{{Short description|Form of knitting}} thumb|Fingerless gloves being knitted on a plastic 12-peg frame '''Spool knitting,''' '''loom knitting, corking,''' '''French knitting,''' or '''tomboy knitting''' is a form of knitting that uses a spool with a number of nails or pegs around the rim to produce a tube or sheet of fabric. The spool knitting devices are called knitting spools, knitting nancys, knitting frame, knitting loom, or French knitters.

The technique is to wrap the yarn around all of the spool's pegs, twice. The lower loop of yarn is then lifted over the upper loop and off the peg, thereby creating stitches. The yarn is then wrapped around the entire loom, creating a new upper yarn on each peg. This process is repeated until the project is complete.

Spool knitting frames typically have four or five pegs (or brass nails), although the number can range to more than 100.<ref name=folktoys/> Though not exclusively, the term "loom knitting" often refers to frames with more than those four or five pegs.

==Uses== [[File:Reeve 41457.jpg|thumb|As occupational therapy for the wounded of World War I]] 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.<ref name=folktoys/>

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."<ref name="mccormack"/><ref name=Fisch/>

==History== thumb|right|upright=0.5|200px|A wooden knitting nancy

Knitting spools are the oldest members of the knitting loom family, with a history dating back over 400 years.<ref name=Phelps/> 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.<ref name=Schmoller/><ref name=Rutt/><ref name=Spencer/> 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. <ref name=Metcalfe/> 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,{{dubious|reason=see WWI photo above|date=January 2023}} 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.{{cn|date=January 2023}} 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.<ref name="mccormack"/>

<gallery mode=packed heights=200> 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 </gallery>

==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.

<gallery mode=packed heights=200> 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 </gallery>

==See also== *I-cord is a similar, but not identical, knitting technique, done in knitting needles.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Wolcott |first1=Jill |title=I-cord: the basics |url=https://www.jillwolcottknits.com/techniques/i-cord/ |website=Jill Wolcott Knits |access-date=8 January 2023}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist|30em|refs= <ref name="mccormack">{{Gutenberg|22029|name=Spool Knitting|author=Mary A. McCormack|date=1909}}, also at {{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/spoolknitting00mccorich |title=Spool knitting |last=McCormack |first=Mary A. (Mary Anna) |date=1909 |publisher=New York : A. S. Barnes}}, also downloadable at :File:Spool knitting (IA spoolknitting00mcco).pdf and :File:Spool knitting (IA spoolknitting00mccorich).pdf</ref>

<ref name=folktoys>{{cite web|title=Spool Knitter|url=http://www.historicalfolktoys.com/catcont/4402.html|website=historicalfolktoys.com|publisher=Historical Folk Toys|accessdate=7 December 2014}}</ref>

<ref name=Phelps>{{cite book |first=Isela |last=Phelps |title=Loom Knitting Primer: A Beginner's Guide to Knitting on a Loom, with Over 30 Fun Projects |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xXlQF609ci0C&pg=PA8 |date=2007 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-0-312-36661-2 |pages=8–}}</ref>

<ref name=Metcalfe>{{cite web |last1=Metcalfe |first1=Tom |title=The Mysterious Bronze Objects that Have Baffled Archaeologists for Centuries |url=https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/514246/are-roman-dodecahedrons-worlds-most-mysterious-artifact |publisher=Mental Floss |accessdate=27 January 2023 |date=August 6, 2018}}</ref>

<ref name=Fisch>{{cite book |first=Arline M. |last=Fisch |title=Textile Techniques in Metal: For Jewelers, Textile Artists & Sculptors |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4eFNLNSDNZgC&pg=PA64 |date=2003 |publisher=Lark Books |isbn=978-1-57990-514-9 |pages=64–}}</ref>

<ref name=Spencer>{{cite book |last1=Spencer |first1=David J. |title=Knitting technology : a comprehensive handbook and practical guide |date=2001 |publisher=Technomic |location=Lancaster, Pa. |isbn=9781855737556 |edition=3rd}}</ref>

<ref name=Schmoller>{{cite book |last1=von Schmoller |first1=Gustav |title=Die Strassburger tucher- und weberzunft: Urkunden und darstellung nebst regesten und glossar. Ein beitrag zur geschichte der deutschen weberei und des deutschen gewerberechts vom XIII.-XVII. jahrhundert |date=1879 |publisher=Verlag von Karl J. Trübner |location=Strassburg |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5u5NAAAAMAAJ |access-date=27 January 2023 |chapter=67. Rathsentscheidung in einem Streite der Tuchersunft und der Zunft zum Spiegel. dass das Hosenstricker-Handwerk ze der erstern gehöre. 1535.}}</ref>

<ref name=Rutt>{{cite book |last1=Rutt |first1=Richard |title=A History of Hand Knitting |date=1987 |publisher=Interweave Press |location=Loveland, Colo. |isbn=0934026351 |edition=U.S. |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofhandkni0000rutt/ |access-date=27 January 2023}}</ref> }}

==External links== {{Commons}} * [http://www.allfreecrafts.com/kids/corker.shtml Corking how to] * [http://www.thecraftytipster.com/spool-knitting Spool Knitting Tutorials & Projects] * [http://www.sweaterscapes.com/spool.htm Spool knitting] * {{Gutenberg|22029|name=Spool Knitting|author=Mary A. McCormack|date=1909}}, also downloadable at :File:Spool knitting (IA spoolknitting00mcco).pdf and :File:Spool knitting (IA spoolknitting00mccorich).pdf

{{knitting}} Category:Knitting