Hand-knitting socks/hose

[Tobus]

Just like Anne, I grew up knitting socks and now my family won't wear anything else, so patterns haven't been necessary for plain socks in nearly 40 years. I don't use metric measurements; my needles are all old Commonwealth number 13 and 14, and one set of 17s.

I did have some fun a couple of years ago, making some hose for my husband. As you can see, I did the Gairloch pattern too, among others. I also made a couple of patterns up, and completely re-wrote the one for the top from Rae Compton's book, because it made no sense to me.

Very nice examples! What size/weight yarn do you prefer for kilt hose?


Last night I finished a pair of simple socks for my wife. My knitting is getting faster; I finished this pair in a week, where it had previously taken me two weeks for a pair. Now I guess it's time to start working on a pair of kilt hose with some Rowan felted tweed yarn I've been sitting on. I think I'll do solid-colour legs with some dicing on the cuffs.

[Verity]

Very well done on getting your wife's pair done in a week! And I omitted to say earlier, very nice job on the dicing!

I carry my current project with me wherever I go, because I'm really bad at sitting still. Lately I've been knitting while shadowing a class, and the kids have been fascinated, so I'm going to donate time and give them a knitting lesson later this week.

I like to use the fingering weight sock wool from Knitpicks; most brands I can get locally are just a bit too chunky. You can't tell in the pic I uploaded, but I worked the Gairloch pattern in green on navy, and the colours exactly match those in our modern tartan colourways.

The white hose were made from laceweight wool.

I checked the conversion charts and I guess I'm mostly using 2mm, occasionally 2.25.

[Verity]

I should probably say which hose in my pic were done with which patterns, so here goes:

The yellow/brown hose were made from a mid weight wool I got second-hand, the top was alternating colours every two rows, in Trinity stitch (aka bramble/blackberry/popcorn stitch).

The brown hose were Lion brand fishermen's wool, the damask pattern too was from Veronica Gainsford's book.

Both of these used a leg I devised myself based on dimensions from a fundraiser boot-sock that was part of the Spincycle-Skye project; when I went back to look for it I could only find it through the Wayback Machine. But it was stocking stitch and I wanted ribbed, and my husband wanted the ankle less baggy, so I tweaked it a bit.

The blue/green Gairloch pattern hose have an amazing 3-d braid pattern top, again from Gainsford. I'd make the reversed stocking stitch flanking the braid twice the depth if I were re-doing this pattern; it has a tendency to curl and make the top look disproportionately short.

Here is the braid top; the colours are all wrong from the flash, but at least you can see the pattern. IMG_20210612_072155.jpgIMG_20220321_110253.jpg

The blue and white were a Sanquhar check pattern from Gainsford. No changes, unusually for me.

IMG_20220321_105418.jpg

The windowpane tops (brown/red and teal/russet) were from Ryder, as were the legs of those hose. No changes to the written pattern.

The white hose were in a laceweight wool, pattern from Compton, rewritten by me but not otherwise changed except for dimensions.
IMG_20220321_105907.jpgIMG_20220321_105842.jpg

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Before I started this project I spent some months having a Wallace Moment
(think Wallace of Wallace and Gromit fame, and his reaction to cheese) at all the varied artistry in 'shooting stockings' (that's the search term for the richest trove of ideas). I saw that most pairs were being sold with a garter that was knitted in a tube. That's easy enough to do: cast in twice the number of stitches you want for the width of your garter (for me, it was 9x2=18) then k1, yarn fwd, slip stitch purlwise, yarn to back, and repeat. You create a flat tube. Make it the length you want (32-36" ) and add tags/tassels to each end.

However, having made a couple of pairs I won't do any more like that. They are too thick, and the stocking stitch slips a bit when tied in place. Much better to make them single thickness in garter stitch, which is I believe why it is called that. I also think it's an ideal project for a youthful beginner knitter, since the basic knit stitch should be pretty confident by the end of the project, and it's something that can be shown off and admired, which encourages said youthful knitter to keep knitting.

