Designing for my son with shoe size 14,5/ 49,5 a pair of socks based on the gansey of the fishermen from Arnemuiden, a fisherman’s town in the Netherlands.

Fishermen from his fishing village did not have sweaters with patterns at first. The sweaters were worn underneath a frock so there was no need to enhance them. Besides that the women had to walk from Arnemuiden to Middelburg with their fish to sell it on the market. That would be like 80 kilos of fish each day!. They would be called ” visleurster” and a statue of a “visleurster” can be found in the town on the market in front of the church. When life was improving, women started to knit checkered patterns they saw on masonry walls. And another pattern they use to call ‘snakes’. On this pattern my socks are based on. And by then the sweater was worn above the frock, because it had become a piece to be shown.
The name of these socks: “The Bell of Arnemuiden” refers to a very famous Dutch shantysong with the same name. The Bell mentioned is the church bell that would rang if a fishermen’s boat would return to the harbour to give notice they were coming back again.

More about these sweaters in the book Nederlandse Visserstruien by Henriette van der Klift-Tellegen (Bilt 1983) The book has also been translated in English.

The pattern is in Dutch and in English.