Spool knitting

Many things can be made from the resulting tube. For example, it can be wound in a spiral to produce a mat or rug or, if a larger spool with more nails is used, a sock or a hat could be made. Historically, spool knitting has been used to make horse reins. Spool knitting is a traditional way to teach children the basic principles of knitting. According to Mary McCormack, author of Spool Knitting (published in 1909), "Few elementary exercises have aroused more interest in the child than the toy knitting; due, perhaps, to its simplicity and his power to do it easily and well." ==History==

Knitting spools are the oldest members of the knitting loom family, with a history dating back over 400 years. The earliest recorded reference to the use of a frame for knitting is in 1535 in Strasbourg in a legal decision about the proper guild for sock knitters. It has been speculated by some 3D printing hobbyists that the so-called Roman dodecahedra might have been used as glove knitting devices, dating to c. 1st–5th century CE. Lucets are essentially two-prong knitting frames. Spools sold as "knitting nancys" sometimes had a figure painted or printed on them, thus resembling a wooden doll. Homemade knitting spools are sometimes made by placing a peg-like object, such as a nail, into a hard solid object, such as a block of wood (or a traditional wooden spool). Beginning in the latter half of the 20th century, various small looms (usually plastic) using the same peg-knitting technique as knitting spools have been made. Some are larger than knitting spools, and can knit larger items. Some are straight, and make flat items such as blankets or scarfs, and some are round for making socks, hats, or other similar items. If the thread is not wrapped around in a helix, but back-and-forth, leaving two pegs with a space between that no yarn crosses, a flat sheet can be made on a round frame. File:Lucet from the Arkéos museum.JPG|alt=narrowish thick-walled hollow cylinder in silvery metal, tapering slightly upwards, with two triangular spikes on the top. Incised with a lattice pattern, with horizontal lines added to the top half.|10th-century lucet spool from northern France. File:Punniken met 3 spijkers.jpg|alt=three nails driven into a drilled-out dowel, with knitting being made on them|Minimal spool knitting frame File:Reels (AM 14029).jpg|Traditional wooden spools of the sort used to hold thread, with a few nails driven into one end, make knitting spools. File:Loom-knit fingerless gloves - 7988701744.jpg|A plastic 12-peg frame File:Spool knitting circle.JPG|Spool knitting circle with 16 pegs File:Giulia's tuque coming along. -knitting.jpg|Knitting a tuque (hat) on a larger frame File:Knitting loom with yellow knitwork.jpg|alt=Instead of being a circle, the frame is squashed flat|Oblong frame for circular knitting; note central slot between the two rows of pegs Loom Knitting.jpg|It is not necessary to use the full length of an oblong frame ==Cranked versions==

Simple versions contain just peg-like structures sticking up from a solid object. More complex ones operate complex mechanisms and automatically produce a knitted item with just a simple motion, such as a turn of a crank. See spool and machine circular knitting for more on these machines. File:Mulinetto tricotin (cropped).jpg|Narrow hand-cranked spool knitting machine File:Knitting Nancy with crank.jpg|Larger hand-cranked circular knitting machine File:Griswold's stocking knitting machine.jpg|1800s knitting machine, also hand-cranked File:Sock knitting machine.jpg|A similar old sock-knitting machine in use File:Old-Knitting-Machine-Knitting-Machine-Close-up-Dial-1588882.jpg|Close-up of a similar machine. Note how hooks rise and fall. File:WLANL - theodora69 - rondbreimachine.jpg|1959 power knitting machine File:WLANL - jpa2003 - Rondbreimachine3(ca 1959).jpg|Side view of 1959 machine File:Rundstrickmaschine Nadel scharf.jpg|Machine for fine knitting File:CSIRO ScienceImage 2912 A Circular Knitting Frame.jpg|A commercial machine knitting wool, 2000 ==See also==