Quote Originally Posted by Phil View Post
That is a really impressive job of knitting - I hope she got a good Christmas present!
Thanks. I made her a distaff for her spinning wheel so that she could spin flax into linen and straw into gold.

I looked really hard at tartan hose in the lead up to asking her to make these. All I have are this pair, so this is partly speculation, but from what I've been able to determine...from photos, inquiries and talking to several experienced knitters...if they are done correctly the increase in size from the ankle to the calf is done by switching to a larger needle. You can't really make the diamonds bigger (more stitches) without distorting the whole pattern. And then what you end up with is the diamonds not coming together exactly right at the seam. Or orphaned portions of extra diamonds, and again not converging at the seam.

Intuitively, it would seem to be almost impossible to keep the pattern symmetrical with customers who have large calves, but it may be that the yarn is larger either to begin with or switched to in the knitting process. My wife used a very soft (it's so nice on the skin--softer than any other hose I have) merino fingering yarn throughout, so the yarn itself was of fairly small diameter. To tell the truth, I don't think she could have made the calves any larger, but I'm not a knitter. I just offer this commentary for anyone who is thinking about doing (or having some else do) a pair.

BTW, from everything I have been told...and heard during the long anticipatory lead-up to Christmas...this is advanced knitting and not a "gimme" even for the "experienced."

PS...those are beautiful, Mark. What does your calf measure?