I am sure, since I have been completely unable to restrain my excitement on all social media channels, that most of you will have already seen the small range of knitted accessories that we’ve made with Lockies.
Now, I have come to realise the “correct” application of the word snood is a matter for debate, and, in some quarters, a source of hot controversy. Is a snood a sort of turn-of-the-40s hairnet, as I recall being stylishly sported by Ginger Rogers in Billy Wilder’s deeply dubious film The Major and the Minor?
Or is a snood one of those cowl-like things that my grandma knitted for me in the 1980s, which, when pulled up over my head and ears, made a stylish contemporary accompaniment to my moon boots? Or is it (as per my current application) a tubular, circularly-knitted scarf?
This is certainly what springs to my mind when I visualise a snood these days, and my usage concurs with the term’s application by mainstream high street and online retailers to currently available accessories.
At one point last week, having vague concerns about the ambiguous nomenclature of the knitwear we had produced, I was filled with a strong desire to refer to these cosy lambswool tubes as PSNEUDS . . . but then abandoned the idea.
In any case, as far as I am concerned, language is correct through usage, and as long as I’m using these things (they are likely to see extended use over the autumn and winter months), I intend to refer to them as SNOODS.
You, on the other hand, must feel free to call them what you like.
Our SNOODS are fashioned from a generously-proportioned, double-layered fabric whose 140cm circumference can be wrapped comfortably twice around the neck. They are knitted and hand-finished to the very highest standards at Lockies from top-quality Hinchcliffe lambswool, and are a super-soft and really versatile cold-weather accessory.
Some people have been writing to ask about finishing and labelling: our snoods have been knitted using an innovative tubular method which has no “wrong” side and involves only a single, very unobtrusive seam (with a neat i-cord-like appearance) which has been designed to retain the continuous appearance of the allover pattern.
We spend a lot of time around here thinking about tags and labels: I am someone who tends to be irritated by garment care labels and routinely cuts them out. If that chimes with you, I hope you’ll be happy to find that the care and brand labels have been attached in such a manner that makes them easy to remove without damaging your snood.
If you are interested in a snood (or whatever you’d like to call it) you’ll find that they currently have their own dedicated section in our shop. Designed by me and made right here in Scotland, they make great gifts . . . though I’ve got one in each colour, and find that I’m really enjoying wearing each in turn.
Yours, fully snooded
xx
KDD & Co 
Personally, I like the term “psneud” for this accessory but when I did 19th century costuming, it was hammered in that a snood is a pretty hair net. We crocheted a few (using old doily patterns) and taught women how to perch them on their heads and catch up their hair in the net. When I heard that cowls were being called snoods, I have to admit I thought millennial fashionistas who had never taken a history course, just thought it was a cute name. But if Oxford has decided it is ok, who am I to argue? :)
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Love the snoods! Also love the teal-ish tweedy coat you’re wearing in the picture with the blue and white striped shirt! Where is it from?
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My snood in charcoal arrived yesterday, and it is stunning! Took less than a week to get to upstate New York, too.
I’m very happy to have such a finely-made and cozy piece of knitwear that I didn’t have to knit myself, and yet I know where and how it was created. In one version of my fantasy world I would be able to knit all the things, but reality is more limited in terms of time and upper-body well-being! :-) Thank you.
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Really pleased you like your snood, Amy Jo!
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My goodness the Caller Herrin in blue is fine! In the states I’m pretty sure we’d call that a cowl, or an infinity scarf, but as a fan of combined words, snood- as in ‘snuggly hood’ suits this piece perfectly. Like me Christmas list needed more weight:) Well done!
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My snood -cowl arrived in Oz a couple of days ago. i’ve worn it already! The design is lovely and the quality of the workmanship first rate.
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happy you are pleased with it, Jan!
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Dear Kate and KD team,
I bought one of your snoods – it arrived yesterday and it is absolutely gorgeous. Wonderful texture and weight, slightly fulled, perfect size, beautifully made. True commitment to good design and production. It really couldn’t be better. This is a great item, whatever you want to call it. I can’t wait for cold weather to come.
