Finished knitting my first pair of kilt hose

[Tobus]

For those not following my thread on learning to knit socks, I figured I'd post this here in the DIY Showroom. Last night I completed my first pair of hand-knit kilt hose.

They are plain self-coloured hose, with the cuffs being done in one vertical block of the traditional Gairloch pattern (which repeats three times around the circumference). This was my first go at this pattern, using it as a warm-up to doing an entire set of socks in the pattern.



I'm using Rowan felted tweed yarn, which is a fairly "hairy" aran-weight yarn. It has flecks of different colours in it, which along with the fuzzy appearance appeals to me for its rustic finished texture.

I planned out the cuffs by scaling the Gairloch pattern to suit my knitting gauge, circumference of my calves, and total desired height of the cuffs. I sketched out the pattern on my computer and used this as my guide whilst knitting. Surprisingly, the finished result actually looks like what I planned!



I didn't necessarily plan it this way, but these kilt hose happen to perfectly match the blues and greens in my Colquhoun kilt (woven in near-Wilson's colours). And the colour of the legs actually match the khaki top band of my kilt. Not only that, but these colours complement the mustardy-gold check stripes in my favourite kilt jacket as well (shown in the background). Win-win!



Aside from being my first set of kilt hose to knit, it was also my first attempt at a project using stranded colourwork. What is stranded colourwork? It just means using multiple colours of yarns simultaneously in the knitting to create a pattern, and the yarn that isn't at the forefront is carried along the backside as a "strand" or "float". Here's a picture of the cuffs turned inside-out, where you can see the floats. The pattern is basically a reverse of what's visible on the outside. Keeping the tension even on the floats takes a bit of attention, but I'm pretty happy with the uniformity and evenness of my floats.

[ShaunMaxwell]

Very impressive!

Cheers,

SM

[gsmacleod]

A fine looking pair of hose! Well done!

Shane

[stickman]

Really good looking hose, great job.

[Tomo]

Great work, fantastic looking hose - and I am a big fan of that Rowan Felted Tweed.

[Tobus]

Great work, fantastic looking hose - and I am a big fan of that Rowan Felted Tweed.

I believe it was your mention of it (and photos) that convinced me to try it. I do love the finished look and feel of it, but it's not the easiest yarn to work with. For one, it sheds like crazy as I knit. I end up with bits of wool all over my chest and lap. It's also fairly inconsistent in thickness. Some portions of a skein will be thinner, some thicker, and it varies between skeins and colours. That made it a bit aggravating for doing the colourwork, trying to maintain colour dominance and even stitches when the two yarns I was working with were different thicknesses. But in the end, all of these things add to the rustic nature of it.

I haven't yet "blocked" these socks by washing them. I hear that Rowan felted tweed has a very noticeable "bloom" to the yarn which will puff it up and even everything out when it gets its first wash. I just hope it doesn't distort the Gairloch pattern work. I guess we'll see!

I have enough of this yarn left for making some other projects (though not enough for another pair of full kilt hose). I'm thinking a WWII style watch cap from the green/pine colour might be just the ticket.

[Pleater]

I offered to provide patterns for hose - but am in a bit of a quandary as I use needles far smaller than seems to be the usual size for most people.
My last project was a little pullover for one of the grandchildren and I used 2.25 and 2.5mm needles for it. The yarn is 420meters per 100gm, from man made fibre as there are 6 children in the family and garments must be easy to wash.

One advantage of using such small needles and fine yarn is the detail which can be put into a stitch pattern, even on small items such as hose.

Anne the Pleater

[Tobus]

One advantage of using such small needles and fine yarn is the detail which can be put into a stitch pattern, even on small items such as hose.

My first attempt at socks was with baby/fingering-weight yarn and 2.5mm needles. At the time, my knitting was much too tight and inconsistent. And the sock ended up much thinner than I prefer. Plus, those tiny needles were stressful on my hands. So I decided to go with a thicker yarn and larger needles while I gained more experience and developed my techniques. I think I'm to the point now where I'm going to go back to sock-weight yarn for my next project (full Gairloch hose). But still, to get the gauge needed for the pattern, I need to use something more like 3.25mm needles based on my swatches. I do agree, though, that the level of detail with smaller yarn is preferable for some of the stuff I plan to do.

But those 2.5mm needles give me a sense of dread! Aside from the hand stress issue of working something that small for hours and hours on end, there's just the patience factor. That's a lot of stitches and takes forever to get anywhere. The more I knit, though, the more my need for instant gratification starts to wane.

[Tobus]

So I finished the watch cap last night, using leftover yarn from my kilt hose project. I didn't have enough of the green left to do the whole thing, so I had to use some of the blue. I kind of like it!

I made the turned-up ribbed brim wider than the original shown above in my previous post, but other than that it's a pretty faithful copy of the WWII watch caps that were knit in many homes to support the war effort.

[kingandrew]

The socks look great on their own, and coordinate beautifully with the kilt and jacket. I really like the cuffs.

The watch cap is also very nice. Another cool skill acquired.

Andrew