Double Kilt Hose for Cold Weather??

[Riverkilt]

Crack me up, "Garrish and comical"....why not!?

Slow poke here - hadn't even thought of the common sense idea of an undersock offering protection and longer life for the kilt hose...I'm finally figuring out what wiser men do as a matter of course....story of my life.

And, "lazy me" is wondering if an undersock could maybe somehow eliminate the need to wash the wool hose after every wearing....

I don't much like cold weather, but now I'm sort of looking forward to it to experiment with common sense...

[Zardoz]

My first thoughts on this were that doubling up two generally thick socks like that wouldn't fit in most of my shoes. I double up when I go skating, but I usually put some crew socks on over the kilt hose, then take them off when I put the street shoes back on. If I had to contend with really cold weather regularly, I'd think some silk/nylon sock liners would be my speed

[Riverkilt]

I worry about how double sox tend to wrinkle up and then make it painful to walk on the wrinkles....would stay thin on the inner pair for sure...or them fancy thin ones that cling to the bod rather than wrinkle up.

[AKScott]

I worry about how double sox tend to wrinkle up and then make it painful to walk on the wrinkles....would stay thin on the inner pair for sure...or them fancy thin ones that cling to the bod rather than wrinkle up.

My winter boots are a full size larger than my summer boots, strictly to make room for more sok, more loft, more trapped air, better insulation.

Generally with the thin lycra/spandex liner socks I don't have to adjust my shoe size.

I hadn't thought of a liner sock as saving wear and tear on expensive kilt hose. Maybe if I ever spring for diced hose I'll revisit that one. Neat idea.

[JohntheBiker]

Clearly there are some practical reasons listed here for wearing sock liners and I am sure that there X-markers that could turn it into a fashion statement.

As to warmth, it's all about the knees! Thick wooly kilt hose will keep your legs warm but you'll feel an icy blast of winter cold around your knees, especially if you wear your kilts with enough space between kilt and hose.

[Riverkilt]

I'm not a physicist, but do know that hot air rises. When I'm kilted in cold weather I like to think that maybe some of the hot air trapped under my kilt spills out below and helps warm my knees some.

[Tobus]

I'm not a physicist, but do know that hot air rises. When I'm kilted in cold weather I like to think that maybe some of the hot air trapped under my kilt spills out below and helps warm my knees some.

It would actually be pretty cool to see a thermal video image of someone in the cold wearing a kilt, to see how the warm air under the kilt 'spills out'. I would imagine that if you're just standing still, the warmth in there would stay mostly still. But as you walk and the pleats swing, it gets dissipated.

I know I don't exactly live in a place where it gets truly cold, but when I do wear my kilt in what passes for cold weather down here (20-30 degrees F), my knees don't bother me at all. It's my lower thighs that really get cold, up to about the halfway point between my knees and my hip joint.

As for double-socks and such, I've tried wearing sock liners under my kilt hose. The same ones I tried wearing under my thicker winter hiking socks. But my experience was less than satisfactory. Sock liners do tend to bunch up inside my shoe, even when the kilt hose are fine. And the fact that sock liners are usually made out of thin, slick material, makes them slippery inside my kilt hose. It's uncomfortable for me when walking. Plus, despite their advertised benefits, they tend to trap sweat inside the liners as if I were wearing a plastic bag around my feet. So I pretty much don't use them at all, either for hiking or for kilt-wearing.

[Glen]

I have a pair of thin cross country skiing socks that end, fortunately, right where I fold over the hose on my short legs. The socks are designed to be worn inside the cross country ski socks, thus work great inside hose...

[lukeyrobertson]

Well, who'd a thunk it? Even at minus 25c I've not thought about doubling up. It is more the "knees" (but once they're numbed through, there's no feeling anyway!). But it is one reason why I have two kilts that drop to the mid-knee and if need be can be pulled a little lower (one of them is the 16oz tweed). I'm going to keep an eye out for the thin cross country ski socks. You never know when I might have to kilt in -40!