] I watched S&S (the one with Emma Thompson) a few nights ago, and during the scene where Elinor and Marianne go to bed and Elinor gets back up and puts on socks or stockings I was wondering if by that time there was a knitting machine for stockings or if they were still made by hand. I imagine it being extremely tedious to knit silk stockings (I knit socks, and thin cotton socks already take an eternity!). Any ideas?

See the website linked below for a brief description of such knitting machines. If you put "frame knitting" or "stocking frame" in a web search engine you will find a lot more.