Yarn for Tartan Hose

What kind of yarn?

This article offers some suggestions on yarn to use when knitting highland dance socks.

Here are a few recommendations:

• Pure 100% wool.
• Weight: You need to create a marl, which means the strands are doubled. For dress tartans (white background), this will be white mixed with your main color. Because you are always doubling the strands the yarn weight is very light or lace weight.
• Gauge: The gauge from the Wool Express pattern is 8.5 stitches by 12 rows per square inch using a 2 mm needle. You can adjust this if your yarn is slightly heavier or for your own tension.

Where to purchase the yarn:

The yarn from the Wool Express kits is JaggerSpun, Maine Line 2/20. They are a wholesaler and don't sell directly to consumers. Their website has a link to retailers. I have  ordered online from Halcyon Yarn in the  U.S.A. and Penelope Fibre Arts from Vancouver, B.C., Canada. Both of these retailers worked out well for me, because you can order a smaller amount of each color of yarn. Some retailers only sell 1 lb cones. It is worth ordering a sample card if you are planning to try and match yarn colors to tartan swatches. I ordered mine from Halcyon.

Other options:

I have ordered specially dyed yarn from Bonnie Toes. I don't know anything about dyeing yarn. There are times when you have a tricky tartan color to match. My daughter's second kiltie was Dress Rose Nesbit. I was lucky that Kathy at Bonnie Toes had previously made a pair of hose with these colors and had leftover yarn. She was willing to sell me a kit with the special rose colored yarn. It was a spectacular match! It's probably my favorite pair of socks that I have knit. From Kathy's Bonnie Toes Facebook page, it looks like maybe she has stopped making socks. She may be willing to sell some yarn, if you're looking for a tricky color.

Another tricky tartan was Dress Fuchsia Menzies. I ordered dyed yarn from Sandy McLeod. She was part of the team that made the Wool Express sock knitting kits. She also wrote a book called "Tartan Hose: A Design Guide for Scottish Dance Socks". The book is available, last I looked, from Highland XPress. It's an excellent book. At the time the book came out she was offering up for sale some of the extra yarn leftover from the kit making. This was 2011, so this is probably no longer an option.

When I purchased my daughter's last kilt (Dress Lavender McKellar) through Highland In Style, I was lucky to be able to order a cone of thread from the mill where the tartan was made at the same time. This is a not normal item available for order. My timing was good because they were ordering for another sock maker and I had mentioned wanting to knit socks, as well. Perfect color match!

If you can acquire some thread it needs to be four strands instead of two for knitting. The marl is two strands of main color thread plus one strand of regular white lace weight yarn. It was quite fidgety when winding the strands but I managed to do this for two pairs of hose and survived to tell my tale.

Lesson Learned:  Ask around and let people know. Somebody might be trying to get rid of what you need.

Cross Stitch Tip: Check out the bright green cross stitch yarn! This is %100 wool tapestry yarn. It comes in nice small amounts, pre-cut and perfect for cross stitches. It is a slightly different weight but it works just fine for the one stitch wide diagonal line. There are so many colors available. Unfortunately, my source in Calgary, AB, (Gina Brown's) has stopped selling this yarn.