Stockings

Thy crimson stockings all of silk,
with golde all wrought aboue the knee,

Made by Sally Pointer

Detail from "The Witches Kitchen"
by Franken, 1610

Once again with stockings we have a garment seldom seen in the pictorial record in the 16th Century. This detail, from a painting by Frans Francken the younger, does show some stockings, though it’s very slightly later than our period…

However, there are some surviving examples, even in England (though the Museum of London hold the only known example of a silk stocking foot found in England - the rest are of wool). By the C17th we have some surviving examples of stockings knitted with gilt threads being used to add patterns and decoration.

Stockings of Eleanor of Toledo, 1562

Greensleeves’stockings, being from 1580, won’t be nearly as complex as these later designs, instead being plain knit up the leg, with the gold decoration at the cuff being based on figured designs of early stockings, such as those of Eleanor of Toledo

Sally Pointer knitting the stockings

Sally Pointer is making Greensleeves’ stockings, using a combination of methods. The basic leg of the stocking has been made on a 120 needle stocking machine for speed and cost reasons, while the the heel, toe and cuff are to be worked by hand.

This silk is so densely knit that she’s had to fish out some Victorian 0.75-1mm knitting needles to finish the heel off, as she couldn't get any of her more modern ones through the fabric.

Then she dyed them crimson