Asturian-American Migration Forum

Hi all,

I met a nice man from Asturias at the Potomac Celtic Festival this year. He was wearing traditional Asturian dress and had a great pair of lacy blue knitted hose/stockings. I'm a knitter and he was kind enough to give me a closer look at his stockings. They were made by a lady in Asturias who had been knitting them for years and the gentleman said that they were always blue and sewn up the side. I've been trying to find information, patterns, or even a good picture of said stockings but haven't had any luck. Could someone help me out? If I got a good picture of them, I could probably figure out the pattern.

FYI: For those of you near the Washington, DC area, Potomac Celtic Festival is held every 2nd weekend in June. Asturias is a recent addition to the Festival so we'd love to have more Asturians come.

Thanks in advance!

Deb

Hi, Deb,

You've come to the right place. That man in stockings was one of our members: Alfonso Díaz. I'll send him an email for you.

I've been wondering about the stockings, too, so it would be good to have a description of them here.

----------------

Hola, Deb,

Has venido al lugar perfecto. Aquel hombre en medias era uno de nuestros miembros: Alfonso Díaz. Le enviaré un correo electrónico para ti.

He estado preguntándome sobre las medias, también, entonces estaría bien tener una descripción de ellos aquí.

Oh excellent!! Thanks a bunch! I now have a name for "that guy in the cool blue stockings." I saw him again this weekend at the Renaissance Festival but just in passing and of course, I didn't have my camera with me again.

deb

Hi every one

Art, yes indeed, I was at the Renaissance, I see that I can not hide! there is always somebody watching and some times that is good. I was both days Saturday and Sunday. IMPRESIVE EVENT !!! in size, appearance and content.

I was the only Asturian ( at least with a costume) This time for second year, my head quarters was with the Scottish, with Clans of Scotland. I was giving them a hand in their tent, since morning to evening packed with visitors with all kind of questions related with their ancestors. I don't know much but basic answers I finaly was able to.

I met a number of fellows from Potomac but not the lady interested in the Asturian socks, for what I can see she is local, so Art, feel free to give her my e-mail address I probably will be able to help her have a closer look at them, (but before that, let me wash them since after two days in Renaissance, the knitting is not even visible).

I'm making some contacts to see if there is a possibility that next year Asturies Celtic Society can have presence there. If some one wants to cooperate please let me know.

Saludos,
Alfonso

Can we see a picture of the stockings that have this lady in raptures? Come on, Alfonso, you haven't sent us any this year and I know you have some!

-------------------------------------------------
Podemos ver una foto de esas medias que tanto entusiasmaron a esta chica/señora?
Venga, Alfonso, este año no nos mandate ninguna foto y sabemos que las tienes!

Actually, it was the hat and the sabbots (wooden shoes that I don't know the Asturian word for) that first caught my attention. And in a sea of plain kilt hose or diced (argyle) kilt hose and while socks, lacy blue stockings stand out.

Deb

Hi Deb,
The sabbots are called "madreñes" and are actually overshoes, worn over cloth or leather slippers. By the way, if you want to see pics of Alfonso and friends in last year's festival, just click on the Photo Album link above (next to Home link) and then click on "Recent Family and Social".

Cheers
Terechu

Here are the photos of Alfonso and his socks. I've placed these in the photo album, too. Most of them are in a new section "Photos of Asturiana".

The asturian "shoes" are "corizas" or "coricias." Inside, between the socks and the coricias, there is a soft liner, made out of black wool called an "escarpin".


These are hand-knit socks worn by Alfonso Díaz with his traje asturiano.


A detail shows the heel of the hand-knit socks worn by Alfonso Díaz with his Asturian costume.


Traditional Asturian footware has several layers. The coricia or coriza is the outer leather shoe. The escarpin is a liner made from black wool. Madreñas (wooden shoes--not shown here) are usually worn over the coricias when outdoors.


And here's the full effect. Alfonso Díaz (center) stands with friends at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Alfonso is wearing a traditonal Asturian outfit. It looks like he's hanging out with some tough characters these days!

Hola all!!

I got a closer look at Alfonzo's stockings on Saturday (in the pouring rain!!) and have got a basic idea of how they were constructed. He also brought his son's stockings which had a different pattern on them. I'll go over each separately. If you're not a knitter, this probably won't make a lot of sense to you but I'll try and make it as clear as possible.

First, his son's stockings:

These were also blue and knit in the round - no seam. The overall pattern was a simple lace pattern called "Field of Flowers" as seen in this scarf pattern here:
http://www.heirloom-knitting.co.uk/offe ... _scarf.pdf

Now, the "field of flowers" name is a traditional Shetland lace name, it probably has a different name in Spanish. Traditional patterns tend to have different names depending on the country and the region.

