White Hose

[piperdown]

I'll sum up my thoughts on the subject with this:

I have not read on this forum that off white( bone, natural, ecru ) are not traditional wear.

I have read that a lot of people don't like white hose and don't wear them.

I do not like white hose and I do not wear them

A lot of pipe bands wear white hose and a lot of kilt rental shops push the sale of white hose.

I have had ecru hose in the past and have dyed them with tea and coffee and much prefer the resultant colours.

You are not going to the strung up if you wear white hose.

There are a myriad of hose colours out there that I think are better than white hose

And that's all I have have to say on this subject

I have a pair of cream wool that I just never seem to wear. May I ask how you dyed them with coffee?? DO you have a finished photo you could share??

Thanks.

[Downunder Kilt]

I have a pair of cream wool that I just never seem to wear. May I ask how you dyed them with coffee?? DO you have a finished photo you could share??

Thanks.

These are pure wool hose and I believe that all synthetic ones cannot be dyed successfully.

On the left is the natural ecru ones, the middle are those dyed with standard coffee grounds and the ones on the right are dyed with a dark roast blend

I filled a bucket with warm water, not hot enough to shrink wool, mixed in the coffee grounds, wet the socks in warm water, placed them in the bucket and gently stirred until hose were saturated with the colour. For the first hour I gently stirred the hose every 5 - 10 minutes then put the bucket aside for a couple of hours and stirred again. Left the hose in the bucket overnight, got the hose out the next morning, let them drip dry. Then hand washed them in cold water. This seemed to colourfast them and that was over a year ago.

The photo

[piperdown]

These are pure wool hose and I believe that all synthetic ones cannot be dyed successfully.

On the left is the natural ecru ones, the middle are those dyed with standard coffee grounds and the ones on the right are dyed with a dark roast blend

I filled a bucket with warm water, not hot enough to shrink wool, mixed in the coffee grounds, wet the socks in warm water, placed them in the bucket and gently stirred until hose were saturated with the colour. For the first hour I gently stirred the hose every 5 - 10 minutes then put the bucket aside for a couple of hours and stirred again. Left the hose in the bucket overnight, got the hose out the next morning, let them drip dry. Then hand washed them in cold water. This seemed to colourfast them and that was over a year ago.

The photo

Fantastic idea...thanks!!!

[Nighthawk]

MacMillan of Rathdown- thanks for that information and those points! We do know that the original kilt hose were made from the same tartan as the kilts, but frankly... that's a pain in the butt. So we tend towards natural wool. Personally, I don't even like white when it's the natural color, so the pair that I'm having knit for myself are a lovat green.