Designing for my son with shoe size 14,5/ 49,5 a pair of socks based on one of the two ganseys 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 village. When life was improving, women started to knit checkered pattern they saw on masonry walls. To make bricks they used wood burned stoves, that would produce different colors in the bricks once baked. They would lace bricks in one color type together.
And by then the sweater was worn above the frock, because it had become a piece to be shown.
The name of these socks: “Erremuse Bricks” refers to the local slang name of the town: “Erremu”.
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.