Old patterns, new socks: A DIY story

It’s a little tough to find a Civil War sock . . . that a few hundred people can touch each year. The museum does a lot of hands-on activities for visitors and teachers. Of course, being a museum with objects that we’re trying to preserve, the “hands-on” part often involves turning to our teaching collection.

To obtain these objects, we find ourselves at flea markets, scouring eBay, or slogging through our relatives’ attics, but sometimes the objects we need are just a little too expensive or hard to find. So we find ourselves making our own replicas.

My latest adventure in this vein was making a sock for my colleague’s Civil War activity cart, not unlike this one. She found a great poster requesting that knitters create socks for the soldiers on the front-line to contribute to the Sanitary Commission. But the appropriate sock was elusive—either the stripes weren’t as prescribed on the poster’s instructions or the socks included elastic (not available until after the Civil War). So as one of the office’s resident knitters, I learned a few new knitting skills and made a red-white-and-blue striped sock of pure wool.

I started off with a web search for “Civil War sock knitting pattern.” That didn’t turn up any free patterns that made sense to me, so I moved up a little in history, and found a great WWII pattern from the Red Cross. I checked with the educator on the Civil War cart, and none of the features of the WWII sock made it inappropriate for our context.

My sock! Knitted using a WWII pattern from the Red Cross. A bit anachronistic, but it was the earliest pattern with instructions that made sense to my 21st-century brain.

Unlike the artifacts in the museum’s collection of military history uniforms, this new sock can be handled by visitors, can get a little grubby, and will someday be thrown out after it has fulfilled its usefulness. But it will give visitors a sensory connection to this bit of history. Cart facilitators can talk about the stripe pattern (used to distinguish socks from that region of the country) or about how many hours a knitter might have spent contributing to the war effort from the comfort of their hearths (it took me about 15 hours).

I’ve known plenty of teachers who have DIY’ed their way to a more robust teaching collection. Some teachers have tea-stained copies of the Declaration of Independence, or home-baked hardtack. What homemade creations have you brought into your classroom to bring history to life? Or what hobby could you turn into a teaching collection item for your child’s classroom?

Jenny Wei is an Education Specialist with the Department of Education and Interpretation at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. 

Comments

[LNS]

What was wrong with the www.agsas.org/howto/patterns/knitting_sock.shtml free pattern? The author has supplied three different versions, from the original in its 1860s terminology, to a direct equivalent in modern terminology, to a version for those unfamiliar with sock-knitting to follow.

I'm British, living in Britain and when a friend over here asked me to knit him some American Civil War socks, it took me mere moments to find the AGSAS website and its multiple free patterns.
(The socks are worn at battle re-enactments of your Civil War in England!)

I'm pleased you have an item re-created for children to handle, but what a pity you couldn't find the original pattern issued by the US Sanitary Commission in 1860.

[Adrienne R.]

There are several Civil War era sock patterns available through the Atlantic Guard Soldiers Aid Society. World War II patterns would include innovations that they didn't have in the Civil War, such as grafted toes and they probably would have left out the seam stitch. I am, however, also a museum educator and I have found myself in similar situations, so good for you for making do. Nice sock!

[Hochzeits DJ]

I like the many artifacts you're showing! I hope to visit soon!

[BLClark]

One of my favorites is a teacher in Oklahoma whose class bakes hardtack each year while studying the Civil War and she mounts a piece to paper and hangs it on the wall, where it joins the sequence of over a dozen previous years of hardtack samples. The casual viewer would be hard pressed to identify the newest.

[Jenny]

Hello, fellow knitters! Thanks for contributing your advice. I have to admit that I'm a prolific, but not very technically skilled, knitter and have only learned how to read patterns in the last year. So I went with the pattern that worked for me. But I'll definitely consider your suggestions for the next time 'round!

A Facebook commenter also asked about what type of needles I used (size 1's) and then another on what type of needles would have been available--another great question to investigate!

[Harrow Strickland]

Jenny, you so rock for doing this!!!!! Visitors will enjoy this teaching tool. I'm so impressed by the fact you now HOW to knit and put those skills to such a cool use!!

[Colleen]

Actually, as others have posted, there ARE differences between WWII and CW era socks!

In addition, a little google searching for the Sanitary Commission pattern will lead you to it in several places online.

[Macci Martinez]

I want to do a pair of CW socks and give it as a birthday gift for my brother, and I want to make them as authentic as possible to make it more special. I just don't know where to look for an authentic pattern. Please help. :)

[Johannes]

Wow, are those socks for sale at all? That would be a great christmas gift for my dad.

[mike]

There was some patterns and a few pairs of socks for sale on eBay not sure how to tell the authenticity of them though.

Maybe also checkout some of the army surplus shops, many have some really old kit and the prices are pretty good as well.