Quote Originally Posted by M. A. C. Newsome View Post
This is not really true. When you have fancy top hose, generally the top is made as a separate piece and then stitched to the sock base. (I know this is true of the Royal Cuff hose we now offer, and of the Balmoral hose we formerly carried). This means that when and if the sock gets worn out, you can easily remove the fancy top and attach it to a new pair.

I myself have done this. One of the first pair of Balmoral hose I owned got snagged on something that tore a hole in the back leg of one of the socks. My wife said the rip was too bad to repair, so she removed the hand knit top and attached it to a new pair of socks for me. Very easy to do.

I'm just pointing this out because I'm not sure if everyone realizes this or not. And most of the cost of items like this is in the fancy top, not the sock itself. So being able to replace the sock if it gets torn or simply worn with age really helps to extend the life of your investment.
I agree....It's a simple procedure to rescue the cuff if the sock itself is ruined-especially if the sock is handknit...While the cuff isn't sewn on separately as on machine knit hose, on handknit, you can just frog back to the last row before the cuff and pick up the stitches!
By the way, I so admire the hose your wife has knit for you! They're gorgeous!!!