12 count? I only see 5.

Plus $30 shipping from Egypt.

Did you see the holes?

!afterlife
perhaps?

It looks very Scandinavian. You could probably adapt a pattern to look like these. My mom made Viking socks once and they were pretty uncomfortable.

ravelry[dot]com has lots of patterns (free and for sale) which match these. Judging by the age on some of those patterns on that site, this image has made the rounds for years.

My cat would like a word. We call her "the Sock Destroyer."

I imagine when you're knitting socks by hand- (or with whatever medieval sock loom may have been available?) it's going to take you almost as long to just make a plain white one. But after the first about two of those you get really bored. Even more so if you were making a full floor size rug. So maybe the motivation for the 'unnecessary design' on everything back then was less about the customer's vanity than the artisan's sanity.

You need a garter

Same. Though, I actually appreciate that they could last a year. They go through many thousands of steps, friction, salty sweat, wash cycles, and are made to comfortably fit many shapes and sizes of feet.

I'm sure they could last longer if made from stronger materials, but probably at the cost of comfort and fit.

🤔 This is probably the most I've ever thought about socks