These socks are knitted in the round from the cuff down using five dpns or a 23cm (9in) circular needle. They have a reinforced slipped stitch heel flap to give a more robust heel. The original pair were knitted using super fine needles and cotton, with a rather more perfunctory heel and toe than those used here. The socks in the Zenzie Tinker Conservation collection are accompanied by a handwritten letter from Jane Osborne in Belfast, dated September 11th 1899 and sent to a friend or relative, Annie, in Dublin upon the birth of her daughter. In it, Jane states that the socks were originally knitted for her and sent to her own mother – they were only worn once at her baptism in 1847, already making them a good 52 years old when they were sent to Annie.

The Print O’ The Wave stitch was originally documented in Mrs Jane Gaugain’s ‘Lady’s Assistant in Knitting, Netting and Crochet’. Mrs Gaugain, owner of an Edinburgh haberdashery, was the author of many popular knitting books at the time, and this particular volume, first published in 1840, ran to 22 editions, so it’s entirely possible that this was the inspiration for these socks originally (although the stitch didn’t come by its name until later).