Royal Blue hose, anyone make them?

**MacSpadger** · 9th May 12, 12:41 AM

I got a pair of handknitted ones with chequerboard tops from McCalls on Bridge St, Aberdeen for £12 in the sale. That was a good score, methinks.

**Pleater** · 9th May 12, 01:30 AM

The pair of hose I am making at the moment are the right colour - but I admire the people prepared to hand knit them and then sell them.
They take hours and my favourite place to make them is in the garden in good light, as the stitches are tiny and the rounds many even for my feet, which are nine inches long. I would think that the knitters earn every penny of what they are paid out of the selling price.

To find a pair for 12 pounds is very good going.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

**creagdhubh** · 9th May 12, 07:22 AM

Originally Posted by MacSpadger

I got a pair of handknitted ones with chequerboard tops from McCalls on Bridge St, Aberdeen for £12 in the sale. That was a good score, methinks.

That was a fantastic score, MacSpadger! Fantastic 'piping' attire by the way - love the sporran!

Cheers,

**Mudge** · 9th May 12, 09:42 AM

Originally Posted by Zardoz

I see piper hose offered in 'Air Force Blue', is that close?
http://jhiggins.net/sf_proddetail.as...CF1VKV494RB75L

I have a pair of these in the Air Force Blue. They are nice hose and a good price.

Mike

**creagdhubh** · 9th May 12, 11:25 AM

Originally Posted by mj_all

I have a pair of these in the Air Force Blue. They are nice hose and a good price.

Mike

These are a nice, but they are not quite the 'Royal Blue' colour.

**chrisupyonder** · 9th May 12, 09:18 PM

Originally Posted by MacSpadger

I got a pair of handknitted ones with chequerboard tops from McCalls on Bridge St, Aberdeen for £12 in the sale. That was a good score, methinks.

We will be in Aberdeen next month for 3 days for the caravan and camping show. Me thinks I will call in McCalls.

Chris.

**MacSpadger** · 10th May 12, 01:13 AM

Originally Posted by chrisupyonder

We will be in Aberdeen next month for 3 days for the caravan and camping show. Me thinks I will call in McCalls.

Chris.

They were in a white wire basket up on the top floor where the sporrans and dirks are displayed. I am very pleased with the socks but constantly kicking myself for not also buying the exact same pair, but in Lovat Green, for the same price. I went back a couple of days later, but the basket was gone. I will be there myself for the first week of June, so will be popping in to see if they have any other sales on.

If you are in Aberdeen, Alex Scott The Kiltmaker on Schoolhill is maybe worth checking out, but their sale items are often just tourist orientated.

McCalls is much bigger and over several floors. It's been going since the 1880's and they have a huge amount of stock. If you want Royal Blue kilt socks, they'd know where to get them. Just 15 yards away from McCalls is where the famous piper G.S. McLennan had his shop.

**OC Richard** · 10th May 12, 12:40 PM

Thanks all for the links and photos!

Yes MacSpadger those are wonderful! Far nicer than what I had in mind. Proof that Royal Blue hose go well with a variety of tartans. (Did you serve in the Queens Own Highlanders, if you don't mind my asking?)

About the Higgins Air Force Blue hose, they look like Royal Blue on their site but more like true Air Force Blue (which is rather muted) in the other photo.

About the Shooting Socks with the stripe round the top, I had seen the ones with the red stripes on Ebay and didn't really care for them, but the Beanie socks with the green stripe look very nice.

Too bad House of Cheviot doesn't offer Royal Blue... well they didn't the last time I checked their site, a couple days ago.

**OC Richard** · 5th June 12, 04:12 AM

Found them!

I bought a pair of "piper socks" from The Tartan Thistle at the Costa Mesa Highland Games.

The shopkeeper said that they're called "Navy Blue" but they're not what I think of as Navy Blue at all.

They're perfect! The colour is very close to MacSpadger's hose up there in his photo: lighter and brighter than Navy Blue, darker and more saturated/intense than Ancient Blue, Air Force Blue, or Lovat Blue. They go great with both my Isle of Skye kilt and my Drummond of Perth (House of Edgar Muted Range) kilt.

I wore them for the first time at a gig I did last night, playing Highland Cathedral along with the Pipe Organ in the immense lovely First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, built in the 1930s (but in a style from more like the 1130s), the graduation ceremony for a school whose colours include that exact shade of blue.

Thing about those "pipers socks", say what you will, yes they have the popcorn tops and they're not traditional &c &c but they solve the issue I've been bedeviled with recently, having hose either too short or too long in the leg. With "pipers socks" (as many of you know) the tops are made super-long and you fold them over twice or thrice and make the height whatever you wish and the width of the turnover whatever you wish. Perfect for a Pipe Band with members of varying proportions who wants to get all their hose to fit exactly the same.

**creagdhubh** · 5th June 12, 05:59 AM

Originally Posted by OC Richard

Found them!

I bought a pair of "piper socks" from The Tartan Thistle at the Costa Mesa Highland Games.

The shopkeeper said that they're called "Navy Blue" but they're not what I think of as Navy Blue at all.

They're perfect! The colour is very close to MacSpadger's hose up there in his photo: lighter and brighter than Navy Blue, darker and more saturated/intense than Ancient Blue, Air Force Blue, or Lovat Blue. They go great with both my Isle of Skye kilt and my Drummond of Perth (House of Edgar Muted Range) kilt.

I wore them for the first time at a gig I did last night, playing Highland Cathedral along with the Pipe Organ in the immense lovely First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, built in the 1930s (but in a style from more like the 1130s), the graduation ceremony for a school whose colours include that exact shade of blue.

Thing about those "pipers socks", say what you will, yes they have the popcorn tops and they're not traditional &c &c but they solve the issue I've been bedeviled with recently, having hose either too short or too long in the leg. With "pipers socks" (as many of you know) the tops are made super-long and you fold them over twice or thrice and make the height whatever you wish and the width of the turnover whatever you wish. Perfect for a Pipe Band with members of varying proportions who wants to get all their hose to fit exactly the same.

Well done, Richard!