I think you'd be better off with cloth garters. I don't know of any extant knitted garters from the 16th century (nor any references to them, off the top of my head). You could make the cloth garters out of strips of fabric, or make your own--inkle weaving or some other type of narrow ware like tablet weaving (still a known technique in the 16th century, but not as popular as earlier, from what I've heard). Or perhaps a really wide strip of fingerloop braid, which would certainly be an appropriate technique. The Eleanor of Toledo remains had strips of fabric associated with her knitted silk stockings, but it is now held that those weren't garters as much as they were meant to hold her legs together for the actual burial. I seem to recall seeing garters that looked like fabric in some men's portraits, rather than leather. I've got some inexpensive garters for my 14th c. linen hose (made of bias-cut fabric). They're a simple, dyed twill, cotton ribbon. Eventually, I'll be making some using tablet weaving, though. --Sue
----- Original Message ----- From: "Elizabeth Walpole" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Historic Costume" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2007 8:03 PM Subject: [h-cost] knitted garters (when) are they period? > hello everyone, I'm planning to make a pair of cloth hose for 16th century > wear but as I don't have the fabric for the hose themselves yet I thought I > would start with the garters. Everyone I've seen wearing these hose seems to > use leather garters but I can't afford to go out and buy that sort of thing > at the moment so I thought of knitting some garters to hold up my hose. Does > anybody know of evidence for knitted garters at any point in history but > preferably the 16th century? I ask because at the moment I'm doing an > experiment using cheap acrylic yarn that I had on hand (bought by my grandma > a couple of years ago) and if knitted garters are period at all I will knit > another set in wool, but if not I'll use the acrylic ones until I can > replace them with leather. > thanks, > Elizabeth _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
