Replicating Victorian-era kilt hose from MacLeay portrait

[Pleater]

It looks as though the crosses start at the ankle with different colours - blue on the left ankle red on the right. Maybe one is just pulled up harder than the other.
I tend to make plain hose these days, but I know how much goes into making patterned ones.

It can become a bit of an obsession - I have numerous pairs around the house and at one time always had some socks being made. I probably have more pairs than I could ever wear out, but it is so good to be able to pull on a pair and feel the chill of the morning pushed back. We can't afford to have the heating on like we used to, so the woollies have to be deployed when the storms come sweeping in off the sea.

Anne the Pleater

[Tobus]

It looks as though the crosses start at the ankle with different colours - blue on the left ankle red on the right. Maybe one is just pulled up harder than the other.

As best I can tell, both of his socks have a red X on the front at the ankle and appear to be constructed the same. He appears to just have his right sock pulled up a bit higher than his left, leading to the cuffs not aligning the same. MacLeay seems to have captured this with attention to detail, rather than evening them out in his painting to make it look more tidy.

I opted to knit my cuffs with a hard fold point at the top and bottom (by switching to purl rows at the fold points) so I would avoid that problem. It does give my cuffs a slightly different appearance with more defined borders, but it made more sense to me to do it that way for pattern alignment.