Arch Shaped Stocking by Elizabeth Zimmermann and Meg Swansen

Arch Shaped Stocking

This pattern is available from schoolhousepress.com for $7.99.

From Schoolhouse Press:

Elizabeth Zimmermann knitted the prototype for the arch shaped stockings in the 1960s. The wonderful shaping makes them quite sensuous as you slip them on and feel the arch snug up into the bottom of your foot. Working just from the prototype, Meg Swansen was able to recreate them and write detailed instructions for a pair of aran and a striking pair of two-color stockings. Also includes charts for alternate patterns such as an elegant Bavarian Twisted Stitch design, and 2 more two-color motifs in Scandinavian and Turkish styles. Instructions, charts, techniques and sizing guidelines.
Print version comes in a 3-hole, archival quality sheet protector.

Knitted Measurements:

  • 13.5”/34.5cm from cuff to heel
  • Approx 7.5”/19cm from beginning of arch-shaping to toe

Two colors of yarn required; one 100g skein each.

From the pattern description:
Bavarian Twisted Stitch Arch-Shaped Stockings.

From the book:
“This design was found in stockings knit for me by Elizabeth Zimmermann in the 1960s. It had never been published, and I couldn’t find any notes in EZ’s journals. A careful dissection of the original revealed a sculptural construction with a very sensuous fitted arch under the foot. A good type of increase for the actual arch shaping is knit-into-the-back-of-the-stitch-of-the-row-below in a mirror image on each side of the central stitch(es) of the underfoot.”

Make sure you consult the Vogue Knitting website pattern errata because they replaced the entire pattern from the version published in the magazine.

Similar stockings, with different stitch patterns, appeared in Wool Gathering #55, Form-Fitted Arch Stockings, and are available in Schoolhouse Press Pattern #02, a leaflet from Schoolhouse Press, with charts for 7 designs including an elegant Bavarian twisted stitch design.

The patterns from WG55 and SHP#2 are here.