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I like psneuds. A very cool new word. As for what you call your new snood, I am fine with it. I never encountered these things until I knitted them, so whatever. I remember seeing certain patterns called cowls, but I used to think cowl were burlap hooded affairs worn by monks. Now any neckwarmer can be called either name. Infinity scarf seems a bit dated now, so very 2007, you know? I haven’t heard that name in ages! Still, I don’t think I ever discussed this with anyone before.
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These are beautiful. I would love to knit one. Any chance of a pattern being released? (One can hope!)
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My daughter has ordered her ‘kit’ for her catering course at college, which includes 2 ‘snoods’ for keeping hair covered. I would have called these hair nets as opposed to snoods to be honest.
I love your snoods, currently saving up for one :) (my son has a £700 computer on his christmas list and reminds me of it daily)
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Kate, I’d love to order a snood but I’ve only today become a subscriber. Is the discount code available for new subscribers as well?
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Hi Helen – absolutely – can you email us at info@katedaviesdesigns.com and we can sort you out.
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Thanks, Kate! I’ll send a message to that address.
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Teal, I think, for my friend V to weat when she cycles to work. I like that they are home grown, so to speak, by you and Lockies.
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They are so beautiful! I loved your post about Lockies, it’s awesome to see a company still thriving in a traditional industry.
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1. The snoods are SO beautiful, Kate!
2. “In any case, as far as I am concerned, language is correct through usage” I JUST WANT TO GIVE THIS A GIANT HUZZAH! That is my professional opinion as a linguist.
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Kate, they are beautiful whatever they are called, I hope to find one in my Christmas stocking. Only problem is deciding which colour! Kind regards, Sue
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Not that I am an expert but I have seen references to snoods in Victorian writings and invariably it is a netted or knitted device to capture the hair and keep it tidy. Only recently have I come across the word being used for a cowl. Where do these changes begin I wonder? I love the designs whatever they are called.
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I have always referred to Ginger’s hair covering as a snood and delighted in the name. I was born at the start of WWII and wasn’t aware of them until in my twenties. I absolutely loved the word. So, I really don’t mind that you have used it for your snoods as I like to hear it as often as possible. But, psneuds would have been wonderful!
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I love all this! The snoods/psneuds are beautiful The word “psneuds” is both hilarious and appropriate. I am also in full agreement with the statement “language is correct through usage,” though I must I admit that I find some linguistic changes delightful, and others less so. Finally, in these photos, Tom looks very much as if he should be an extra in the Canadian Vikings series!
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You are a Marketing Genius !!!
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I couldn’t care less what anything is called but ermergherd I love that yellow jacket you’re wearing…. who’s it by please??
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My friend puts a snood around his cocker spaniels ears so they won’t get in his dog food. Funny how we can use words in so many ways.. I love it.
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My cavalier King Charles Spaniel also wears a snood when eating. LOL!!! In any case, Kate, your snoods are just gorgeous!
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A FOOD PSNEUD!
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Oxford Living Dictionary’s second definition of “snood” is “A wide ring of knitted material worn as a hood or scarf.” Your snood/psneud is beautiful, and if I ever get around to taking up knitting, I plan to make one, although it will be much simpler than yours, with its two-color play. I like that they’re unisex, too!
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I call them beautiful.
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We buy peppers, red, yellow green here in Ontario Canada. Other countries refer to them as Capsicums. A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet. We refer to your snoods as cowls here…….but snood works for me too!!! Absolutely love your snoods!❤️
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Further — I see you are eliminating the site designation. Odd.
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sorry you are having difficulty, Jane – its not anything I’ve done, but it may be that my site software doesn’t like including urls
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P.S. to my comment on Wool and the Gang! Forgot to add their site designation, which is
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You are in good company with your snood designation! Wool and the Gang, the London-based organization founded by four enterprising young women, has a number of kits for their designs of snoods. They give their patterns imaginative names – I made their “L’il Snood Dogg” twice, one for me and one for my granddaughter who coveted mine. Hers is in the “Hot Punk Pink” color of their “Crazy Sexy Wool.” Do see their site,
Knitters and crocheters in the U.S. will all soon be calling their infinity cowls “snoods!”
