Non-wool lovat blue hose?

[MichiganKyle]

So, after seeing this thread:

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...lt-hose-71512/

That AKScott linked to here:

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/s...91#post1382491

I'm wondering: is there anywhere you can buy cable-knit (or at least strongly-patterned) hose in lovat blue which are not made with wool? Or is there a good recipe for dying acrylic or cotton hose to the right color?

[Tobus]

So, after seeing this thread:

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...lt-hose-71512/

That AKScott linked to here:

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/s...91#post1382491

I'm wondering: is there anywhere you can buy cable-knit (or at least strongly-patterned) hose in lovat blue which are not made with wool? Or is there a good recipe for dying acrylic or cotton hose to the right color?

Surely there are sources for non-wool hose in Lovat blue. I don't know where that would be, but still...

I had decent luck years ago in dyeing a pair of cheap synthetic off-white hose to what would be considered a Lovat green colour. To get to that lighter green colour, I had to use a dark green dye. Synthetic hose are basically made from petroleum-based products (aka plastics), and they don't absorb dye like a natural fiber. But the dye will stain the surface enough that some of it won't wash off. The key here is that most of the colour will wash off, and what remains is a lighter hue. If your goal is a medium blue, I'd start with a dark blue Rit dye, letting it soak for plenty of time and with enough agitation to work it into the weave. Then wash with cold water, heat dry it, and repeat the wash/dry cycle a few times. It will continue to bleed colour for a bit until it stabilises. And even after that, you may end up with some slight colour bleeding onto your feet when you wear them for a full day.

As an example, these are my light green synthetic hose that I used a dark green dye on.

[MichiganKyle]

So, I've decided to try dyeing a pair of these (my favorite fit in kilt hose):

https://sportkilt.com/product/deluxe...nit-kilt-hose/

Using RIT's liquid DyeMore dyes for synthetics. Going to try for as close to a Lovat Green as I can get. Matching on-screen to try to find a decent formula, this one looks pretty close and is the mix I plan to try:

https://www.ritdye.com/color-formula...on=0&pantone=0

Have never (intentionally ) dyed anything before, so it'll be a bit of an adventure, but I'll report back with progress whichever way it goes.

[Crazy Dave]

I have those Sport Kilt hoes and they are nice. If you can take a percentage of wool, USA Kilts has your color in a few different styles. I love my bottle green Colored Kilt Hoes. The color is awesome.

Dave

[MichiganKyle]

If you can take a percentage of wool, USA Kilts has your color in a few different styles.

I'd love to, but I've got enough weird allergies already (goofball ones like carrots and parsley), that as soon as I started developing a mild wool sensitivity, I figured I'd better ditch it ASAP before it became something much worse. I get sensitized to things way too easily.

I do have a few pairs of USA Kilts's cotton hose, though:

https://www.usakilts.com/cotton-kilt-hose.html

I like them, but they are a little tight. Green color's quite nice.

[Crazy Dave]

I have gluten sensitivity, so I get what you are saying. Good to know about the cotton socks. I was thinking of giving them a try. I have been very happy with everything that I have ordered through USA Kilts. I an wearing an Ireland's National Casual Kilt as I write this (and drinking a double dram of Bushmills 10 year old single malt). Looks great on me! I like the economy flashes too.

Dave

[MichiganKyle]

Mine are mostly long-term full-blown allergies (anaphylactic reactions, in some cases, like with cumin) where my throat swells shut and my face gets red and puffy. IgE antibodies to all kinds of stuff - blood testing has actually been a pretty accurate match for exclusion testing. I have to switch up my diet quite frequently to keep from building up allergies to more foods. So I may be a little paranoid about wool, but I really really don't want to develop any more true allergies than I already have - my immune system's clearly quite good at coming up with fun new things to try to attack.

[Crazy Dave]

Sounds like you immune system is on hyper drive. Actually, going gluten free tamed down some of my allergies, like my allergy to cats. It might have something to do with all the Roundup that is in most wheat products. It might be worth a try opstaining from gluten and seeing what happens.

Best wishes,

Dave

[MichiganKyle]

Yep, I've had to cut out gluten. Also have a separate allergy to wheat, most of the nuts (cashews and pecans are fine, just about everything else is bad), the entire legume family (including peas, beans, peanuts, chickpeas, etc.), the carrot/parsley/cilantro/celery/cumin family, the peppers family (green, yellow, red, jalapeño, chilli peppers, etc.), soy, eggs, sesame, dairy from any animal (with the exception of some cheeses thanks to the allergy meds I'm on - couldn't do that before without swelling up), brussels sprouts, sunflowers, and a bunch of other oddball grains and veggies. No issues with fruits, though, which is nice. Except if they've been treated with something - I've had that happen before with berries. Also, been vegetarian for years for health reasons. All of that together severely limits my diet. I go off of it sometimes, but then I have to take different allergy meds that put me to sleep shortly afterwards, and even with that I'm usually swollen for about 3 days. None of it's life-threatening, I just turn red, my face and neck puff up, I can't swallow, breathing gets difficult, and it hurts really bad. And for some of it (like cumin), my lips and tongue swell up. But not life-threatening.

I've got some environmental allergies as well, but most of them are not nearly as bad.

With all that, I'm a huge advocate for people getting tested for food allergies. I've had them my whole life, and when you've never known anything different, you don't really realize that eating doesn't always have to hurt. It's nothing abnormal for you - you have no baseline for comparison. And now that I know how big of a difference it makes, it makes it so you can really see how many people suffer from the same symptoms but have absolutely no idea. The blood test, for me, was mostly pretty accurate and is a quick and easy way to get you 90% of the way there. I'm no doctor and this is not medical advice, but if you have any question, I'd highly recommend looking into it.

And, yeah, I've thought the same thing for a long time - that I find it pretty hard to believe that glyphosate plays no part in the amount of allergies we're seeing nowadays. It's one of the big reasons why I think GMOs are things to avoid. The organism itself may be harmless, but it enables the use of other stuff like glyphosate. Not to mention the stupid intellectual property laws we have in the USA where you can patent self-replicating (and, indeed, cross-contaminating) organisms.

But, I digress.

Needless to say, wearing a super awesome amazing-looking wool kilt or the wool kilt hose I'd like to is not worth the risk of developing a new allergy. I've got enough of them already, and my body's quite good at making up new ones. Once I started developing a wool sensitivity, I ditched wool about as fast as I could. Which leads to this project.

[Crazy Dave]

That is some list of allergies! You make me feel lucky that I only have a gluten sensitivity. The only reason I know it that I went off of gluten to lose a few pounds. Then I watched a laundry list of heath problems disappear, the I thought were old age. Even my memory got better.

Dave