Knitted Stocking Version 1 -- progress report

Well, it is now week 3 of my 'Knitted Stockings Experiment'. What started as simply a quiet way to kill several hours has expanded to become a long term A&S project on different kinds of knitted stockings. Why? (You may well ask)...Simply because there is a lack of research available for SCAdians regarding socks, and they are such a simple, yet potentially integral part of a proper period wardrobe. So...I'm going to play with socks.

With regard to this "lil project", I am in phase 1, that is creating a basic pattern for a simple knitted stocking. This phase is more for me than anyone else really, since I had never knitted a sock before. It is proving to be really interesting and giving me lots of things to think about in revising the pattern for version 2.

The ultimate goal is to create several different versions of stockings with different types of heels and construction, based upon period methods for knitting and creating sewn hosen/stockings.

Progress Report

My knitted stocking 'Mach 1' is coming along nicely, helped along in part by a particularly nasty sinus infection turned pneumonia, which has had me laid low for the last week and a half. Feeling poorly and out of sorts, I spent quite a bit of time lazing about, watching silly television and knitting (in between naps and bouts of coughing that is).

I turned the heel while waiting for a doctors appointment this past Wednesday. It went much easier than I expected. I followed a heel pattern I found on the internet since I had not worked a heel before. Funnily enough, I expected the heel turning to be time consuming and fiddly, but it really was quite easy and finished within half an hour!

That said, the 'flat knitting' aspect of this particular heel method bothers me a bit from a period perspective since the use of 'perl' stitches is largely held to have been purely decorative; and in the flat stitching method it becomes a structural thing rather than a decorative one. This of course raises the question of how heels would have been created in period. I am mentally playing around with how they can be created by knitting in the round rather than partitioning out the parts and knitting in the flat.

Currently I am heading up the leg, approximately mid-calf. I've been pleasantly surprised with how quickly things are going, particularly since I am not the fastest knitter around (although perhaps I am improving a bit?). I plan to work on my stocking during the SCA demo in Marietta next weekend and with a bit of luck should have version 1 of my stocking project done by the end of the demo.

Knitting stocking project not withstanding, I will be working on two appliqued heraldic pillows later this week -- lumbar cushions for Ken and I to take to the demo next weekend. I will post pictures when they are finished.