Sock

“ The two pieces of cord that pass between the great and the first toe, and by which the clog is held on the foot, compelled me to wear the Japanese sock, which is made of white cotton, like a mitten, the great toe being separated from the rest of the foot. These socks are short, only coming to the ankle, and are fastened by two or three metal clasps. The shoes are never worn in the house, always being left at the doorways, the thick cotton sole of the stocking protecting the foot. ”

“ Let me strongly urge you to be particular that the sock or stocking fits nicely—that it is neither too small nor too large; if it be too small, it binds up the toes unmercifully, and makes one toe to ride over the other, and thus renders 116the toes perfectly useless in walking; if it be too large, it is necessary to lap a portion of the sock or stocking either under or over the toes, which thus presses unduly upon them, and gives pain and annoyance. ”

“ The life of a good fitting, light weight wool sock worn with a good fitting shoe is about 75 to 100 road miles or about a week’s wear in constant marching under ordinary conditions. Whenever the softness of wool is lost because of frequent washings discard them. ”

“ Books of all classes, huddled into a heap, may be seen in the corner of each bedroom, making sock for the mice till the return of their purveyors with lots of plum-cake and savoury tarts. The more mature are now busily engaged in settling the fashion of their costume for the approaching gala; in receiving a visit from an elder brother, or a young Oxonian, formerly of Eton, who has arrived post to take sock with him, and enjoy the approaching festivities. ”

“ The knit sock, home made preferred, is indispensable for wear inside the regulation field shoe during all formal and informal promenades. It is a sign of gaucherie, however, to allow the top of either sock to protrude above the puttee or legging. Care should be taken that the socks fit the feet as snugly as possible, else ugly bunches will form at the heels and toes, thus robbing the gentle art of walking of all the pleasure which Henry Ford put into it. ”

“ There is still another way in which the laundry devil tortures the sock-owner. He can find ways to shrink any sock that is not made of solid heavy silk; and of course he can rip silk socks all to pieces. He will take silk-and-wool socks of normal length, and in one washing will so reduce them that you can hardly get your foot into them, and that the upper margins of them come only about an inch above your shoe-tops. ”

“ These tops are not at all difficult to work, and can be added to any sock directions. They are best commenced with six or eight rows of ribbing, as this makes them set well, and when the fancy design is completed the work is turned before commencing the sock itself. Care must be taken to see that you have the correct multiple of stitches for the particular design chosen, and, if necessary, add the required number to give this after the ribbing, decreasing them to the original number again, to get the even rib before commencing the sock. ”

“ On the morning of this happy festival every man found a sock hanging by his side stuffed with mittens, scarfs, knives, suspenders, handkerchiefs, and many little things. Out of the top of each sock peeped a little flag ”

“ To complete the sock, the outline of the sole is marked by working slip stitches with blue wool in crochet all round it; work also slip stitches on the selvedge stitch of the heel. The stocking is finished off at the top with a double round of loops in blue wool, worked over a mesh four-fifths of an inch wide. ”

“ I thought the best thing I could do would be to put his sock on him again, but as soon as I tried to do so I discovered why Irene had warned me so portentously against taking it off. I should say that she had trouble in socking him every morning. ”

“ Always a young man known as a “pusher,” he had been, since the day of his graduation from the manual training department of a New York High School, an inveterate brusher of clothes, hair, teeth, and even eyebrows, and had learned the value of laying all his clean socks toe upon toe and heel upon heel in a certain drawer of his bureau, which would be known as the sock drawer. ”

“ At forty, a man generally lets his beard grow its full length, and cherishes it much; part of a Persian’s religious exercises is the combing of his beard.
Socks, knitted principally at Ispahan, are worn: they are only about two inches long in the leg. The rich, however, affect a longer sock: white cotton ones are worn in summer, and coloured worsted in winter. The patterns of these worsted socks are often very pretty and effective. The villagers only wear a sock on state occasions, as at a wedding, the New Year, etc. ”

