this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2025
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sometimes we get lost in the sauce (lemmy.ml)
submitted 2 days ago by sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml to c/historymemes@piefed.social
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[–] Lyrl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Knitted socks were a huge deal when they became a thing in the 1500s - enabled by smooth uniformly sized thin metal knitting needles, which were just then possible with metal technology. We take for granted now that socks are stretchy, but for most of human history socks were stiff like any other fabric without any elastic threads as part of the fabric blend. Or sometimes cloth wraps were used instead of a shaped garment - the Russian military didn't replace portyanki with socks until 2013. https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2013/jan/16/russian-soldiers-replacing-foot-wraps-socks

The somewhat similar process of nalbinding was a thing as far back as ancient Egypt, and became common for socks and mittens in Medieval Scandinavia, but isn't as flexible a technique as knitting, and doesn't seem to have ever been used for gloves.

That knitting (and thus knitted socks) was invented in the 200s (when the dodecahedra were made) - and was used for gloves, somehow, and not socks - and yet didn't make societal waves until the 1500s is a wild idea.

[–] bobo@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago

We take for granted now that socks are stretchy, but for most of human history socks were stiff like any other fabric without any elastic threads as part of the fabric blend.

This paper proposes that the bone needles, especially those with three holes, could have been used to make fabrics using the nålbinding technique. With this technique, many items could have been made without sewing, as it creates a very stretchy fabric, which would have been particularly useful for socks and other garments. To test our hypothesis, we conducted an experiment to create fabric using copies of Roman bone needles. Bone needles were very common, and their occurrence could be explained by use of the nalbinding technique to produce fabrics both in the familia and in textile workshops.

https://www.academia.edu/38693060/Bone_needles_and_textile_production_in_the_Roman_time_a_new_proposal

[–] Akasazh@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Fascinating read, thanks for sharing!