Hosiery Term

Hose originally denoted a pair of close-fitting breeches reaching to the knee. The application of the term to garments covering the legs below the knee was later, when power-driven machinery created a great trade in knitted goods, and a general term being desired, the word hosiery was adopted. The hosiery department today, includes jerseys, knickers, bathing costumes, beach wear, combinations, pants, vests, gloves, waistcoats, sportswear, as well as socks and stockings. The term " knitted textures " is more descriptive.

(See knitting). All yarns used for knitting are termed hosiery yarns in Leicester, but in America only yarns actually used for knitted footwear come under this term. These yarns are much softer than required for weaving. Miscellaneous Yarns - Goat wools, such as llama and alpaca are employed in spinning. yarns for the knitting trade. Vicuna and camel yarns are used to a limited extent. Ramie yarn is specially employed for knitting gas mantle fabrics. Soft spun flax yams have been used for making underwear fabric. Chenille and other manufactured threads are used to a small extent in warp knitting. Composite yarns, such as union yarns - spun from a mixture of wool and cotton fibres; cordon yarns - cotton and worsted singles, doubled together; wool and rayon or spun silk, cotton and rayon or spun silk are largely used to produce self or two-colour effects. Fancy yarns, such as slub yams, voiles, and curled and loop yarns are also employed. Hosiery Yarns (Cotton) include condenser, hosiery, condenser lisle thread, mercerised and sewing cottons. Condenser yarns are spun in coarse counts from low-grade cotton, Indian and American. They are carded, condensed and mule spun, and possess little twist. Hosiery cotton yarns vary considerably in counts and qualities, practically all varieties of Indian, American and Egyptian being used in varying proportions to obtain suitable mixture for quality and price. Cheaper yarns are carded and mule spun. American and Egyptian cotton yarns are combed mainly with the object of removing seed particles. High-class Egyptian and Sea Islands cotton yarns are super-combed. The chief features of a hosiery cotton yam should be: (1) Regularity; (2) cleanliness; (3) fullness. Regularity prevents the making of cloudy fabric, showing thick and thin places. Cleanliness is essential, as the seed particles clog the eyelet hole in the yam guides and cause breakages. Fullness is desirable to cover the loop interstices. Elasticity and pliability are quite as essential as tensile strength. Yams are usually soft spun and if two-fold soft doubled, average twists in two-fold being 2/10's 6¹/₂T., 2/20's 8¹/₂T., 2/30's 10T., 2/40's 16T., 2/80's 20T. Softer twist less 25 to 30 per cent of average (T= turns per inch). Lisle thread is a comparatively hard-twisted and doubly-gassed thread in which there are no projecting fibres. It is always of a two-fold character, and the doubling twist varies from 24 to 34 turns per inch in 2/60's. It is used largely in the manufacture of ladies' hose tops and feet and for lace hosiery. Mercerised yams are used largely in the fancy trade, a comparatively soft twist again being employed. Sewing cottons for seaming, linking and making-up are specially prepared in two to six cord open and reverse twist. Woollen and Worsted Yarns include lamb's wool, wheeling, skein yarns, gala yams (woollens), worsted, crossbreds, fingering, cashmere, dry spun botany (see under each name). Worsted and crossbred yarns of various qualities are used. These yams are spun softly with " hosiery twist." The drawing may be open, cone or French, and the spinning may take place on cap, ring or flyer frames. The chief essentials of hosiery yarn are softness of fibre, fullness, minimum of twist consistent with the requisite tensile strength, regularity, pliability and elasticity. Cashmere Yarns, as used in the knitted goods industry, are spun from short, loose and weak wools as well as from better qualities by French drawing and mule spinning. A small proportion of real cashmere is used for outer garments. In recent years nylon yarns have been largely employed.

This term applies to hosiery made out of glove silk and the fabrics used are plain, milanese and fancy tricot. The manufacture of this type of hosiery resembles the manufacture of gloves more than any other garment. For an ordinary " glove silk stocking " seven pieces are required and metal dies are used to cut correctly-shaped pieces from the warp knit silk fabric, just as the various pieces are cut to form a glove. These separate pieces are the leg, heel and upper part of the toe, two heel reinforcing pieces, used to reinforce either side of the heel by having two thicknesses, two toe reinforcing pieces and a rectangular piece for the welt.

The term finishing hosiery usually includes in addition to the dyeing, bleaching, etc., processes, the cutting out, sewing together, and shaping of the garment.

A term applied to hosiery and knit goods generally that are made of cotton and wool mixed together, prior to spinning. It frequently happens that goods made of all-cotton yarns are offered as merino, or are made up in boxes with the word merino on the box label.

A term which is used to imply that stockings and half-hose have been knitted to conform with the shape of the legs.

A term denoting that hose have been knitted at the toe and heel with a thicker or additional reinforcing thread.

A hosiery term applied to knitted hosiery having six ribs on the face alternating with three on the back.

A sewing operation consisting in the sewing together of two thicknesses of material, or the marking of lines by means of long stitches. Even Basting - All stitches of the same length. Uneven Basting - Long and short stitches. Diagonal Basting - Upper stitches are long and diagonal. Hosiery Term - Refers to the sewing together of a garment or part of a garment with large stitches by hand, these stitches are afterwards removed.

