(Hey!  It’s not a garb post!  Yes, I know someone will wear these stockings, but my interest in them is not as clothing for me or Daan….come on, I gotta take it where I can find it.  This is a Break From Garb.)

I volunteered to help knit stockings for the garbification of the costumed docents at Plimoth Plantation.

Gabrielle brought me a kit with yarn and instructions at Magna Fair, and the following Monday I swatched the yarn.

It’s interesting yarn. 

Came on cones, is clearly two-ply, with rather a lot of extra twist energy.  An itchy wool.  I got gauge at 6 sts per inch horiz, though only 7 rows (rather than 8) vertically.  I’m wondering if this vertical gauge will change as weight develops on the stocking.

The instructions have no picture.  They say that "these stockings are based on a pair at the Victoria and Albert Museum."  I wish it said which one.  (There’s a nice online knitting exhibit at the V&A here, but I don’t see a stocking answering to these instructions.)  I can tell from the instructions what the stocking will look like, but aside from simply copying them over here, I can’t show  you how simple and plain they will be until I finish one.

Neat quick history of knitting article from Knitty.  Pattern for Gunnister stocking that claims kinship with one used by Plimoth Plantation.  Good info on stockings with lots of links, scroll down to the bottom for SCA-period stocking info.  Explanation of stockings used at Plimoth; speculation about their original production.