Stocking

“ It is always a saving of time and energy to take care of the small holes; small ones grow to be larger ones if one is not careful. It pays to mend at once. We will learn how to mend stockings.
Courtesy of H. Brinton Co.
Fig. 99.—The knitting machine. Caps, stockings, and underwear are made on similar machines.
Stocking darning differs from darning the straight or the square tear, because, as a rule, there is a hole in the stocking. The stocking material is worn away, and it is necessary to replace it with a small piece of weaving over and under of warp and filling. ”

“ The hosiery manufacture furnishes employment to many persons besides those who work at the stocking-machine. The frame-worker, in many cases, makes the knit-work in a piece adapted for a stocking, and does not make a finished stocking; the seamer makes the stocking out of the piece so produced. When we speak of the stocking-frame, we speak of a machine which knits every article of hosiery. In this manufacture there were employed, in 1851, sixty-five thousand five hundred persons, of whom thirty thousand were females. ”

“ She said that in winter she footed stockings, that is, knit feet to country-people's stockings, which bears about the same relation to stocking-knitting that cobbling does to shoe-making, and is of course both less profitable and less dignified ”

“ Preventive Mending.
Stockings, for instance. The toes and heels of children’s stockings may be neatly darned before they are worn [44] for the first time, for this purpose using crochet silk or mercerised thread, which is less bulky and clumsy than wool. Insist on frequent change of hosiery, and forbid the wearing of any stocking that shows even the tiniest hole. To prevent those long running ladders which are almost impossible to mend, sew a band of silk or cotton, or a border cut from an old stocking, round each hem of the new pair. ”

“ The stocking frame, which is the great implement of this business, though it appears at first sight to be a complicated machine, consists merely of a repetition of parts easily understood, with a moderate degree of attention, provided an accurate conception is first formed of the nature of the hosiery fabric. ”

“ Two hundred and fifty thousand dozen pairs of cotton stockings go abroad annually to deck foreign legs, and about half that amount of worsted,—the latter being generally sold by weight. Finally, I conclude with the remarkably interesting statistical fact, that a lady always takes off her left stocking last!
The possibility that this bit of statistical darning may excite a blush on susceptible cheeks, reminds me of another fashion to which I will now advert, under the title at the head of the following chapter. ”

“ If the stockings happened to be lace or silk ones it might be worth while, but the general stocking doesn't cost over a dollar a pair, and it is really cheaper to buy new ones than be bothered by a strange woman coming in to mend the old ones. ”

“ Another remarkable instance of combination prior to the introduction of mechanical power and the factory system is that of the " stockingers," the hosiery workers, or framework knitters, described by Dr. Brentano. From the very beginning of the use of the stocking-frame, in the early part of the seventeenth century, servants appear to have been set to- work upon frames owned by capitalists, though the bulk of the trade was in the hands of men who worked upon their own frames as independent producers. ”

“ An active cotton-stocking manufactory finds employment for a great portion of the lower order of females here, who are animated to industry by the considerable profits which reward their exertions. Those who weave the plain stocking, make from 9s. ”

“ Stock-gillyflower, stok′-jil′i-flow-ėr, n. a genus of herbaceous or half-shrubby plants of the natural order Cruciferæ, having their flowers in racemes, and generally beautiful and fragrant. [Stock, wood, and gillyflower.]
Stocking, stok′ing, n. a close covering for the foot and lower leg.—ns. Stockinet′, an elastic knitted fabric for under-garments; Stock′inger, one who knits stockings; Stock′ing-frame, a knitting-machine. [From stock, the stockings being the nether-stocks when the long hose came to be cut at the knee.] ”

“ The crockless black stocking is gaining in favor in our best circles, I am pleased to note. Nothing looks more mortified than a foot that has been inside of a crockable stocking all through a long, hot, summer day. ”

“ The invention of the various machines which culminated in the knitting or weaving of stockings by machinery in place of by hand, occasioned great disturbances about the commencement of the present century among a large body of operatives in the counties of Leicester and Nottingham, in England, who had been educated to old methods of stocking-making and were dependent upon the continued prosecution of them for their immediate livelihood. ”

