Sources for wool kilt hose, traditional colors?

[ShaunMaxwell]

Do you make Gairloch pattern hose?

They have them here, but I'm afraid they're a bit more than I'd be willing to spend on hose, beautiful as they are!

https://tartansocks.simdif.com/range-of-hose.html

I'm curious to see if The Wizard makes them as well!

Cheers,

SM

[Tobus]

They have them here, but I'm afraid they're a bit more than I'd be willing to spend on hose, beautiful as they are!

https://tartansocks.simdif.com/range-of-hose.html

I'm curious to see if The Wizard makes them as well!

Cheers,

SM

Yikes. Normally I would bite my tongue and move on, but for the high price they're asking for their "Gairloch" hose (I put those in quotes because they are not made anything like the originals), potential customers should know what they're getting ...or not getting, as it were.

It's not my intention to impugn anyone's product or quality, but there are just my observations from what I see in their photo.

First, these are built more like tube socks with little to no heel shape. They will not fit the same as a sock with a turned or shaped heel.

Second, I can tell that these were knitted as flat pieces and sewn up. You can see a seam running up the back of the leg, as well as on either side of the foot and on top of the toe. This is markedly different than a sock knitted in the round and shaped via knitting adjustments.

Third, it looks like these are knitted with just one yarn of a somewhat marled/variegated colour (notice the random colour variations in the foot). Then the diagonal stripes are stitched over the top of the base knit as "duplicate stitches". You can tell by some of the puckering that's going on with the diagonal stripes and the fact that the true red and green colours don't carry through any other part of the sock. Basically, they're selling a plain sock with the decoration tacked on rather than a sock that's made with the pattern integral to the knitting.

Fourth, it looks like the cuffs are secondary pieces that are stitched on at the end, rather than a foldover extension of the sock. This is somewhat common in commercial hose of all levels of quality, but it's not really how the traditional Gairloch hose were made.

These may be wearable and look OK from a distance, I guess. But they are pretty far removed from the traditional Gairloch hose as described by the Gairloch Museum. Traditionally, they are knitted with two colours of yarn all the way through as "stranded colourwork", with those yarns alternating in the background fields behind the diamond pattern, and coming to the forefront in the diamonds. The visual difference is very noticeable. The museum has a pattern that they sell for it (it's on my list of things to knit, and others here have completed many projects from this pattern). Traditionally they are knitted in the round, not as flat objects stitched together at the end. It may be that machine knitting just can't handle the stranded colourwork and pattern this requires (or they don't have the equipment to do it), so they're making a faux Gairloch pattern with some tricks to get roughly the same effect.

For £240, I would sure want something of a higher quality and more traditional-looking than the facsimile they're selling on that site. They're saying it was "replicated" from the mid-19th century pattern, but to me it looks like a very crude attempt to get the same effect.

[Steve Ashton]

Do you make Gairloch pattern hose?

Not yet, I am still working on perfecting my Gairloch hose.

The issue is not the Gairloch pattern it is the variegated yarn. I have to take one ball of gray and one ball of black. De-ply both and then re-ply both together. Sort of like I do for my diced and Argyle patterns. And that is very time consuming.

[Liam]

For a budget version of traditional kilt hose check out the following.
W Brewin : Products

[tubino]

For a budget version of traditional kilt hose check out the following.
W Brewin : Products

They don’t give any details on price or material? You have to call for that?

[Deil the Yin]

Guid on ye, sir! I remember when I was last in Scotland (2003), the price of a sheep at market (the whole beast) wasn't worth a packet of crisps...literally. Some crofters, especially in the islands, had to just leave their beasts out on the hill to die. It was really a shame (and I don't even like sheep)...

To give you a little background.

I am in the craft yarn world. I knit kilt hose, other socks, and other various items like toques and comfort dolls on my Hand-Cranked Circular Sock Machine. I teach and demonstrate.



I am the inventor and maker of The Wizards Winder.



