Edelweiss Traditional Bavarian Socks by Barbara Gasteiger

Edelweiss Traditional Bavarian Socks

Knitting
December 2011
Fingering (14 wpi) ?
30 stitches = 4 inches
in stockinette stitch
US 1½ - 2.5 mm
English
This pattern is available as a free Ravelry download

This pattern uses the famous “Wildschützdoppelzopfer” (poacher’s double braid). It is said to have been worn by Georg Jennerwein, an infamous 19th century poacher and a kind of Bavarian Robin Hood.

This is a traditional Bavarian pattern as handed down from mother to daughter. Every village had their own distinctive patterns. They sometimes served to identify the bodies of mountaineers that had fallen to their death in the treacherous regions of the Alps. It sometimes took weeks to find a body, and by then all that remained to tell where the person had come from were the well-known cable and lace patterns on the hand-knitted stockings.