“ We have five articles in this number to recommend to the attention of the C. Y. P. R. U. Every little pair of hands that opens Young People, the Postmistress hopes and fancies, has two corresponding little feet nicely incased in woven stockings without the suspicion of a hole in them. How did the world ever come to have woven stockings? Look at the article on our fourth page and see. Three centuries ago William Lee's observation of the labor performed by four knitting-needles in the hands of his patient, hard-working wife resulted in the invention of the stocking-loom. ”

“ I have read somewhere of stockings made out of the human hair, and how the pretty conceit was adopted by lovers who were willing to entangle their legs, as well as heart, in their mistresses’ tresses. To be once more statistical and useful, I have to add for your information, that although we no longer export anything but cotton yarns, instead of the manufactured article, to Saxony, our general export is still large; saving of silk stockings, of which we send abroad annually only some 60,000 pairs. ”

“ To carry off a parcel and then to find that it contains three stockings, all with holes in the toes and knees, and one small undervest buttonless and torn into strips up the back, must be a bitter blow. ”

“ If the demand for them becomes sufficiently general, the supply will soon follow. Failing these plans, however, ordinary stockings may be bought a couple of sizes too large for the one who is to wear them, and then cut to the proper shape and carefully sewn at the edge with darning wool. ”

“ Place the stocking as shown in Fig. 1, cut off the sole at the dotted line a—b; then cut off the toe at the line c—d. As the heel of the sole piece will not lie flat it must be slit, until, when laid out, it resembles fig. 2. Cut pieces to these patterns from the leg of another stocking, allowing turnings as follows:
Fig. ”

“ If it is not convenient to mangle them, the next best plan is to put 4 or 6 stockings one upon the other between muslin, lay them on a stone doorstep, and beat them with the rolling pin. They must not be mangled or beaten in towels, as the pattern of the towels would be impressed on them. If the stockings have lace fronts they will more particularly require the tacking mentioned above to make them look nice. No soda or washing powder of any kind must be put to them. ”

“ If fewer men were required to cultivate the raw cotton, or if fewer sailors were employed in navigating, or shipwrights in constructing, the ship in which it was conveyed to us; if fewer hands were employed in raising the buildings and machinery, or if these, when raised, were rendered more efficient; the stockings would inevitably fall in value, and command less of other things. ”

“ If two years ago when the question of a higher duty on hosiery was before Congress any woman or club of women had come forward with carefully tabulated experiments, showing exactly the changes which have gone on of late years in the shape, color, and wearing quality of the 15-, 25-, and 50-cent stockings, the stockings of the poor, she would have rendered a genuine economic service. ”

“ The effect of this invention was very late in making its appearance in Scotland. Till far on in the eighteenth95 century, the use of knitted stockings was universal. Mittens, or woollen gloves for the hands, and boot-hose, for drawing over the legs in riding, were also quite common, and all were wrought by the hand. The manufacture was carried on solely by women, the wives and daughters of farmers, generally, and the produce was sold as the means of bringing in a small revenue. ”

“ What properly brought up person knows whether stockings are “drapery” or “outfitting”? It all depends on how you want to wear them, one would suppose. In fact, I believe they are “hosiery.” And yet, if I could force myself to say “hosiery” to the liftman, I should probably find that in addition to the hosiery being straight through on the left, and therefore in the next street but two, it meant gent.’s up-to-date footwear only, and that ladies’ stockings were in the haberdashery, second turning on the right and across the road as you leave Shaftesbury Avenue. ”

“ In either case the price of stockings would fall, whether there were fewer men employed as bleachers, spinners, and weavers, persons immediately necessary to their manufacture; or as sailors, carriers, engineers, and smiths, persons more indirectly concerned. ”

