Next up: nether hose

Now that the shirt is out of the way, I need to get on with the next piece of my Tudor shooting outfit. This will be a pair of knitted nether hose, which are basically over-the-knee-socks. You see fancy silk ones from the middle of the 16th century, but there's evidence of woolly ones being worn earlier.

I have a stash of ancient handspun yarn from Bulgaria. (I have this vague memory that my parents bought it for my grandmother shortly after we moved there more than 20 years ago.)



It's a bit heavier than I'd usually do socks - aran rather than fingering - but it's lovely crunchy wool and should knit up beautifully. Also way faster than doing fingering-weight thigh-highs. Additionally, these are hose for wearing outdoors doing archery. I want them to keep my legs warm!

I'd do a gauge swatch, but I conveniently have a pair of bedsocks I knit up for the Spouse a few years ago in a similar weight.



Gauge is 5 stitches per inch on 4mm needles. The bit of my thigh I want the top to encompass is 18 inches, but it needs to fit snugly in order to stay up. Fortunately, there's a splendid worksheet online to help with calculating how big around the stocking needs to be. I'm going top-down rather than toe-up because of personal preference. It's a generic sock, not something fancy.

Plugging my gauge into the worksheet comes out at 81 stitches; I'm working with 5 needles, so I'll cast on 80 to make the numbers easier to deal with. Then it'll just be stockinette with decreases all the way down.