A term applied to hosiery or other knit goods made from pure Egyptian undyed cotton. Also the term used to describe the cotton.

The French term for hosiery with embroidered figuring.

This term in the knit goods trade when applied to hosiery or underwear denotes goods made of fine worsted yam spun from Saxony or other soft wools.

A dress fabric made of all silk yarns, and with a satin face and crepe-like back. A hard twisted warp and crepe weft is used. The finished cloth is dull but soft. The name Charmeuse is the registered trade mark of a fabric originated by a French firm, Bianchini, Ferier and Co., bat it has been made common by copying the fabric on a large scale. The Berlin Chamber of Industry and Commerce gives the following opinion: - Charmeuse has been understood commercially for many decades as a woven silk fabric with a lustrous duchess satin-like face and a dull crepe-like back. Originally made from natural silk, this material has been manufactured in the last few years both in part or wholly from rayon. " Tricot-charmeuse " is a knitted fabric, the back of which has an appearance similar to that of Charmeuse. Tricot-charmeuse has been largely used as a rayon hosiery material in Saxony and Thuringia, but such materials have also been called " Charmeuse " for some time past in the factories making Tricot charmeuse. It is considered, therefore, that the term " Charmeuse," without some special designation, has no power of differentiation and cannot be considered for registration as a trade mark.

This term is used literally and denotes the combing of fibrous materials in sliver form by mechanically actuated combs, or by hand-operated combs. In general, the objects in combing are two, namely (1) to obtain the maximum parallelisation of the fibres, and (2) to remove impurities and undesired short fibres. Combing machines differ considerably in their action on fibres, and in practice the different types of combs are used in somewhat restricted fields. For combing cotton the Nasmith and Heilmann combs are principally used. In the United States of America the Whitin comb is much used. In all three of these machines successive rows of combs are set in cylinders, the material being presented for combing in the form of thin narrow laps, which after combing are formed into a sliver and coiled in a can. For combing wool, four types of comb are in use, namely, the Noble, Lister, Holden and Heilmann. Also see under each name. The combs of the Noble machine are in the form of pins set vertically in one large and two small circles with appropriate mechanism for dabbing the wool into the pins of the combs and means for drawing off the combed wool in a continuous sliver, which is wound into a ball and constitutes the " top " of the worsted trade. The machine has a high production and is suitable for use on a large variety of wools, particularly those of 4-in. to 8-in. staple. The Lister comb is specially suitable for long wools. The combing mechanism includes a gill-box and comb circle. The Holden comb is suitable for wools of 3-in. to 6-in. staple, and of 50's to 70's quality. The Heilmann, also known as the " rectilinear " comb, is used for short wools, say, up to about 2-in. staple, and when used for wool is arranged differently for feed and delivery than for combing cotton. It is becoming of increasing importance for combing short fibred wools for subsequent spinning into fine, full handling hosiery yarns.

The folding of a fabric in laps of 36-m. or other lengths after finishing (see plaiting) ———————— The felting of the hair or wool for hat bodies, by means of heat, moisture and pressure. ———————— See Plated Hosiery. ———————— The plaiting machine is used to plait cloth into folds of equal length. The cloth is also measured.

A term to distinguish the worsted yarns made from wool grown in the South of England, and the finest of which is Southdown. The yarns are strong, but rather short in staple, and used for Meltons billiard cloth. West of England cloth, etc. Counts vary from 4/12's to 4/24's and up to 2/24's. Such down wools as those from Norfolk, Sussex, Oxford and Shropshire are chiefly used for hosiery yarns for hard-knitting, fingering and for crewel yarns.

A yarn used in the hosiery trade and is produced on the worsted system. The fibres are usually combed and soft twisted. The term is usually used for yarns sold for hand knitting and which consist of two or more threads folded together. Fingering yarns are also used for hose, three-quarter hose, half-hose and outer garments.

A term applied to wools produced Joy breeding from two types of pure bred sheep. North - This is a cross between Border Leicester and Cheviot. It is by far the most important and valuable and is usually classed as demi-lustre wool. It has a 6-in. staple and spins 46's quality. South Ireland- - Similar in quality and length to North wools, it is clean, but not so nice in handle. Scotch Cross is between Leicester and Blackfaced, and between Cheviot and Black-faced. It is inferior in quality. Other well-known crosses are: - Down-Cheviot, Leicester-Down, Down-North, Leicester-North. These are, however, never used for breeding. Lambs or hoggs are fed and slaughtered as they reach condition for the butcher, hence these wools are chiefly from skins. Very good half-breds are also grown in Nottingham, Leicester, Lincoln, Derbyshire and Warwickshire. Eastern Counties' half-breds are very good hosiery types, but are heavier, not so attractive, and have more grey fibres.

Term denoting black wool hosiery knitted with a natural colour cotton foot.

A knit goods term for women's hosiery having groups of five dropped stitches alternating with one inch wide stripes of plain knitting running the full length.