Verity

[Tobus]

Wow! Nice work! I really dig that Sanquhar check.

I know what you mean about the curling problem. I'd love to be able to finish off a cuff in plain stockinette, but it'll just roll up on itself. Even doing reverse stockinette, making it curl inward instead of outward, seems like a gamble.

Here's one kilt sock I finished over the week-end (I'm currently about 25% done on the matching sock). Gairloch pattern on the cuff, yay! I opted for just a couple of rows of 1x1 ribbing to finish off the cuff, just to avoid curling. I probably should have stepped down a couple of needle sizes for that ribbing so it would lay flatter, but oh well. I also need to find a better way to increase my ribbing up the leg so it doesn't kink the lines and make it so obvious where my increases are.

This was my first full kilt-length sock with a turnover cuff. It ain't perfect, but I'm fair chuffed at how it turned out for my first try (and for someone who only started knitting 4 months ago).

[Verity]

Yay! I found my re-write of Compton's castellated top!

Cast on a multiple of 20 sts. I was using lace-weight wool, at 9 sts per inch. To accommodate my husband's calf, I cast on 160 sts. This top has some elasticity but not much.

Row 1: K1, K2tog tbl, (K1P1)x3, K1, yon, (K1P1)x3*, K1, K2tog.
* In 3rd and subsequent rows the first K1 of this bracketed set will need to be tbl (through the back of the loop).
Row 2: P1, K2tog tbl, (P1K1)x3, P1, yon, (P1K1)x3, P1, K2tog

Repeat rows 1 and 2 as often as necessary for effect. I did 16 rows, then an inch of ordinary ribbing (for elasticity) before I started the leg.

Edit: I said 'rows' throughout this pattern but I meant rounds. The cuff, as with the rest of the garment, was knitted in the round. I did not have to flip it inside out and reverse direction on my work as happens with many cuffs when one moves on to the leg, because both sides are alike.

Verity

[Verity]

Wow! Nice work! I really dig that Sanquhar check.

I know what you mean about the curling problem. I'd love to be able to finish off a cuff in plain stockinette, but it'll just roll up on itself. Even doing reverse stockinette, making it curl inward instead of outward, seems like a gamble.

Here's one kilt sock I finished over the week-end (I'm currently about 25% done on the matching sock). Gairloch pattern on the cuff, yay! I opted for just a couple of rows of 1x1 ribbing to finish off the cuff, just to avoid curling. I probably should have stepped down a couple of needle sizes for that ribbing so it would lay flatter, but oh well. I also need to find a better way to increase my ribbing up the leg so it doesn't kink the lines and make it so obvious where my increases are.

This was my first full kilt-length sock with a turnover cuff. It ain't perfect, but I'm fair chuffed at how it turned out for my first try (and for someone who only started knitting 4 months ago).

Tobus, that is beautiful! I should think you'd be chuffed. Well done! The Gairloch looks great! (My husband wants a Gairloch pattern waistcoat now...)
If you don't want ribbing on the edge, you might try moss stitch. That would lie flat enough, I think. And do take a look at Ryder's book (it's free) ; in the 19th cent they seem to have made a fashionable feature of those increases and decreases we all try to avoid showing these days.

But VERY WELL DONE!

[Tobus]

Tobus, that is beautiful! I should think you'd be chuffed. Well done! The Gairloch looks great! (My husband wants a Gairloch pattern waistcoat now...)
If you don't want ribbing on the edge, you might try moss stitch. That would lie flat enough, I think. And do take a look at Ryder's book (it's free) ; in the 19th cent they seem to have made a fashionable feature of those increases and decreases we all try to avoid showing these days.

But VERY WELL DONE!

Thanks. Moss stitch (or maybe seed stitch for such few rounds at the edge) sounds like a good solution. That's really all I am after, is making the bottom of the cuff lie flat and look tidy. On future kilt hose, I will give that a shot.