“ He did not happen to tell you, did he, that the kind and size of socks he wears and carries in his traveling-bag are very nearly the same as the black sock in which the bar was wrapped with which your father was struck? ”

“ An ordinary leather sock, such as would prove serviceable for the wear of a camel, would soon be found to be but little adapted to the rough usage of a horse or mule; the sharp unyielding margin of the hoof-wall must in a very brief space, and particularly on paved roads or rocky ground, have cut through any envelope of hide or other soft material ”

“ If, despite your precautions, you should catch cold, tie a worsted sock—one of the red and black striped ones I have knitted for you—round your neck, and take one drop of aconite—only one, remember—before going to bed. ”

“ Fasten pink yarn in second stitch from middle of the front. (In making sock for the right foot, point the toe toward your right hand with the sole toward you. Point toe toward left hand in making sock for left foot.) ”

“ Eaton—wrapped in a man's black sock."
"A sock!" Eaton's voice sounded strange to himself; he felt that the blood had left his cheeks, leaving him pale, and that the girl must notice it. "A man's sock!" ”

“ On the modern automatic rib sock machine about seven dozen pairs of men's socks can be produced by a single machine in a working day of eight hours, and as one girl can mind a set of half a dozen machines, it will be seen that the cost of production is infinitesimal when compared with hand-driven machines or with the hand stocking-knitter. ”

“ The object of having the outer sock ribbed is to allow the evaporation from the skin to have space between the outer sock and the boot; the foot and inner sock will thus remain perfectly dry. The author has walked long distances with this sort of foot-gear with the greatest comfort. Perfect freedom for the foot and toes is, it must be repeated, most essential.
Chapter Seven.
As the hut was close to the lake the skates were buckled on in the warmth, and together the whole party issued forth, D’Arcy promising to come across the next day in a sleigh he had built. ”

“ The little old lady with the gold spectacles and neat black cap, and smooth, braided hair, is seated in her old arm-chair, with the old sock, apparently—though it must have been the latest born of many hundreds of socks—on the needles, and the unfailing cat at her elbow. ”

“ The contrivance they employed was probably a sock made of leather or some such material, and similar in form and general character to the solea spartea: being passed under and over the foot, and bound round the pastern joints and shanks of the animal by thongs of leather, like the carbatinæ of the peasantry. ”

“ The women wore a sort of an Arctic sock over the stockings; the men frequently wore no socks at all. Occasionally the sabots would be several sizes too large for the wearer, but were made to fit by stuffing straw in them. ”

“ The first is denominated the Greater Tuscan Plough: the sock is an iron plate, somewhat concave, which is from eight to nine inches, both in breadth and in length; it is sharpened on every side so as to divide the soil in an horizontal direction, and with great ease. The coulter is perpendicular upon the angle of the sock ”

“ Neither men nor women use stockings; though, during the winter months, the more opulent sometimes wear a short kind of sock, called a jooraub, made of cotton, or of silk, perhaps both intermixed, and of various colored patterns. ”

“ Whether the seam shall be here or there.
Of the openwork sock with the clock beware!
On Fancy’s rein let your curb be strong!
Hark to the dictum of Vanity Fair,
“Plain Black Socks can never be wrong.” ”

“ They wear instead of shoes mere soles of wood or matting, held to the foot each by a peg which runs between the great toe and its neighbor, through a hole made for that purpose in the sock. These clouts they put away on entering a house, as we should put away umbrellas, and wear only socks in-doors. Nevertheless the people here look handsome in their loose, wide gowns, bound by a girdle round the waist, with long sleeves, of which, by the bye, you may perceive that the dependent ends are Japanese coat-pockets. ”

“ Get your boots and socks off; don't go near the fire; rub your feet till they get warm." Boots, gaiters, and trousers were frozen stiff, and socks, except in my case, for I had thick woollen stockings drawn up over boot and gaiter, a far more effective protection than any sort of sock within the boot. ”

“ But the greatest cruelty of the hotel laundry is to socks. It is not that they do more damage to socks, than to other garments, but that the laundry devil has been able to think of a greater variety of means for the destruction of socks than for the destruction of any other kind of garment. He begins by fastening to each sock a cloth-covered tin tag, attached by means of prongs. ”

