French knitting

[agi]

I bought these wooden French knitting tools not long ago in a craft shop, I was really surprised to see them, they even have a Hungarian name! The plastic ones I have just bought (in a teddy-bear making kit, actually, because they were not sold separately), haven't tried yet. I enjoy playing around with them.

[Squirrel]

Gosh I haven't even thought of French knitting for years. I used to do it as a child eons ago.

We had wooden cotton reels in those days and my grandad would put 4 thin nails into the top of one for me. Kept me quiet for hours.

Hope you get a lot of fun out of your newer models of cotton reels.

Squirrel

[maggs]

Gosh I haven't even thought of French knitting for years. I used to do it as a child eons ago.

We had wooden cotton reels in those days and my grandad would put 4 thin nails into the top of one for me. Kept me quiet for hours.

Hope you get a lot of fun out of your newer models of cotton reels.

Squirrel

I had exactly the same when I was a child and we used to make rainbow ones and use the as an alternative to the laces in our pumps to jaz them up abit.

[kell]

My Grom had/has a couple of French knitting dollies - they were shaped like little people with a hole down their core and four pins on their heads. I used to use up all of Grom's wool scraps (she was a prolific knitter when I was a kid!) making great bit long chains.

[Cecilia]

Gosh I haven't even thought of French knitting for years. I used to do it as a child eons ago.

We had wooden cotton reels in those days and my grandad would put 4 thin nails into the top of one for me. Kept me quiet for hours.

Hope you get a lot of fun out of your newer models of cotton reels.

Squirrel

Haha! Me too only my Dad used to do that for me. Happy memories.

[crafterglen]

I am the same age as you Maggs and I too spent many happy hours, days, weeks and years off and on French Knitting, but then we didn't have Wii's and PS2's etc, but I bet we did have a great childhood!
Happy Stitching
Glen x

[agi]

It's so intersting to know you have used those as kids - I never even heard of them before Mabel (or someone else?) mentioned them here.
I would like to know what size I need to make a thin cord? Does it depend on the size of the knitting tool itself or only on the yarn?

[evelyn joan]

..

[Squirrel]

Agi I think the thickness of the wool would play a large part as well as how big the "hole" is.

I seem to remember I didn't like the cord when Grandad put some hails into a bigger cotton reel and thereafter he only put nails in the standard size cotton reels.

Hope this helps

Thanks for putting up this thread, it has given a lot of us some happy memories.

Squirrel

[evelyn joan]

The more "teeth" there are on the tool will make the knitted piece bigger / wider?
The picture in the original thread shows 2 knitting tools,one has more teeth than the other,the more teeth there are the wider the result,so a bigger hole would be required to accommodate the knitting.

[agi]

I made a bracelet



It's a bit too loose though, so I am planning to buy some metal clasp to add to the end and make it a bit shorter. (Sorry, I couldn't seem to make good photos today )

[pamelam]

Great work! The yarn is beautiful!

[minij]

Very pretty I too remember doing this as a child, i started off with the cotton reels and then I remember having one given to me as a present, it was wooden but longer and thinner and painted red. My Nan also had one which was like a lady with th pins on top and a whole all the way through. I remember making a long piece and then folding it round in a circle and make the circle bigger and bigger and gave it to my Nan as a little mat long time ago

[mysterystitcher]

Pretty sight!

[milkmaid]

that's pretty colours

[agi]

Some other result (also shown in my knitting thread):

[pamelam]

That's so sweet!