Russet Lodge kilt hose: REVIEW

**cloves** · 8th October 07, 05:47 PM

I've been a bit lax at posting lately as I've been terribly busy with new work resposibilities. However, I've promised a few people some pics and posts so here goes nothing!

A few months back I spotted the little link in Arlen's posts to a site called Russet Lodge Custom Knits Having checked out the site I discovered that the site infact belongs to Arlen's lady friend Diane.
After perusing her site, I immediately contacted her and she seemed very enthusiastic about creating something custom for me. (well...my GF actually) About a half a dozen emails back and forth we had settled on a design and color.
I wanted something that was intricate, but not so busy as your typical Balmoral type sock. The socks also had to match her Stillwater Nightstalker kilt, and hopefully go with that Faire leather belt I had commissioned quite some time ago.
Well, when the socks finally showed up...i was more than impressed. But will my GF like them?
She said...."woah....these fit REALLY well" and she loved the colors Diane had found for me.
The hose are really well built and quite hefty, though I'd say when comparing them with FK Heritage hose they are slightly lighter in weight.
Looks like finer (by finer I mean less chunky) yarns were used in the Russett Lodge hose. This is by no means a bad thing. I'd say because of the finer knit, the Russett's may dress up a bit better. Different hose, different applications.
The coolest and most impressive part of the hose is the entrelac knit tops.
I'm still not sure the phsyics/voodoo needed to knit those tops, but wow..it's beautiful!
To sum up......i'm really jealous that these socks aren't in my own collection of kilt hose. I do hope to rectify that in the new year.
Here are a few pics for the rabble to check out for themselves

the front

the back (note the cool Panache Sgian Don't in the sock)

and here's the whole outfit to show how well the color of the socks matches the belt