Joan wanted to do some spool knitting so she has started knitting a rug for her bedroom. The spool knitter is a five prong spool from "Good Wood" in Vermont.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Thursday, January 10, 2008
In the Beginning...
Everything started someplace and my knitting life began with this spool knitter. I remember he was a Christmas present in the late 1940's. He used to have the word "Czechoslovakia" in blue stamped on the bottom. I made miles of knitted cord with him and quickly discovered that by working back and forth, rather than round and round, I could knit flat pieces. All my dolls had hats and dresses and coats of spool knitted fabric (embellished with feathers from the featherbed [by this time it had become pillows] my grandmother carried here from "the old country", but that's another story), my dollhouse had rugs and curtains. I found a ball of leftover yarn and knit yards and yards of the stuff which I used to make a border that I sewed around one of my sweaters. It got lots of looks and comments, I like to imagine they were all highly complimentary.I have a small collection of knitting knobs, spools whatever you call them, and I have started this blog to share the information I have and, hopefully, to meet other collectors/enthusiasts and learn from them.
Monday, January 7, 2008
The oldest book I've been able to find on spool knitting is Spool Knitting by Mary McCormack, copyright 1909 by A. S. Barnes & Company and published by Beckley-Cardy Company in Chicago. I purchased my copy on e-bay several (4-5) years ago.
I saw one for sale and bid on it but dropped out when it reached 20 dollars (it went for about $26). I kicked myself later. I would, I reasoned, have paid $25-30 for a new book surely I could have gone that high for a collectible book. A few months later another copy came up and I bid it up to $50 before I dropped out. And again, I thought about it and kicked myself. After all, what treasure trove of information might be in it? So when, a couple of months later a third copy went up for bid I set a whopping $80 as my limit and bid away. It went for over $100- to someone who wasn't me. About a year after I saw the first copy on e-bay a fourth copy was put up for auction. I threw all good sense to the wind and bid on it. This one was going to be mine at any cost. I got it for about $24 (including shipping). I guess all the other crazies already had theirs.
I went googling to see what I could find out about the author and found that the book is now available for free on Project Gutenberg.
I saw one for sale and bid on it but dropped out when it reached 20 dollars (it went for about $26). I kicked myself later. I would, I reasoned, have paid $25-30 for a new book surely I could have gone that high for a collectible book. A few months later another copy came up and I bid it up to $50 before I dropped out. And again, I thought about it and kicked myself. After all, what treasure trove of information might be in it? So when, a couple of months later a third copy went up for bid I set a whopping $80 as my limit and bid away. It went for over $100- to someone who wasn't me. About a year after I saw the first copy on e-bay a fourth copy was put up for auction. I threw all good sense to the wind and bid on it. This one was going to be mine at any cost. I got it for about $24 (including shipping). I guess all the other crazies already had theirs.
I went googling to see what I could find out about the author and found that the book is now available for free on Project Gutenberg.
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