The top of the stocking was a k1,p1 ribbing that had been knitted flat and doubled over with elastic inserted in it. The gap was sewn together but I think stitches were picked up after it was doubled over as the knitting is continuous. I'm thinking that the lady who knit them might have used a provisional (waste yarn) cast on to knit the ribbing, folded it over, and picked up stitches that way because I didn't see a cast on edge and it definitely wasn't sewn down.

The stocking itself didn’t have any major decreases in it and the pattern was carried through on the heel flap. The foot looked like it was knitted in a pretty straight-forward manner. I didn’t take a good look at the toe but it was a pretty typical toe shape with decreases on each side.

Now for Alfonzo’s stockings:

Alfonzo’s stockings had a Van Dyke or fishtail lace pattern like in this scarf: http://qatlh.pair.com/~ftrd/lorrie/Fish ... eScarf.pdfNote that Alfonzo’s stockings have 4 yarn-overs on each repeat, not 3 as in the scarf.

The top of the stocking was the same as with his son’s with the k1,p1 ribbing folded over with elastic inside. But the interesting thing about the his stockings is that they were knitted completely flat, even down to the foot with the seam on the *side*, not down the back. His stockings were also shaped more than his son’s so I’m thinking that this is the reason they were knitted flat, like kilt hose are. Here’s info from a company that knits knit hose describing hose that is knit flat v. hose that is knitted in the round: http://www.kilkeelknitwear.com/new_page_26.htm (scroll down to the knitting section). Note that the kilt hose knitters are using either a sock machine or a knitting frame. I don’t think these two methods are used for lacy stitches because they are too complex to manipulate as sock machines and frames are used for plain stockinette or simple ribbing.

So several questions on traditional hose:

a) Are there set patterns that are used? If so, are there specific “boys’” patterns and “men’s” patterns?

b) Why knit with the seam down the side instead of the back? Granted, it did blend in very well and I had to look closely to find it.

c) Why knit the entire stocking flat and sew it up? Kilt hose are knitted flat until the ankle and then knit in the round again.

d) How was the ribbing and casing for the elastic done?

e) Why blue?

I’m working on a sample pair of stockings using the pattern from Alfonzo’s stocking and will post pictures when I’m done. I’ve got a rather shapely calf from Highland dancing and horseback riding so I’ll see how just doing decreases down the back looks as opposed to knitting it flat.

Thanks again to Alfonzo for bringing his outfits and letting me have a look at them. Hopefully we’ll have better weather next year!

deb

Alfonso wrote to me today to tell me about the original maker of his socks:

Alfonso wrote:I was at Anne Arundel Fest last weekend. Crazy idea, raining like it would never end! And I met Deb. Finally she was able to look at the socks. She was surprised about the ending of the knitting.

The name of the person who made them is Josefina Fernández, who lives in Cué (Llanes). She has a shop full of different models that she rents or sells. Also, she teaches knitting and how to make the socks. The ones for women are far more complicated.

She has a young daughter who also seems is going to follow her mom in the business.

If anyone needs it, he gave me Josefina Fernández's phone number, too.

I just finished reading these "old" posts from 2005 about the men's stockings. I wonder whether the " Alfonso Díaz Stockings" were ever completed... and if there is a picture... and a pattern? Thank You!
Betty

I just became a member of this site. My father Manuel Angel Diaz who lived with his family in Asturias when he was 3 & 4...died last week at the age of 92. We will be having a Memorial Service for him in Springfield, OH the weekend of the Potomac Celtic Festival...I plan to attend next year. My grandparents immigrated to the US when they were young, (1915) from Mieres and Pierres Blancas. My grandmother was very gifted with crochet. She once looked at a crocheted peacock door/window curtain and crocheted it. Our family names are Diaz and Rodriguez I look forward to getting to know and sharing with others on this website.

I would love to have the stocking pattern if anyone finds it.

I live in the Pittsburgh, PA area. Many of our family members live in the Dayton, OH area.

I don't have a pattern, but they would not be difficult to recreate, especially using the information in a previous post which describes the work so well and the photograph. I would do the work in the round, however, to eliminate the seam... unless it needed to be authentic, then the seam would have to be used.

A more interesting little nugget you left behind in your note is your family's origin in Spain. Some of our descendants came from Piedras Blancas also. A few years ago we visited Asturias (OH MY!!!!!! How I wish I could go again!!) and I tried to get information on our family there. The priest I visited with told me if you don't have the exact dates, exact area, it is very very difficult to get data from church records. My brother, Robert Vega, is also a member of this forum and has done research which is recorded here. You might want to browse through some of his postings. We have a Diaz as our Great Grandfather and Great Gandmother's side. So, somewhere we must be related!
Also, my husband and I are located in central Ohio near Columbus!

Some of my family live in the little area called Pena Rey. It is near Pierres Blancas. I will look up the posts on the stockings.