My new socks!

I have to show off my latest wardrobe addition -- some new wonderful kilt hose from the Hawick Sock Company. I found these on line through a Highland Dress retailer, who had them listed on sale. The colors were a perfect match for my MacQuarrie kilt.

I had seen socks in this style worn by Prince Charles (pic), though I have to say that I first became familiar with them through Todd Wilkinson (pic), frequent poster on the Scottish Attire mailing list, and the "X Marks the Scot" forum.

These hose, as I said, were manufactured by the Hawick Sock Company. I have searched on line to see if they have a web page, but they don't as far as I can tell (if anyone has a link, send it to me!). The content of the hose is listed as 85% merino/acrylic, 10% nylon, and 5% rayon (I think I have the rayon correct -- I left the label on my desk at work). In any case, they are extremely comfortable to wear, and according to the label are machine washable.

I normally wash my kilt hose in the machine anyway. I have a basket that I keep for my kilt hose (and a few shirts I have that require special care). When it fills, it gets washed in the machine in cold water on the delicate cyle. All the hose then get hung to dry. Occasionally I have had hose shrink up following this method, but the great majority of hose I have worn do fine washed in this way. Give the content of these new hose, they should hold up just fine.

In any case, I can tell already these are going to become a favorite part of my wardrobe. I really like the check patten on the sock, and I think it works especially well with two color tartans, like the MacQuarrie I am wearing.

I purchased at the same time another pair of hose (not yet pictured) that are the same brick red as the dicing in this pair, with the loden green color in a solid turn-down cuff. That pair makes a nice casual statement (and adds a pair of red hose to my wardrobe, that are hard to find). But I really do like the dicing in this hose.

If anyone knows more about the Hawick Sock Company, please do let me know. In the meantime, you can buy the same style hose from the Almost Unwearoutable Sock Company (where Todd got his pair!). I have heard absolutely wonderful things about their hose, though I do not have the pleasure of owning a pair myself. My pair I bought from Scotweb, though last I checked they had only this one color option available (lucky me!).

Update from 9/2/06:

Thanks to Tom Mungall from the Scot Attire list, I have found another on-line source for these hose. They may not be the same manufacturer, but they appear to be the same item. These Johnsons of Elgin Merino Check Top Stockings with Flashes are offered by The House of Bruar. They have a variety of color options available, and even offer matching garter ties.

In absentia...

Just a very quick post to let everyone know where I've been lately...

We (my family and I) took our annual summer beach vacation for a week earlier in August. This was something that we had planned since last year. At the time we planned everything we had no idea that the new house we were buying would be completed the same week we were away!

We were in such a rush to get out of the tiny rental house we had been in the past two months that we moved in to our new home the same weekend we returned from the beach.

We still don't have DSL access in the new house (though according to Verizon we should within the next two days). So this means I only have internet access at work. But since I was gone for a full week, I've been especially busy at the museum trying to get caught up on everything.

Not to mention the fact that I have people with deadlines waiting to get their kilts made, piles of boxes to unpack at the house, an exam to prepare for (final exam is tonight, as it happens!), and general chaos swirling around me. :-)

Consequently I haven't had the chance to update this blog in a while, nor have I been actively posting on X Marks the Scot or on the Scottish Attire newsgroup. I also have only had minimum time to check my email. So those of you who have written and are waiting to hear a response, please be patient. And those of you waiting on kilts to be made, don't worry, I'm working as fast as I can! If you have a deadline coming up and need to check in, just give me a call.

In the meantime, wish me luck in getting settled in to our new place!

Aye,
Matt

Nothing new under the sun... (kilt hose)

Back in April I posted on my experience with the contemporary style of wearing your kilt hose with casual Highland dress -- scrunched down, as opposed to pulled up to the knee. Well, come to find out, this may not be such a new style, after all.

Someone over on the X Marks the Scot kilt wearers' forum has posted a thread about a picture he found in the National Library of Wales. The photo was taken on May 1, 1952, in the Dinas Mawddwy Woolen Factory. It depicts two young adolescents, a boy and a girl, in Scottish dress.

Now, the question of why these teens were wearing Scottish attire in a Welsh woolen mill aside, I immediately noticed something about the young lad's dress. He is wearing the kilt, obviously in a dress-down fashion. There is no sporran or kilt belt. (I never wear a belt when I wear a sweater vest, as he is in the photo. And I dare say if I were working around all that machinery I'd definitely remove my sporran!).

But look at his hose. He is wearing them scrunched down on his leg, just like the contemporary casual fashion. This is 1952! Previously, I had not seen pictures of anyone wearing their hose like this prior to the Geoffrey Tailor "21st Century Kilts" revolution. But I suppose there is nothing new under the sun.

(And before anyone comments, yes, the young lad's kilt is a bit too long. But for a growing boy it is not uncommon to have a kilt made a little long, to allow for growth. The tartan, by the way, is MacKenzie.)