Description
In the past, women in many parishes wore knee-length stockings (church or bridal stockings) knitted from bleached linen yarn with their festive clothes.
Even today, it is nice to wear linen stockings with folk costumes, especially in summer, because linen stockings are beautiful and they are not so hot. In most cases, the stockings were with lacy patterns, look up stocking patterns and detailed instructions from the book “Estonian knitting 2. Stockings and socks”.
In several regions of Estonia, men wore summer hats made of linen yarn. In some places, the hats were knitted with lacey pattern, but they mostly had four stripes that were knitted with woolen yarn, between the linen surface.
This linen yarn is suitable for knitting ethnographic socks or men’s striped hats. For knitting a linen stocking with a very tight gauge (more than 28 stitches per needle), we recommend using a finer linen yarn.
Since linen yarn is slippery and metal needles can slip out of it more easily, we recommend knitting so that the loops are fairly tight around the needle.
4 skeins of yarn are needed for stockings that reach below the knee (5 skeins for larger, longer feet). The hat takes about 2 skeins of linen yarn (plus one skein of GOOD Vintage blue yarn).
When knitting stockings and hats, we recommend using needles No. 1.75-2 mm (US 00 and 0).
A stocking made of linen yarn stretches less than a stocking made of wool, and this must be taken into account when making the cut and calculating the stitches.
After knitting, wash the item, it will become more even and narrow. While wet, the linen item can feel a bit stiff-. This will all improve after it has dried.
In addition, modern dresses, blouses, etc. can be knitted or crocheted from this yarn. For these, we recommend using thicker wooden needles 2.5-5 mm (US 1,5-8).
