In need of diced hose pattern

[TecScot]

Hit the Schoolhouse Press web site. They have republished Lady Gainsford's book. I lost my copy and had to purchase a new one last spring, so as of a few months ago it was available in new and used. Of course the day after the new book arrived I found the old one.

Good luck with that diced hose pattern, it is not for the faint of heart and requires some mucking with to get it right.

My biggest problem hasn't been the pattern, but finding the marled yarn. I may have to combine one strand of white and one of navy and hand twist them together to get a marled yarn. Yuck.

SheScot

[DWFII]

My biggest problem hasn't been the pattern, but finding the marled yarn. I may have to combine one strand of white and one of navy and hand twist them together to get a marled yarn. Yuck.

My wife is knitting some Argyll hose to match my tank...bottle green and black with white and red rakers. Before she began I searched all over the 'net for a marled fingering yarn in bottle green and black...no joy. In fact there really isn't any marled yarn on the market, anywhere that I came across, that was in kilt colours (not just my kilt colours), much less in a fingering weight yarn.

I suggested that she un-ply and then re-ply the two colours together...she is a spinner and she regularly plies yarns together. Like you she was reluctant to do that. Instead she has been knitting one stitch green and the next stitch black. Now not being a knitter myself, I might not have the technique completely clear in my mind, but essentially that's what she's doing...according to her description.

It actually looks good...we don't have any marled yarn to compare it to but so far the pattern appears to be clear and easily recognizable--where it is supposed to be a blend of two colours, it is.

Just a thought...

[idyllicchick]

Instead she has been knitting one stitch green and the next stitch black.

The small and large Shepherd's Plaid in Gainford's book calls for doing this as well. Just two colors, no marled yarn. Matt's hose pictured above were knit up using this technique, as opposed to the photo in the original post which does use marled yarn.

I think they both look great! But like you all have been saying, finding that marled yarn is going to be tough.

[Pleater]

I'd have thought that most folks could make the marled yarn - well anyone with some smallish, smooth sticks could.

You would need to have single colour yarns composed of two strands, to make it easy.

Just take equal lengths of the two whole colours, each one half the weight for the two socks. Wind each one onto a stick.

Separate the strands and tie one to each of two sticks, then wind the separate strands. The easiest way to work is to stand on the landing on the top floor of your house, unwind a good length of the yarn, tie a half hitch or two to stop the rest unwinding and lower it down, then the source will rotate happily as you wind the separate threads, storing the twist for the next stage which is combining the two colours.

For that you just tie on the two colour threads, lower the stick and wait until it stops spinning, haul it up, wind on the marled yarn, repeat until done. Theoretically there should be enough to make one sock from each lot.

I use a figure of eight winding on, which my father learned from his mother, as it is much faster than simply rotating the stick, and it doesn't alter the twist of the threads. The sticks are 12 to 18 inch dowels rubbed with wax afrer being rounded off at each end.

I call them 'ooks' - to differentiate them from pointed sticks, which are, of course, called 'eek!'s. I think that they go back quite a way in the scheme of Human tool use.

Anne the Pleater