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Socks as we know them (in western europe) were one of the technologies acquired from the near/mid east during the crusades. (knit socks that is)
before knit socks, people wound strips of cloth round their feet and legs, and secured them (in UK, Henry the VIII was the last royal to do so--) by the time of Elizabeth I, socks are a growing cottage industry, (and ERI is first in UK to have silk stockings)--with the poorest of the poor having mastered the technology (and the rich very willing to buy hand knit sock, rather than winding cloth)
but wrapped strips are still used as footwear(at least according to one knitter, who says they are still standard footgear in russian army!) --where they are called puttees!
are there any members of SCA (society for creative anachronism) or any one else who know a word that was used for foot bindings? (foot bindings makes me think of the chinese practice!)
what ever the word was, it obviously fell out of general use, (which is why we borrowed puttee's from hindi, and now use that word.)
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old hand
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The word in Udmurt is 'istir' (pronounced closer to 'ischtir') the root of which seems to be used in numerous languages. Not sure about Russian. See the bottom of this page: IstirThat reminds me, I must really brush up on my Udmurt;-)
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AFAIK, puttees, even Russian ones, only go from the ankle to the knee. Prior to the puttee, the gaiter and the spat would have been the ankle to knee protection of choice, but not footwear and even less flexible - usually a single piece of leather or canvas with laces or buttons. This 1868 book seems to mention possibly multiple layers of footwear, stocking inside sock inside vampey?? inside shoe???: http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text...HA6127.0001.001The circa 1537 Holbein portrait seems to show Henry VIII wearing stockings or else he has very smooth, pale legs : http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/h/holbein/hans_y/1535h/02henry8.html
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royalty had extensive inventory, (and wills) and hose is not listed among the many gifts or purchaces of King Harry (and is most definately listed in iventories of ERI)--it could be an oversite, but there are also references to katherine (last of henry's wives) wrapping his swollen ulcerated legs.
knitting socks was not listed as a common occupation (for the poor) either in Harry's time, but it was a common occupation in betty's (so much so she refused to grant a patten to a man who invented a knitting machine (called a frame)to make socks. (the guy took it to france) but hand knit socks (of english make) contintued to be cheaper for a very long time. (the frame were not portable, and the required a bit of skill, (and the men who worked them expected to be paid as skilled laborers)
(knitters all end up knowing historical fact about knitting--knitting is very popular with people with OCD!)
it was the style (and the UK was among the last countries to abondon it) to wrap cloth round the foot and legs. (no doubt, fine cloth, carefully wrapped, could be quite smooth. )
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Carpal Tunnel
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Hmm--the history of inner-layer foot coverings is not something I've ever really given any thought to, but now that I am--it strikes me as odd that a people who had the know-how to both cut and sew clothing patterns and make boots would not have thought of adapting these to cut and sew what we know as socks or stockings, out of some nice soft material. Would have been a lot quicker than laborious binding.
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Carpal Tunnel
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No idea what they were called before if it wasn't leggings or leg wraps -- but I remember my Dad, a first lieutenant in WWI, had very stiff and shiny leather puttees as part of his uniform that were buckled on.
In "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" there is a telling description of the effect winter has on wrapping-type puttees ... the ice, snow,freezing and thawing. Enlisted men hated them.
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Continuing along the lines of "what did we call things before we called them what we call them now?"...
etymonline says about knitting - "Meaning "to do knitting" (especially plain stitch) is from 1530. Knitting "knitted work" attested from 1880."
From what I can find, it seems knitting started in Europe sometime in the 1300's (before that there was something called naalbinding which sounds very tedious)(there's also no mention I've found yet of who/where/how it came to be - from your mention of the Crusades I'm assuming you have some source that says it was brought from the Near/Middle East?). So there seems to be over a hundred years when knitting was going on before there's a written reference calling it "knitting".
From the other direction, the various dictionaries list "sock" from the Latin soccus, Old English socc both of which were definitely a type of light low slipper. (Possibly what Henry's wearing on his feet over the "not-stockings" in the above portrait???). So when did sock convert from being a shoe to being hosiery?
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Carpal Tunnel
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the eariest examples of knitted cloth date from about 450CE (common era) but--footprints, preserved in what was mud, but became floor (inside of burial chambers in the pyramids) suggest knitting goes back long before the year 450.(1,000BCE or so)
it was an eygptian craft, and spread through out near east with rise of islam. it first appeared in europe in 1400's (or at least its first seen in artwork--there are almost no examples of knitted cloth that old!)
the oldest examples of knitted cloth are from spain (they got knitting from islamic presence there) mostly religious artifacts (hand knit silk gloves for a bishop, royal funeral pillows)
Knitting in the east (eastern knitting) is similar too, but not identical to European knitting (Western)
in various places, (russia, turkey,(all border countries betwen europe and asia (along the urals), spain (and all former spanish colonies)far east (indoneasia) there is a kind of knitting called 'combo knitting' (a combination of eastern/western styles)
eastern knitting sometimes uses needle that have standard point on end, and hook (crochet like hook) on the other end.
Knitting is faster than weaving as a way to make clothing. it is natural stretchy, so 1 size fits many. and its portable. the tools to knit are much cheaper than a loom.
Until about 150 year ago, it was more common for the poor (working class) to wear knit garments.
(anyone who could, wore tailored clothes, (and clothes for rich were often very form fitting, and restricted movement..but then the rich don't need to be able to lift thing, or carry things, or pitch them (over head) or other movements)
but there was an exception: fancy, silk lace things-- King charlie went to his beheading wearing a silk 'undershirt' (you can see a facsimile at wax musuem!) the stitch pattern used on the shirt is now called king charles.
starting in about 1850, the rich discovered leasure activites like boating and tennis, etc, and they started to wear knit clothes (since they are superior for ease of movement.) sailors had long worn them, along with the poor.
since then, sweaters (and knit clothing) have become more and more common, not just for sports, but for general use.
(knitting machines (or jenny's) are as old as power (water power) looms. but hand knitting was still often cheaper, (since it could be done for such a small investment of money! (vs the large investment in knitting jennies that knit 'fabric faster (but it took longer to convert into finished clothing than hand knitting)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Elizabeth Barber has written a fascinating book (based on her PhD dissertation) on anicent textiles called Prehistoric Textiles. It's still in print. There's also a shorter, more popular book called [Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times. Wouldn't it be possible to make socks or hose from moven material?
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Would have thought at one time that 'puttees' were golf balls. Is it way off track to infer some dead Egyptians wore 'full-body puttees'?
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