“ I said. "I haven't got a head for Stores. Perhaps if I sew my address into the back of my waistcoat I might venture, but it's an awful undertaking. And how does one dress for Stores?"
"Oh, anyhow," she said. "And when you get there I want you to order some stockings for the girls—about four pairs each—and three warm undervests for John."
"But what about the size?" I said.
"You won't have any difficulty. Mention their ages, or take up a few old sample stockings and an undervest with you. They won't be heavy to carry. Now leave me to my headache." ”

“ The produce of such labour comes frequently cheaper to market than would otherwise be suitable to its nature. Stockings, in many parts of Scotland, are knit much cheaper than they can anywhere be wrought upon the loom. They are the work of servants and labourers, who derive the principal part of their subsistence from some other employment. More than a thousand pair of Shetland stockings are annually imported into Leith, of which the price is from fivepence to sevenpence a pair. ”

“ The sale of stockings is now principally in the hands of the men who vend braces, &c. The kind sold is most frequently unbleached cotton. The price to a street-buyer is generally from 6d. to 9d.; but the trade is of small extent. “It’s one of the trades,” a street-seller said to me, “that we can’t compete with shop-keepers in. You shall go to a haberdashery swag-shop, and though they have ‘wholesale haberdashers,’ and ‘hawkers supplied’ on the door-post, you’ll see a pair of stockings in the window marked with a very big and very black 6, and a very little and not half black 3⁄4 ”

“ Selling their little stockings and hoods Vegetables, fruits, and nuts of all kinds were counted out carefully in little heaps, and could only be bought in that way, by retail, wholesale rates being universally rejected. ”

“ STOCK FOR SOUP
Stock in its composition is not confined to any set rules for any particular proportions. All cook books give particular as well as general directions for its manufacture; but all cooks know that the most economical plan is to have a general stock-pot, where, or into which, you can throw any pieces of beef or any piece of meat from which gravy can be extracted—bones, skin, brisket or tops of ribs, ox-cheek, ham, trimmings [Pg 4] of turkey and other fowls, pieces of mutton, bacon, veal, game, etc., etc. In fact, anything that will become a jelly will assist in making stock. ”

“ The stock-pot should supply stock for sauces, stews and gravies, and we will now indicate how a careful cook can always have stock on hand with little or no extra expense.
The first consideration is the stock-pot. A well-tinned stock-pot with a tap is to be recommended; the tap permits the stock to be drawn off without any admixture of grease, all the fat rising to the top of the stock-pot. For small households the earthenware stock-pot will be found useful, as a very small amount of heat is required to keep its contents at simmering point. ”

“ The inventory of a farmer’s stock of the same date and place (Montauban, 1345) contains four kneading-troughs, a large funnel, one winepress with screws, four tuns, eight casks, three barrels, and two kegs; a lead alembic for distilling, a cauldron, two metal water-jugs, cooking utensils; two wool-cards, three carding-combs for hemp, two spades, two flails, three reaping-hooks, one scythe, one crossbar, two carpenters’ benches and tools, one shovel, two iron goads; a cart and harness; two oxen, one horse, one ass, two pigs, two sows, and a swarm of bees. ”

“ STOCK In all good cooking there is a constant demand for a half pint or a pint of stock. Brown sauce and tomato sauce, in fact, all meat sauces, are decidedly better made from stock than water, and as it comes to every household without the additional cost of a penny, there is no excuse whatever for being without it. Save the bones collected on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Chicken and veal bones may be kept together; beef, mutton and ham in another lot; one makes a white stock, the other brown. ”

“ Such specialists have appeared in the cotton brokers and dealers who make their living out of bearing the risks connected with anticipating demand and supply in relation to cotton. To-day a spinner who is asked to quote for deliveries of yarn for, say, the next six months, may obtain from a broker quotations for deliveries of the cotton that he needs, in quantities as he needs it, for the next six months, and upon these quotations he may base his own for yarn. ”

“ The third stock, being made from bones and pieces of meat left from roasts, and from the trimmings of raw meats, will always be changeable in color, quantity and quality. This is, however, a very important stock, and it should always be kept on hand. No household, even where only a moderate amount of meat is used, should be without a stock-pot. ”