Knitted Hose Ties

[Pleater]

That's a thought - you can do a hybrid of knitting and weaving on the knitting machine - might be worth looking at, though it is slower than knitting. It might mean making two pieces and joining them, but knit weaving does not stretch widthwise, so if you cast on a wide piece, did a few rows and then cast off, you'd have a rigid strip - and you can do patterns in it too.

Knitting machines are my long standing involvement - I used to do a fair bit of teaching, servicing - still do repairs and a few home visits.

Worsted yarn is a bit thick for the standard gauge machine and it might not tuck - the hooks are simply too small to hold both the stitch and the loops.

I am available for consultation on the whys and wonders of machine knitting. You might like to PM me if it is uber technical or not entirely kilt related.

Those hosen look good. They are usually a bit fiddly, but for kilt hose I think it is well worth it. You can even do the argyle pattern using the intarsia carriage, and a lot of patience, or I think there is a method using the holding feature, where you do one diamond at a time.

When I make them I put the seam down the back of the leg, but then remove the stitches and make a continuous strip down foot, round the toe, then the sole and the back of the heel, and have the seams along the side of the foot, as I find that more comfortable.

[cacunn]

Those hosen look good. They are usually a bit fiddly, but for kilt hose I think it is well worth it. You can even do the argyle pattern using the intarsia carriage, and a lot of patience, or I think there is a method using the holding feature, where you do one diamond at a time.

When I make them I put the seam down the back of the leg, but then remove the stitches and make a continuous strip down foot, round the toe, then the sole and the back of the heel, and have the seams along the side of the foot, as I find that more comfortable.

Once I get the basic hose down I want to try argyle. I have an Intarsia Carriage. As I see it it requires that you hand lay the yarn on needles for each color for each row. Thats a lot of work.

For the black sock, my basic, I cast on at the toe and work up using tubular knitting with the ribber. It is not a fancy sock but is easier.

On the fancy (red) sock, I cast on at the top and start with the ribbing. (My next splurge is a ribber transfer carriage) transfer to the main carriage. I reduce the number of stitches per row to custom fit the sock. When I get to the ankle I transfer all on the stitches to the ribber. Once transferred, I then 1/4 of the stitches on the left to the main bed. These stitches are "folded" toward the center zero needle. I do the same for the right side. This gives me a tubular sock. I then knit the foot of the sock as a tubular sock. This puts no seam in the foot, except at the end of the toe.

The red socks were knitted this way, top down, I want to try a toe up and open up the leg of the sock once I get to the ankle. On the red pair, hard to see in the photo, I used a tuck stitch to put a pattern on the body of the sock. As I took the sock off the machine I saw the pattern on the "back" of the sock. Both my wife and I thought the "back" pattern to be more pleasing and it is now the front.

My biggest problem so far has been the tension at the toe. I want a rounded toe. I start by casting on about 1/3 of the needed stitches. I then aggressively increase four stitches per row until the full number of stitches are reached. My problem has been losing tension on the outer stitches before the sock is long enough for me to be able to use the claw weights. Last nigh I made a number of single hooks with weights, simple lengths of wire with a hook at one end and a fishing weight at the other. About every third row I place a hook on each side for tension. This seemed to work. I'll find out tonight when I finish the hose on the machine now and start my next.

Why did I ever give in to my creative gene? Life would be so much easier if just came home and watched the boob tube.

[Pleater]

Try small coins, ball bearings, or metal washers dropped into the toe of the sock to help weight it down.

You can do the same with the heel part too, if you do it by short rowing on one bed you can drop weights into it as soon as it starts to form a pouch.

If you hook on weights at the edges too then the stitches should have no chance to misbehave.

[cacunn]

Try small coins, ball bearings, or metal washers dropped into the toe of the sock to help weight it down.

You can do the same with the heel part too, if you do it by short rowing on one bed you can drop weights into it as soon as it starts to form a pouch.

If you hook on weights at the edges too then the stitches should have no chance to misbehave.

The small weights inside the toe passed though my mind, however, I was having problems before there was enough of a pocket. I do like the idea of the weight in the pocket of the heel. The heel is on the main bed and I find it hard to get up, under, and behind the heel to attach weights. It should be eiser to go at it from the front.

Thanks

[Arlen]

I like this a lot.
My fiance is teaching me to knit and while I'm not quite at the level of kilt hose, perhaps I could try my hand at this.
Really, very, very nice.

[Pleater]

These ties, done by hand might be tedious, but they are ideal beginner project as you can do them in every row knit, called garter stitch, as that is what it was used for. It does not roll up into a tube like stockinet stitch.

[cacunn]

Arlen if you try this as a hand knit project I would suggest that where I knit them across the width and add rows for length you might try knitting length wise and add rows for width. Use a circular needle you have and try to cast on 1/2 stitches necessary for your length. Knit a row, turn the needle knit a row. It should only take about ten rows to get the right width, knit a sample and let it sit over night to get the right gage. Knit the second half and join one set of ends together.

By knitting this way you can see progress and quickly finish one part. If you knit across the width, maybe 10 to 15 stitches, you do get one continuous hose tie but it will seem like you are knitting forever.

Then next set I do will be done in this method on the knitting machine. Instead of 300 row of 10 stitches I' be doing 10 row of 150 stitches, twice per tie.

If you hand knit there will probably be stretch in your ties. There is some stretch in the ones I make. I like this for comfort. As long as they do not stretch enough to pass over the large part of the calf your fine. A little stretch allows the leg to move and swell from heat and exercise with out constricting the circulation in the legs.

Show us pictures when you are finished.