Socks

Worn inside of high leather boots, for playing boz-kashi (‘catch goat’), a popular game played on horseback, using a headless goat as the target.

Made by a woman in Khandud village. A photograph in the MOA Archives shows the collector, Luqman Nagy, having tea at the home of the woman who made these socks. Wakhi is the language spoken by the people there; it is one of six Pamiri languages.

The technique used to construct these socks is very complex. A diagram showing this technique may be found on pages 35 and 39 of Peter Collingwood's "The Maker’s Hand: A Close Look at Textile Structures", 1987.

A pair (parts a-b) of man’s long tubular heel-less wool socks decorated with multi-coloured designs. The interlooped fabric is very strong, and dense, and it has almost no stretch. The toes of the socks are embellished with brown chevron designs on an off-white ground. From the ankle to the knee, there are bands of stylized floral, and abstract shapes worked in green, purple, red, orange, and pink, some on a brown background while some on an off-white background. The tops are finished with a band of looped yarn and tassels made from twisted yarn. The two socks are identical in size, colour, and design.