I've got the demo for February for our club. Can't complain, several other members have really stepped up and covered the last few months. That makes it so much easier. Anyway, the Feb. demo will be two parts. The first half hour or so I'll be doing some sharpening on, and talking about the Tormek sharpener. I've allotted a half hour but if there are a few questions it could go longer.

With that in mind I need a relatively quick project for the turning portion of the demo. Have decided to make a "Knitting Nancy" or French Knitter. A simple spindle project which will be a good skill builder and something I believe hasn't been done before.

 

 

Even though it's a fairly simple thing to make I will still make several before I'm done. At the top beside the yarn is my first effort. I saw one that looked like they used paper clips to hold the yarn but that didn't work well for me, that and I had the diameter too large to make a good stitch. I saw one someone made that used cotter keys as shown in the walnut one to the left. Cotter keys actually worked pretty well, but, they're cotter keys. I then decided to just make the pins to hold the yarn and they are pretty easy to do and look a lot better IMO. The one in the middle is my last effort and has the wooden pins. The little yarn rope is what a person makes with one of these and is called an "Icord", although, our two year old grand daughter calls it a "snake". From what I read, an icord is a basic knitting or crochet stitch and is used as a border or foundation for other stitches.

There are three parts to one of these, the body, which is basically just a tube, the pins, and the hook, or pic.

My first thought was to make a hook but after experimenting a little bit I realized the pic type actually is easier to use. The pic is a nice little skew project all by itself.

Will probably do five or six more of these, last couple I will record and  work out of my tool bags to make sure I don't forget anything.

 

Steve

Being a Vocational Education teacher, I can appreciate the amount of work it takes to pull off a successful demonstration.

 

Looks like @Ron Altier's knitting needles on the end of those picks.

Fun project Steve.  The guys will have something to take home and play with as long as their wives don't steal them.

1 hour ago, HandyDan said:

Fun project Steve.  The guys will have something to take home and play with as long as their wives don't steal them.

Made me laugh Dan. When I brought my first successful one in the house I'd done quite a lot of chain with it. Wife thought it was pretty neat and wanted to know if she could try. It was at least an hour before she put it down.

 

Steve

Neat project. I know that took some experimentation

You do some interesting stuff Steve...

Every new post from @Steve Krumanaker is a learning experience and a good lesson.  Thank you Steve.

Are your club demos video recorded and posted up Steve?  They ought to be...

2 hours ago, Cal said:

Are your club demos video recorded and posted up Steve?  They ought to be...

Thanks everyone!

Cal, it's something we've discussed but we are just not there yet. Hopefully, somewhere in our future that will happen.

 

Steve

Kinda neat... I had to look that one up....