I read a book to the kids I was babysitting in the 1970's called "When Grandfather was a Little Boy" and in it the little boy has to knit five rows on a pair of socks after school before he went to play.
Later when studying the history of knitting I discovered that once knitted socks became popular (around the 14th to 16 centuries) EVERYONE in a middle to lower class family knit socks and by the time of the American Revolution it was still not only a housewife's job (Martha Washington led the ladies knitting socks for their husbands and the troops during the war) but always a fall back activity required of both children and the elderly (of both genders).
My Primer from the 1860's has instructions for socks and mittens, again both boys and girls were expected to learn to knit them as part of their one-room schoolhouse experience.
During wars from the Revolutionary War through WW1 and even WW2; knitting stockings (and other things) for the troops and at home was part and parcel of life for non-combatants especially school children and the elderly.
One of my favorite pictures is from WW1 and it shows to civil war vets one wearing the blue and the other the grey as bearded old men in Central Park knitting socks for the troops in WW1.
The reason hand knit socks were needed up until WW2 was because the early knitting machines (invented during the time of Queen Elizabeth the First) tended to leave knots in the socks; in the age before antibiotics knots could lead to blisters and even death for troops on long marches.
Hand knit socks could be made without knots as could socks made by a home-knitting machine invented about the time of WW2 and distributed to home knitters both in the US and the UK - I saw one in action in Galway and they are amazing, you can make a sock, with heal in about 20 minutes with no knots if you know what you are doing - these machines knit in the round, like a hand knitter.
Even grown men knit socks, there's a photo of the American Ambassador to China knitting one for the troops during a meeting during WW1; men learned as children and were expected to pitch in when needed, especially on the frontier or during wartime.
Finally, sailors, especially in the UK were given needles and yarn instead of socks to keep them busy; when we first moved to Ireland two decades ago sometimes old men would stop me when they saw my sock knitting and say "ah you are using five needles, I used to use four" they had almost always served in the British Navy or Merchant marine.
We have one friend still whose a bit older than me, who was in the Merchant Marine and made all his extra shore leave money by knitting socks for the other guys that didn't want to and they paid him for it.
As far as I know, the Brits don't that anymore but up through the 1960's, it was considered a tradition and a way to keep the sailors busy when on board ship.
Blind family members and those with poor eyesight were often until recently expected to do the family spinning, knitting and weaving; usually with help from a sibling or parent to choose the yarns or warp the looms.
I visited a workshop in the 1980's in Denver that still employed all blind weavers, they couldn't hire me because the looms were all standing and I wasn't tall enough - the boss thought this was a pity (he was an old man) because he could tell I had "the weaver's touch" and my eyesight was bad enough to have qualified (you didn't have to be totally blind, though many of the workshop workers were).
I have taught myself to knit and read at the same time (a Victorian pastime for young ladies) as long as it is simple knitting; so I can understand how blind knitting works, there is a certain limitation in patterns but no reason not to knit most of a sock; perhaps having a sighted family member turn the heal and do the toe.
We had a severely (Down's syndrome) young women in our Denver SCA group that made the most lovely shawls (she crocheted them) but her only problem is you had to remind her not to drag them in the dirt, in an extended traditional family that would have been her job probably making them to sell as well as for the family.
Meanwhile - today's discovery - Lidle's Super Wash sock yarn isn't - husband washed that load, because the socks were larger I think they will still fit me but are now felted.
I may end up mostly just using super-wash for all our socks except the heavy wool over-socks as I just can't count on things not getting thrown in the dryer...
