I've managed to copy the material room node set up by BB (and added explanation from DisneyFan), and see that it works. I've put the mat room layout with the result here, with the sole addition of a displacement map. A few issues:

The flesh tone above the stocking has to be removed--via a mask? Where? Or did I use the wrong skin map somewhere?

The greater problem is that I dont really understand what is going on here. I can copy people's nodes, a simple mechanical process, but what are those math nodes doing? I can guess that the anisotropic and blinn nodes affect the lighting style, and the diffuse node--well, diffuses. But those math nodes, subtract, add, pow--what in the world are they doing? And why in that order, in that place? I know I can start experimenting (and searching for more tutorials, information) and I am willing to do that...

Except, my own mat room setup, included below, seems very similar in effect and much simpler to put together...let me see if I can add it...

There must be a way of saving this mat room setup so I can apply it with one click to another figure. How?

And I would really like to improve this. Bagginsbill's nylon shader includes the ability to alter the color of the stocking, for instance, which still amazes me. Would that be possible with this set up? If so, how? What should I try?

BB's full nylon shader is still much better than this effort--the gloss is amazingly real. As my understanding of the material room grows, I want to find a way to use it. I know BB showed an example some weeks back, which included the necessary mask for the stocking, and I will go back there and see if I can figure it out now that I know a bit more. Thank you again, BB, and please be patient--I truly admire your knowledge and appreciate your time in sharing it--but I still have to decipher much of what you have presented! And thanks, too, for the others who have responded and helped my with my education...

For saving mat files I use Matwriter Panel 2012. This utility from Netherworks will save out a MC6 and PZ2 file to your Poser library. It will also produce DAZ DS files.It is not expensive - I paid $14.95 for it a week or two ago because I am just learning how to texture properly myself, and it was recommended to me by Sveva, who wrote the texturing tutorial I studied. It is basically a python script that saves a lot of headache and time, and is essential for anyone wishing to sell textured apparel in the marketplace. Your setup has a lot of merit. BB knows more than any 100 people here about this sort of thing, but I find it very hard to wrap my head around something I am quite inexperienced at. Way too technical for an old man like me! :D

HTH

C~

Thanks, Charlie. I'll look into Matwriter. And yeah, us old guys can get kinda lost in all these new-fangled, arcane things, like nodes.....

To find out more about nodes and math-operations with them in easy words with examples I suggest a visit on this site Castle Poser Tutorials .  This is the right stuff in front of deep understanding of BB's fabulous node cscades ...  :thumbupboth:

For all math nodes you need to know that poser is treating each color internally as number between 0 and 1. So i.e. white = 1 and black = 0. And therefor colors can add, subtract and so on. RGB colors are treated channel by channel. So the RGB 0 ... 255 values refer to a poser 0 ... 1 value.

You may add or subtract value to a result under 0 or over 1 but keep in mind that these results can not be seen directly but as the nearest "in range" result (BB is calling that hypercolors). E.g. Black minus White minus White is equal to 0 - 1 -1 = -2, so logical a super-super deep black but showing only as normal black color. With this in mind it's not surprizing that adding only once white to this result will stay a black color cause -2 + 1 = -1. Otherwise like adding black and white 0 + 1 = 1.

But really it's great to work with those nodes. They are essence in texturing. But try starting from easy steps. BB's nodes are the essence with a look to most possible reality but in a lot of cases you can find solutions with less (processor time consuming) nodes. For example if a medallion is ending as a 10 x 10 pixel great piece in a 3000 x 3000 pixel render there is no need for a super realistic shader tree for gold color. So the complexity is even a matter of individual circumstances.

I've been experimenting with my node layout--it looks like the anisotropic node should actually feed into the stocking color node (the Image_Map_3), not vice versa, and the "image" needs only be a solid color--so there is doubtless a way to create that solid color, in various hues, using another node. I'll see if I can figure it out later. And thanks, Jo, for the link to Castle--I've been looking through his tutorials, tho I must say that  math turns to fog in my brain...doubtless I've got my own node issue somewhere in my cerebellum, perhaps cross-connected to my amygdala....

You won't need any third party software for that, as it is a built in function. Check the material tab in the library window and while the material you want to save is open in material room, click on the add button. That's it. 

Ah-ha, thanks Bobbesch...I'll give it a try later today...

Good job but ... You've done a big error !

Your stockings are for suspender belts, see the upper tight ;)

Yeah, I know, Anthanasius! That's a beautiful picture, isnt it? I wish women today still used stockings...

I intend to continue with my stocking work, and indeed make the top welt attach to a suspender belt (and corset, and girdle), with the welt (and hole) properly stretched, just like in this picture. (And add Cuban heels, Manhattan heels too. And wider welts, other bits of details. Different brands of stockings, so to speak--Cervins, the old Aristoc, etc.) But it will be quite a lot of work, I'll have to add the torso skin map, for instance, and I am still refining what I have done so far. 

I'll get to it...so keep watching.

And I notice you use stockings on several of your renders in your gallery...very nice...