CHICAGO — Don’t go bounding down a sand dune unless you’re sure your feet are feeling comfy in those felt socks. (It worked for two saints long ago; more on that later). Try it. You’ll realize how they must have felt.
Consult the dictionary and you’ll find that felt is the past-tense of feel.
Sometimes when you do something that excites you, puts you in the groove, you get “the feels.”
Songs like Journey’s Feeling That Way ask: “Are you feeling, feeling that way too, or am I just, am I just a fool?” Lots of “feels” there.
But consider, if you do acquire feelings, then realize what you feel, is a feeling very well-felt.
Felt, for us here today, is a textile made from compressed fibers. These fibers can be natural-made animal fur or synthetic, such as from a petroleum-based acrylic.
In feeling-out Wikipedia, it explains: “Felt from wool is considered to be the oldest known textile. Many cultures have legends as to the origins of felt-making.”
Now we come back to those saints, it continues: “The story of Saint Clement and Saint Christopher relates that the men packed their sandals with wool to prevent blisters while fleeing from persecution. At the end of their journey, movement and sweat had turned the wool into felt socks.”
As Norman Oehlke writes in his Complete Spotting Guide & More available at Americandrycleaner.com, “Felting is a compact material formed by submitting wool fibers, or wool in combination with other fibers, to chemical and mechanical action, moisture, pressure and heat so they tangle, shrink, and mat.”
It would seem then that the story about the sandals worn by the two sweaty-footed saints in the desert, padded with wool that turned into felt, is possible. Now that you know a little more about this fabric, do you feel the same? If you do, then I’m not going to argue it, because that’s simply what you felt.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Dave Davis at [email protected].