Purposefully shrinking diced hose?

[LitTrog]

So, I have some custom diced hose that, while the fit is acceptable, do not hug my ankle and lower calf as I would like. I place the onus on myself as an error in measuring, but am looking for some way to fix this small problem.

Can the hose be "spot" shrunk by wetting and agitating that problem area and then throwing them in the dryer? Would any shrinking ruin the effect of the dicing? Admittedly, this is a question prompted by vanity, but I do want every aspect of my attire to be spot-on. Especially $140 hose.

Any ideas? Or am I being stoopud? Go ahead and tell me that. I can take it!

[MacLowlife]

Why not put them on, wet the loose parts with a sponge, then hit them with a hair dryer, all whilst wearing them. Alternatively, you could have someone carve a pair of legs to replicate yours and dry them there...

I am pretty sure agitating is not what you want to do to wet wool unless you are hoping to create felt.

[Joshua]

Why not put them on, wet the loose parts with a sponge, then hit them with a hair dryer, all whilst wearing them. Alternatively, you could have someone carve a pair of legs to replicate yours and dry them there...

I am pretty sure agitating is not what you want to do to wet wool unless you are hoping to create felt.

I would follow mac's suggestion here. A dip in lukewarm water to the ankles, worn and dried via a blowdryer might get your needs accomplished.

Unless, you (like me) happen to have considerably larger feet than ankles.

[LitTrog]

Will try that, Mac. As my recent wedding pics will attest, the problem is not one which would prevent me from wearing them, but my lower legs look less "stovepipey" than than those pics would indicate. Thanks!

[scotchmaster]

Please keep e on the loo[p on this I have the same problem with a pair of Isle of Skye SHO 5 color tartan hose...

[fluter]

Alternatively, you could have someone carve a pair of legs to replicate yours and dry them there...

Indeed, if you had just knitted the hose, then your next step would be to wash or wet them, and block them to the appropriate shape while they dry. Wearing them as they dry would be simple way to do that! Just we them and wear them, if you can stand it.

Once or twice with this process should conform them nicely to your legs, unless they are just too big. Depending on how stretchy the knit fabric is, there can be a trade-off between having the ankles fit and having the socks easy to put on (pull over the heel).

Blocking also evens up any slight irregularities in the stitches. In my case, such variations of stitch size are inevitable in the hand work Your knitter may have more uniform results.

I have a pair of forms for blocking hose, cut from foam core, a bit smaller than my feet and legs. If I were doing it over, I'd make the cross-section of the blocking form about one-half inch smaller than half the circumference at each point of my anatomy (since we're working in two dimensions). The goal is about one inch of "negative ease" in the sock, so that it's stretched just a bit when worn. A 15-inch calf should work well with a 14-inch sock, and so forth.

[Pleater]

It might take some time to achieve the correction but there is very fine elastic thread available - it is usually used during knitting, so as to make ribbing more snappy, for instance, but with patience it could be sewn into the inside of the sock stitch by stitch to draw it in slightly but still retain the stretch for putting on and off.

It would not have to be put into every round of knitting - it depends on the thickness of the yarn, every second or third round should do the trick.

The thread is called knitting in elastic here in the UK - but it might be called something different elsewhere in the world.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[piperdbh]

I'd put the hose on, dip my feet and calves into hot( bath temperature) water, then into cold water, and wear the hose until the dried. DON"T AGITATE THE WOOL or you'll wind up with really pretty felt.
If that doesn't work, try Anne's method of sewing in the elastic thread.

[BonnetMaker]

Blocking carefully after washing is also very important to retain a good fit wear-to-wear with hose. More 'historic' styles of hose in particular often do have a small amount of sag at the ankles compared to modern ribbed or elasticated hose (you can often see this on statues or portraits) and the way to avoid this is to wash them carefully, then shape them whilst wet ideally on a leg shaped form, but if not, by shaping them flat so that you have smoothed the ankle area out to a slimmer shape and tweaked the calf to a rounder shape, then allow to dry fully. Its amazing how big a difference it does make, especially one you are carefully gartered.

[LitTrog]

Tried the hairdryer approach. One at a time, wet them with hot water & blowdried on the highest setting. The improvement wasn't dramatic, but they did tighten some. Most importantly, I did not ruin my investment! Thanks for the suggestions, everyone.