Best way to wash kilt hose?

[emolas]

If you don't have a lady in your life, go to your local laundromat. Stand there in your kilt with a pair of hose in your hand and a really pitifully look on your face. It will only take about ten minutes before someone asks if you need help.

And a date, with any luck.

I soak mine for a day in cold water with baby shampoo then rinse them out and hang to dry. No agitation is they key to keeping their size and shape.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

I have quite a collection of kilt hose, both store bought and hand knit, and all of them are wool blends to some degree or other. I machine wash them.

If you have a pair of 100% wool hose, or if you are an irregular kilt wearer and only wear your hose every so often, it would definitely be worth your while to hand wash them. You can wash them in the sink with a little woolite, following the instructions on the bottle. Heck, you can take them in the bath with you and wash them with some shampoo if you like (wool is hair, after all!). Conditioner would make them nice and soft!

But if you are like me and wear the kilt often, and end up with a whole basket full of kilt hose, to wash, you might find machine washing to be more reasonable. As I said, all of mine are wool blend to some degree. I just wash them (by which I mean, my wife washed them), on the gentle/delicate cycle, in cold water. Then we let them air dry. DO NOT PUT THEM IN THE DRYER (unless you are trying to get hose to fit your kilted cabbage patch doll).

In my years of washing hose this way, once or twice I have had an irregular pair of hose shrink using this method, even if they were a wool blend like my others. So it's not fool-proof. But I find it to work very well with most hose available on the market, as well as what my wife has knit for me.

(what my bedroom looks like on laundry day)

[Chef]

That's quite a collection Matt.

I usually use the delicate cycle in a lingerie bag for all hose except 100% wool, but occasionally I'll hand wash if I'm in the mood. When I do hand wash I still use the washers spin cycle to get the water out and then I lay them out to dry.

[cacunn]

I wash mine in bathroom sink with some shampoo. Like Matt says wool is sheep hair and I can't see going out and spending money on Woollite if there is a multi tasker, like shampoo, around. Once washed and as much water pressed out, press down on the hose gently against the side of the sink, I lay them out on an old bath or beach towel. I then roll the hose and towel up and press down again, then let sit for a few minutes. I find that this will remove a great deal of the water left in the hose. The less water when put to dry the faster the drying.

[Cawdorian]

Can the wool Lochcarron and Gaelic Themes kilt hose offered by many of the highland wear vendors be washed in the washer using the delicate cycle, cold water and Woolite without causing any harm to the kilt hose?

Sometimes hand washing doesn't seem to get all of the dirt and soil out of the light colored hose (cream or oatmeal). Does anyone have a suggestion?

[Jack Daw]

My hose are wool or a wool blend, but I don't remember which; so, I make it a policy to wash all my kilt hose the same way - by hand with Woolite. I squeeze (NOT WRING!) out the excess and roll them up in a towel before hanging them up over the bathtub to drip out the remaining water and dry.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Can the wool Lochcarron and Gaelic Themes kilt hose offered by many of the highland wear vendors be washed in the washer using the delicate cycle, cold water and Woolite without causing any harm to the kilt hose?

Sometimes hand washing doesn't seem to get all of the dirt and soil out of the light colored hose (cream or oatmeal). Does anyone have a suggestion?

I've washed many a pair of Lochcarron and Gaelic themes hose in the washer on the delivate cycle as described above and never had a problem, except for the lovat green from Lochcarron, which shrunk. Never had a problem with any other color.

[cacunn]

except for the lovat green

They were green if you had let them ripen a little you would not have had the problem.

[Pleater]

I try to wash my hose as soon as possible after wearing them - dark colours I will wear two days running, in cool weather, but as soon as the clocks change in the spring I only wear them one day, and in the hottest months of the year I always wash them as soon as I take them off.

If you let them lie around after wearing they will not last as long, and they can discolour if they are pale colours.

I have been making and wearing hose for 40 years now and I have some which must be almost that old, or at least the yarn is - I reknit them if they get a hole but the yarn is still good.

These days it would be difficult to get the 50 percent Nylon yarn I used to use, I have not seen it for a decade or so. I now use a yarn with more wool - I try to get a 20 percent Nylon, but 10 is the more usual these days.

I have made short socks from all wool - very luxurious but I doubt they would last long for hard wear.

I usually wash hose in the bathroom and tend to use either shampoo or toilet soap. I did get some liquid detergent once, but it seemed very harsh by comparison.

I think that shampoo with conditioner gives the best results with the high wool socks, as it helps stop felting and pilling.

I am not sure how it would affect acrylic mix socks as I don't have any, but I have heard that using ordinary clothing conditioner on arylic knits is not a good thing and can make them go limp and stretched out.

I usually wash, rinse twice, and then squeeze - I play guitar and my grip is good - though with the thickest and longest ones I wrap them in a towel and stand on them.

A third rinse with a drop of white vinegar will benefit wool socks, particularly if your feet tend to pong a bit - it corrects the acidity so the wool is happy and the pong making organisms are not.

I then hand them up to dry naturally, away from heat and sunlight - the sun will brown wet wool, and make it brittle - which is good in a way as the brown bits will break off, but it weakens the threads and makes them feel itchy as all the broken ends work their way out of the stitches.

[Mike in Dayton]

I got a couple pairs yesterday. They are 30% nylon, 70% wool. On the package you will find a few symbols that indicate care instructions. Looking them up on the web they decode as follows:

Machine wash - warm (my symbol shows 40 which would be 40 degrees C, some show dots)
No bleach
No iron
no dry clean
tumble dry - no heat