My Wife is a spinner, dyer, knitter and weaver. She starts with raw fleece, cleans, retts, fulls, combs, spins, and knits or weaves with the yarn. There are 4 spinning wheels and 4 looms in my home.
My wife is the president of our local Hand Knitters and Spinners Guild.
She is active in the world-wide "Shave 'em to Save 'em" movement.
She is active in the HRH sponsored "Campaign for Wool" with its Canadian branch "Canadian Wool Council".
And the "CanadianWool.org"
We are both on Ravelry.

We have seen local spinning mills go under in just the last few years. One went under with 3 years worth of small farmers' fleeces still sitting, waiting for processing.
This is just one of those mills.


The problem is not the craft spinners, dyers, knitters, and weavers. It is at the processing level of the chain. It is just not profitable, or even sustainable, to process wool at the less than industrial level anywhere in the world today.
Herds of sheep raised for their wool are being culled on a daily basis simply because there is nowhere to sell fleeces, or find a mill to process the fleeces. Even a small herd of 25-50 sheep must be sheared twice a year and can produce over 1000 lbs of raw fleece a year. If you can't sell those fleeces or find somewhere to process them, you must get rid of the sheep because you can't even afford to pay the shearer. (of which there are fewer and fewer. It is a skilled trade that no one wants to get into anymore.) If you do not shear the sheep, they die.

[Liam]

They don’t give any details on price or material? You have to call for that?

They sell on ebay....

[tubino]

I just got my pair of Thistle brand kilt hose, 80% wool, from Wm Glen and Sons. Nice color and fabric at a reasonable price!

[piperalpha]

Yikes. Normally I would bite my tongue and move on, but for the high price they're asking for their "Gairloch" hose (I put those in quotes because they are not made anything like the originals), potential customers should know what they're getting ...or not getting, as it were.

It's not my intention to impugn anyone's product or quality, but there are just my observations from what I see in their photo.

First, these are built more like tube socks with little to no heel shape. They will not fit the same as a sock with a turned or shaped heel.

Second, I can tell that these were knitted as flat pieces and sewn up. You can see a seam running up the back of the leg, as well as on either side of the foot and on top of the toe. This is markedly different than a sock knitted in the round and shaped via knitting adjustments.

Third, it looks like these are knitted with just one yarn of a somewhat marled/variegated colour (notice the random colour variations in the foot). Then the diagonal stripes are stitched over the top of the base knit as "duplicate stitches". You can tell by some of the puckering that's going on with the diagonal stripes and the fact that the true red and green colours don't carry through any other part of the sock. Basically, they're selling a plain sock with the decoration tacked on rather than a sock that's made with the pattern integral to the knitting.

Fourth, it looks like the cuffs are secondary pieces that are stitched on at the end, rather than a foldover extension of the sock. This is somewhat common in commercial hose of all levels of quality, but it's not really how the traditional Gairloch hose were made.

These may be wearable and look OK from a distance, I guess. But they are pretty far removed from the traditional Gairloch hose as described by the Gairloch Museum. Traditionally, they are knitted with two colours of yarn all the way through as "stranded colourwork", with those yarns alternating in the background fields behind the diamond pattern, and coming to the forefront in the diamonds. The visual difference is very noticeable. The museum has a pattern that they sell for it (it's on my list of things to knit, and others here have completed many projects from this pattern). Traditionally they are knitted in the round, not as flat objects stitched together at the end. It may be that machine knitting just can't handle the stranded colourwork and pattern this requires (or they don't have the equipment to do it), so they're making a faux Gairloch pattern with some tricks to get roughly the same effect.

For £240, I would sure want something of a higher quality and more traditional-looking than the facsimile they're selling on that site. They're saying it was "replicated" from the mid-19th century pattern, but to me it looks like a very crude attempt to get the same effect.

I wasn’t impressed by the look of them. I paid for the pattern hoping my mom would make them for me but they weren’t as interesting as making me a new kilt. I’ll continue to ask her. I think they’re a nice option for daywear and not too formal evening wear