Last year as we moved into deepest winter and my feet decided it would make sense to have some warm woollen coverings I took the plunge and invested in ten pairs of Nordic socks.
I was promised comfort and high quality, beautiful Scandinavian design and exceptional warmth from Luxurious Scandinavian-Patterned Merino Wool Socks. Yanow what? They delivered. The socks are indeed warm and comfortable and whilst they have an element of man made yarn, that serves to make them more robust and easier to stretch over my feet when putting on. This is in contrast to my artisan wool socks that are always a bit of an effort to get over the foot! Anyway that is detail, none of which is relevant to the line being pursued here.
For the last week or three I have been wearing the aforementioned Nordic socks but couldn’t quite lay my hands on ten pairs. In fact three pairs seemed to represent peak sock shelf occupancy. I did have one single whose mate was undiscoverable regardless of how often I would rummage at the back of the shelf looking.
I mentioned the orphan sock to THG who produced five singles from the small basket she keeps somewhere knowing that one day each individual would eventually find its mate. One of these socks matched my single but this then produced a dilemma. Where on earth were the other four?
I rummaged further into the sock shelf. This is not as straightforward as you might think because it isn’t just a sock shelf. It is also the repository for underpants and pyjamas so there is quite a bit of gear in there under which a sock may choose to hide. This morning I even found a pair of braces I’d forgotten I had and not worn for decades. On this occasion, as before, I was a luckless rummager.
Now this is not as major a calamity as some of you might be thinking. I am quite happy to wear non matching socks. The other four will someday resurface. Probs. I am however not going to empty the sock/underpants/pyjama shelf just to find them.
Mind you it does need doing as my rummaging brought to light a fair number of trainer liners in need of matching. Also the summer socks should really be consigned to a separate repository so as not to be a hindrance to their winter cousins as seems they may well be right at this moment.
I feel sure that at the back of the sock shelf, buried right at the bottom, there are four single undiscovered Nordic socks together with two matching pairs, the numbers I need to bring the cohort/school/flock up to its full complement.
No idea what the collective noun for socks is. Disappointingly there doesn’t appear to be one. How unimaginative.