Your patterns are quite lovely, and enjoyable to view.
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Here in Canada, we call these cowls. A snood would be more like a hood that wrapped around the neck as well.
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I am a Brit and agree with you. For a snood not to be a pseud it must cover the head too. These designs are in fact over large cowls – doesn’t make them any less nice (and I love cowls; in fact I am a bit cowl obsessed!).
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A snood is a snood is a snood. Your design is perfectly lovely by any name.
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As always, your article is wonderful about snoods! How about a simple pattern to make a snood? Any idea where I could find one?
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I agree with Jean Humphreys — I love mangling/playing with words. Personally, I think I will refer to mine, when it comes, as a psneud. It makes me smile, and the first time I saw it I laughed aloud! Well done, Kate!
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They are cowls, what Ginger is wearing is a snood. I’m so tired of fashionistas using the incorrect name for garment and garment details and I work in the trade. Whatever they’re called yours are lovely (excuse the rant)
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I’m in no sense a fashionista, Ellen – and I doubt a mainstream retailer like Seasalt would think of themselves as fashionistas either. Indeed, one of the things that really interests me as a historian of textiles is the way trade terms and definitions mutate dramatically over time. What we think of as a pocket is not the same as the eighteenth-century detatachable pouch known by that name… and is Ginger’s “snood” a medieval costume fantasy or something “authentically” 1940s? If a term makes sense or holds currency for any group who makes, buys, or wears something then it is good enough for me!
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Thanks Ellen. You said it for me. I’m just an old lady who was around to see Ginger in her snood. My aunts and mother had snoods to hold up their long hair. I wear a cowl around my neck to keep it warm. Hair is short now and neck stands up on its own.
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My hair is quite long and I wear a snood, but it is sometimes called a barrette.
It is aclip with a hair net attached.
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Well I’ve always called this sort of thing a snood and never a cowl. I had heard the hair-covering usage too, but a snood is a circular scarf to me.
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English is a global language with a staggering number of varieties, all of which overlap a great deal but which also contain subtly different uses of what appears to be the same word in addition to differences of vocabulary. Add to that the fact that language is constantly evolving and changing, and you get the *natural process* of semantic drift and the application of familiar words to new and different things and ideas.
I doubt you have any problem with calling a laptop a “computer,” even though the use of that term was very different back when Ginger was dancing around in her snood!
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Of course the snoods are completely lovely in every way. Congrats on producing something so gorgeous!
Although, really I would just love to see a pic of you in Moon Boots. Ah, those were the good days of playground fashion. :)
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This is very timely. I was browsing through your snood patterns yesterday and wondered… “isn’t a snood really a…”? It doesn’t matter what you call them. Your pattern is beautiful, and it was really nice to see it being worn by your husband. I’m a man, and sometimes I want to knit stuff for myself and not my wife! :)
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Definition of a snood :-
All of those things. You choose!
Although I really do like “Psneuds”. It is on the lines of the shirt pattern that daughter and I christened “The Wromantic Shirt” from the cartridge pleating and traily collar and cuffs. I enjoy the mangling of words.
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<3
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Kate, these are lovely! I think some people call them infinity cowls over here in the states. You wear headbands that I am envious of in almost all your pictures. They are so smart! Do you make them, too? I think some of these snoods would make great Christmas presents, so I am going to head over to the shop when I figure out who needs what. Tell Tom that I love the bluebird print he did that is now in my kitchen cheering me up every day. And thanks so much for making the labels so easy to remove. I hate labels, too.
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Speaking as one of the people who do not do any social media I had no idea what products you were working on! Now that I can see them I think they’re really lovely and look very snuggly. Well done on another great product.
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I really like your snoods better than the hairnet thingy my mother wore back in the 40’s! Yours can also be worn as hats/hoods against the wind and cold too!!
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Dear Kate, they are absolutely stunning! I love the simple design as they easily seem to match with other accessoiries, coats and jackets. Thumbs up!
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