Kilts and Such: Knitting Kilt Hose Garter Ties

Found a description of knit kilt hose garter ties in an old knitting book. After three sets of ties I have a usable pattern.


Mark I
Lion Brand Fishermen's worsted weight wool
Pair of US 5 - 3.75 mm needles

Long tail cast on eight stitches. Garter stitch until about 30 to 36 inches long or until they can go around your leg twice above the calf and below the knee. Finish with fringe of three strands of yarn at each end.

These were too wide and bulky but worked great. Didn't need to stretch them much to hold up the hose.

Mark I

Mark II
Cascade Yarns Cascade 220 worsted weight wool
Pair of US 4 - 3.5 mm needles

Same as above except cast on six stitches.

Better, but too stretchy.

Mark II

Mark III
Cascade Yarns Cascade 220® Heathers worsted weight wool
Pair of US 3 - 3.25 mm needles

Long tail cast on seven stitches. Knit seven first row. Slip one, knit six remaining rows until 36 inches long.

The slip stitch gives a smoother and tighter edge to the garter making it a little less stretchy. Works better than the first two by far.

Mark III

How to wear garter ties
To tie, wrap around kilt hose twice so that both ends are on the outside of your leg. Cross and tie with a simple knot. Take remaining ends and tuck up under garter around leg, pull through and drape over top of garter. See the following video for a demonstration using woven garter ties.

Kilts and Such: Balmoral Bonnet #2

Note: This is actually a pretty old blog post. I'm on bonnet #6 now with a diced border. For some reason, Blogger goofed up this post and I had to delete and recreate it from scratch.

Balmoral bonnet #2 is finished. The yarn is Cascade 220. By far, Cascade 220 is the best yarn I've worked with. I understand why Anne recommends it in the Classic Highlander's Balmoral Bonnet pattern.

As with bonnet #1, the cockade design is from "So You're Going To Wear The Kilt" by J.Charles Thompson.

I used petersham cotton/rayon ribbon from Judith M Millinery Supply House for the head band and tails. Much softer look and feel. I really like it.

I used the medium size pattern instead of the large. My head is right on edge between the medium and large patterns. Unfortunately, felting the head band to the correct size resulted in a too small top. The slouch wasn't large enough.

Correcting this was fairly easy, just wet the bonnet and stretch it out.

Had to frog bonnet #3. The inexpensive black yarn proved to be very fuzzy after felting. It was also difficult to knit with. Maybe I can use it as a pouch or felted bowl?

The bonnet #4 is dark blue again in Cascade 220. I am extending the middle knit even rounds section from 4" to 5" or maybe half an inch more to add to the slouch width.

Before fulling/felting

After fulling/felting

After stretching the top to fit

Head band and ribbon

Cockade

Kilts and Such: Knitting a Balmoral Bonnet

By SMcCandlish (Own work)
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html

I'm slowly building my kilt accessories both for casual wear as well as the Renaissance festival. One of the items I would like to add is a bonnet. From the several options available, I really like the look of a Balmoral bonnet.

If you google it, you'll find many places to purchase one. However, they are not inexpensive. I'm sure they are worth every penny, but I'm trying to keep within my budget which includes attending festivals.

My wife knits, and I casually mentioned my desire for a bonnet. To which she said, "Um...." To be fair, she has many knitting projects going on, several for other people, and I don't really want to ask her to take on another project. Besides, it's something I'm interested in, and the Saline Celtic festival is in a few weeks...

Learning to Knit
I decided to learn to knit. Stacey helped me look for a pattern, provided links to online training videos and resources, and best of all - she took time to show me the ropes (or yarn). This is significant since I'm the poster child for a difficult student. We both survived :-)

I started with a worsted weight yarn since this will be used for the balmoral pattern. Casted on using the long tail method, and practiced working flat with knit and purl stitches. I then made a simple toque using circular needles that ended up way too small. My stitches were way too tight and the gauge was at least 30% smaller than needed. As she feared, I was "man handling" the yarn. A second attempt produced a better toque, that was still 20% off but it was wearable.

Balmoral Bonnet Pattern
The Classic Highlander's Balmoral Bonnet pattern by Anne Carroll Gilmour was suggested by several members of X Marks The Scot forum.

Translating Knit-ish into English has been challenging. Once I approached it as if it were a computer programming language and graphed out as a series of nodes with decision paths and repetitive loops, it started to make sense.

After several false starts, I just finished the band and have started to increase the number of stitches to shape the bottom of the balmoral.

I'll post more as I complete it.

Finished Balmoral Bonnet #1
I used Lion Brand Yarn Fisherman's Wool. It's a very nice inexpensive yarn. My daughter picked out the ribbon colors.

The cockade design is from "So You're Going To Wear The Kilt" by J.Charles Thompson.

I have bonnet #2 in green (Cascade 220) felted and started knitting bonnet #3 in black. By far, I like the Cascade 220 yarn. You really do get what you pay for.  

Balmoral Bonnet #1

Traditional Bow

Cockade

Balmoral Bonnet #2