A Different take on White Kilt Hose

[McMurdo]

I have looked at your pictures, and it seems to just have a slightly different design from regular hose. More lines than regular hose.

Well they were hand knit so that would explain why they are a bit different from commercially available hose.

[Lady Grey]

What you are calling ‘Speckled’ is termed “Marl” amongst knitters and the fashion world.
So if you are lucky enough to have someone knit you a pair of hose look for the term Marl when sourcing the yarn.

A Balmoral also looks lovely knitted and felted in Marl wool.

[kingandrew]

House of Cheviot offers marled/speckled hose in a few different lines: Hebridean (made for those with larger calves), Sheltand, and Reiver. Looking at their image of the Reiver Autumn Glow sock, you can really see the two colors in the yarn.

https://www.houseofcheviot.com/media...utumn_glow.jpg

https://www.houseofcheviot.com/gents/kilt-socks

Andrew

[McMurdo]

What you are calling ‘Speckled’ is termed “Marl” amongst knitters and the fashion world.
So if you are lucky enough to have someone knit you a pair of hose look for the term Marl when sourcing the yarn.

A Balmoral also looks lovely knitted and felted in Marl wool.

You are of course correct, I wish I had remembered that earlier in the day but did remember it later you beat me too it though.

[OC Richard]

I am of the suspicion that the white hose thing came from the 1960's when you just were not anyone unless you had a pair of hand knit hose in fisherman cables knit...almost always cream or ecru, thick and terribly hot.

At least in my experience the thing went in three distinct stages:

1) cream/ecru ordinary Day hose beginning to be worn with Prince Charlies. This, as you say, possibly came in around the 1960s. These hose were the ordinary mass-produced fairly thin Day hose with large diamonds knit into the turnover cuff.

These were the standard Day hose when I started kiltwearing (mid 1970s) and came in Ecru, Lovat green, Lovat blue, and Oatmeal (the colour-names used at the time). Sometimes I also saw these offered in Navy blue, Bottle green, moss green, sky blue, claret, and black.

Pipe Major Evan MacRae (right) wearing ecru Day hose and ghilles with Evening dress 1980



2) cream heavy handknit Arran hose. These had elaborate diamond and cable patterns. They came in AFAIK in the mid-1970s. By around 1980 if your band didn't have these, and was still wearing the thinner hose mentioned above, you announced to everyone that your band was out of the loop.



It was quite a fad for bands to wear Arran hose with Prince Charlies, no vests, long ties, hairy sporrans, Balmoral bonnets, and Ghillie brogues.

Two Canadian pipe bands in 1976





3) Pure white bobble top Pipers Socks. These were rather plain except for the super-thick "popcorn" or "bobble" tops. These blew into the pipe band world around 1990 and if your band was still wearing their heavy cream Arran hose you looked like you just came in from the sticks. BTW you could buy the bobble/popcorn tops separately, and put them over the cuffs of inexpensive ordinary Day hose.



The pure gleaming white hose held sway for decades, until around five years ago when they just as suddenly became unfashionable. Now it's "anything but white" in the pipe band world.