I looked at the Ryder book, and will need to study it some more to digest the pattern details for the legs. I wish there were better photos of the leg portions, and not just the cuffs. Honestly, that's one thing that annoys me about a lot of patterns I see online for kilt hose: they give lots of detail and images of the front and maybe the sides, but it's the back that is most troublesome for me, in terms of figuring out the best way to do increases whilst staying in pattern.

I have the Gairloch pattern from the museum, which gives good detail, but I'm likely going to have to alter it a bit for my yarn size/gauge and leg dimensions. I just need to figure out how to apply that to other types of colour patterns I intend to do, like dicing or perhaps even the MacKenzie stag head hose as painted by Kenneth MacLeay. I've been playing with options on a computer mockup for the stitch pattern to recreate these, but the increases at the back will be a challenge.

[Verity]

Thanks.

I looked at the Ryder book, and will need to study it some more to digest the pattern details for the legs. I wish there were better photos of the leg portions, and not just the cuffs. Honestly, that's one thing that annoys me about a lot of patterns I see online for kilt hose: they give lots of detail and images of the front and maybe the sides, but it's the back that is most troublesome for me, in terms of figuring out the best way to do increases whilst staying in pattern.

I have the Gairloch pattern from the museum, which gives good detail, but I'm likely going to have to alter it a bit for my yarn size/gauge and leg dimensions. I just need to figure out how to apply that to other types of colour patterns I intend to do, like dicing or perhaps even the MacKenzie stag head hose as painted by Kenneth MacLeay. I've been playing with options on a computer mockup for the stitch pattern to recreate these, but the increases at the back will be a challenge.

Let me know what aspects of the leg you would like to see, and I will photograph and post them. I copied Ryder's first pattern in the book faithfully, twice. And then bought an original copy of the book...

It tickles me just a bit that some of the commercial hand-knitters in this article are using Ryder's windowpane top. https://www.thefield.co.uk/country-h...tockings-39967

IMG_20220321_105450.jpg

I too used the museum's Gairloch pattern. I checked gauges etc and wound up (no pun intended) increasing the number of stitches by one third, so I had a full extra pattern repeat. And I used five needles, one working needle and one repeat on each other needle so I would always start the repeat in the same place. Because I increased the number of stitches by a third, I calculated the number of stitches total to decrease per the pattern, multiplied that by 1.33, and then figured out how many rows it would take me so that the number of decrease rows was evenly spaced over the total number of rows between bottom of calf and ankle. I drew a mock up of my husband's lower leg so I knew how many inches down from the top I would need to begin and end my series of decreases so that it would follow his actual measurements.

Edit: again I said rows instead of rounds. Sigh. My apologies. Having seen my mother knit tartan hose in the flat when I was little (she hated every moment of it, I think) I am not daft enough to knit any type of hose in the flat, except for one pair of WW2 women's stockings where the pattern called for it.

I love Macleay's painting! I did work out a very small stag's head to fit the middle of the Gairloch pattern once, not sure where I've put it. I draw all such things on graph paper. Lady Gainford (I misspelt her name in the previous post) has a side-on stag's head design that is small enough, but it didn't appeal for this purpose.

Verity

[stickman]

I’ve been reading about your knitting, it made me think about my old aunt. She used to get me to hold her skeins of wool while she rolled it up in a ball. I remember her knitting socks with with four needles and four different colors of wool while watching the telly, she seldom looked at what she was doing. She knitted me an Arran style turtleneck sweater that I wore for years, until it was a matted up mess. My mother,on the other hand, couldn’t knit a stitch. She could fly with a crochet hook however. I never learned to knit but I learned to crochet but not like my mom.

[Verity]

Beautiful memories you have there Stickman!

My grandfather would put the skein over a chairback and wind it off into balls so my grandmother could keep knitting, but he would wind them so tightly he could make them bounce and Grandmamma was not impressed... it was almost as good as their goodnatured bickering over whether the meat fat was so burnt it couldn't be reused for cooking any more and was ready for him to use for greasing tools and making soap. As I remember all their soap smelt like burnt meat fat.

I hope you keep up with your crochet though! Have you made any garters?