be familiar with the make do and mend culture that has raised its head during times of war. No doubt, though, most people never took to mending and repairing with relish. It was more a case of needs must. And, when pioneers move to distant countries, making and mending rather than buying tends to fall by the wayside once buying becomes easier.
Just because we haven’t tended to love mending doesn’t mean we should overlook it now. After all, we are now starting to accept that we can’t keep using up the world’s resources. I’ve written about a saying that has lodged in my mind now, and is a mindset. That is that everything has to come from somewhere. A backlash against consumerism has begun.
Repair Culture is Back in Fashion
The Repair Shop
So said the Sunday Post recently, talking about the revival of make do and mend. They introduce the The Edinburgh Remakery which is a social enterprise, community repair hub and second-hand shop. You can take in your broken goods for repair and refurbishing. You can also learn how to fix and repair yourself. Try some workshops and learn fixing skills such as woodworking and carpentry, electronics, and sewing. Repair cafés are springing up around the country, in response to the dissatisfaction with built-in obsolescence. If you are in the UK, try the Repair Café UK list.
In our household, we’ve been watching BBC TV’s The Repair Shop, where experts restore family heirlooms of sentimental value to their owners. As they say, it’s an antidote to throwaway culture.
Creativity and Restoration
The creative side of restoring and upcycling is getting big on TV. My husband, Andy, has favourite car restoration programs, and there are quite a few (American and British). Another favourite of ours is Salvage Hunters – Restoration with Drew Pritchard.
I’ve mentioned in Gas-guzzling clothes: Cut your clothing footprint that learning to sew and mend is getting easier (in the UK). Many classes, workshops and free get-togethers are springing up around the country. It seems that traditional knowledge and evergreen skills are finding a use again.
Cradle to Cradle
It’s encouraging that the Right to Repair has recently become enshrined in European law. Since April 2021, the goods you buy have to be more easily repairable and long-lasting. What an improvement.
Coming back to refootable socks, it might seem like a stretch of the imagination that you could buy quality pure wool refootable socks, which you could send for refooting. However, clothing repair and alteration shops used to be on every High Street. Who knows, they could make more of a come-back, along with a sock refooting service?