“ It sometimes happens that the colour and pattern of the sock is transferred to the skin, and is represented by lines and figures of inflammation. This inflammation is sometimes propagated to different parts of the body in the same individual, and is often of a very severe and intense character ”

“ I shall get that box of cake off to little Jem and finish that pair of socks today likewise. A sock a day is my allowance. Old Mrs. Albert Mead of Harbour Head manages a pair and a half a day but she has nothing to do but knit. You know, Mrs. Dr. dear, she has been bed-rid for years and she has been worrying terrible because she was no good to anybody and a dreadful expense, and yet could not die and be out of the way. ”

“ When the foot has been worked in this manner to its full length, the reciprocating motion is repeated for the making of the toe exactly as for the heel, and several extra courses are inserted so that one article may be kept separate from another, and the next sock is worked exactly as the last. ”

“ But how was this difficult matter of sock and stocking to be settled? Why, by the children's papa, to be sure! for he was a lawyer, and did nothing all day long but settle difficulties, or make them worse, I don't know which.
He took two long slips of paper, and wrote "Socks" on one and "Stockings" on the other. These he put in his hat, which George brought [27] out of the hall. Then he rang the bell, and told the waiter who answered it to request Mrs. Custard, the cook, to come up to the parlor for a moment. ”

“ It should be borne in mind that if the toes have full play, they, as it were, grasp the ground, and greatly assist in locomotion—which, of course, if they are cramped up, they cannot possibly do. Be careful too, that the toe-part of the sock or stocking be not pointed ”

“ But the socks were knit or worked very loosely, and there seemed to be a good many small holes in them, so that Pat's funny little toes, which he kept curling up and uncurling, were continually making their appearance in unexpected places through the sock. But after a great deal of trouble I got them both on, with the heels in about the right places.
"Now they ought to be tied on," I said. "Where are his garters?"
"I don't believe babies have garters," said Jonas doubtfully; "but I could rig him up a pair." ”

“ And that was the end of the famous Sock Stories, which had afforded George and Helen so much amusement during nearly three months; for it took all that time for Aunt Fanny's daughter to write, and the children to read them all. ”

“ Custard hobbled down stairs, and the children hopped, skipped, and jumped up stairs, both wondering what would come of this magical word "socks."
Helen had a pretty little room opening out of her mother's, but George's was in an upper story. When they were both asleep, the mother took out of her son's bureau a clean white sock, sewed a tape loop on the edge, put a small parcel inside, and hung it on a neat brass nail, which [30] was driven in a door directly opposite his bed, where it would catch his eye as soon as he awoke. ”

“ The socks in the illustration are of white wool with a pink seam up the instep and pink scallops around the top. One sock is shown on a last, and the other as it appears off the foot. The stripes in the knitting can be shown in the weaving by using a color. The full size of the loom makes a shoe of medium size. String a close warp with white wool. If the shoe is to be all white, weave with the same, leaving the color for the finishing. If it is to be striped, weave perhaps eight or ten times across with color and then with white; when the weaving is finished you will have a mat 9 × 12 inches. ”

“ The socks or stockings, for winter, ought to be either lamb’s-wool or worsted; it is absurd to wear cotton socks or stockings all the year round. I should advise a boy to wear socks, not stockings; as he will then be able to dispense with garters. Garters, as I have remarked in a previous Conversation, are injurious—they not only interfere with the circulation of the blood, but also, by pressure, injure the bones, and thus the shape of the legs. ”

“ Fold sock from toe to heel with right sides in, and join the opening in the sole with slip stitch, catching back threads only of opposite stitches.
Break off wool and fasten end. Turn sock right side out.
5. To make finishing edge of sole—hold narrow part of sock toward you, toe pointing toward your left hand. Fasten pink yarn at joining place in back, and make 1 row of single crochet all around sole edge of sock (along the place where the double crochets were first made) , taking front thread of stitches of last rib made in vamp, or upper, of sock. ”