corking

[ann]

hi
can anyone remember doing this, not sure what they call it now, you had a wooden cotton reel, put 4 nails in it, wound the wool round the nails then again and lifted the second row of wool over the first with a safety pin, then watched as the knitted wool came through the hole in the centre of the cotton reel, that was my first go at knitting mats in the late 40's
ann

[irene]

Yes I can ann, we used to do it a lot when we were kids.
Hate to admit though, because i think we are showing our age
best wishes
Irene

[ann]

Hi Irene
wasn't it good, we had free cotton reels used to ask my neighbours for them and my gran used to give me all her spare left over wool, my dad was forever putting the nails back in the reels, can even remember knitting squares to clean our slates at school didn't have blackboards then, think i will stop there, making me feel old haha, going off to the local car boot see if I can pick up any knitty stuff.
best wishes
ann

[Flystitch]

I call it french knitting. My cousin and I made mats for our doll's house, we spent hours doing it.

[ann]

hi
went to the carboot sale nothing doing there so decided to go to the charity shop, 1000grms sirdar country aran £ 3 60p well whats a girl supposed to do leave it there, borrowed the money off hubby " are you sure you want that you have the spare bedroom full already", but he knows by now, if I see it I get it. I havn't got a room full of shoes or a wardrobe full of clothes so got to have a hobby and thats collecting wool.
ann

[admin]

You can't get wooded cotton reels any more but there is a modern equivalent called Knitting Dollies. You can find them on DKY under Other Items then Other Craft Items.

I had a plastic one with lots of teeth in 2 long lines where you could do a 'slab' of knitting and I have also seen large round ones for doing tubes.