I was up St. Jacobs one summer with friends from Missouri when I came across a "corker". We were walking through one of the buildings and this one was sure different from what I used when I was a kid. Back then we took an old wooden spool, hammered four nails in the top and heaven only knows what we used for taking the stitches over. A piece of wood with a point would have worked or even another nail.
I cut my strips of fabric into 1" strips and left the lengths.................some long, some short and most in between. I stitched them together at the machine and then got started.
I had a lot done and then one of the pegs came loose and fell off. It wouldn't take much to fix it, but I put it down and left it...................................for months which turned into years. When Karl saw it he thought it would make a great mat for Misty so it came out on Saturday and within half an hour it was finished.
It is really thick. It could be a mat for the floor but her majesty has decided her sleeping place is the dining-room chair so I guess we'll just lay it on top of the cushion already there and leave it. We tried to convince her to sleep in her pet bed, but she is having nothing to do with our idea. Typical cat!
When it was finished I grabbed a ball of yarn left over from scarves I made for Christmas and started corking again. I think this may be a summer project for holidays...................it is so portable. A ball of yarn, the corker and the stick. I may have to share the ball of yarn!
I have never known this as anything but a corker. Since I looked it up on google I found it is also called a spool knitter, knitting knobby, knitting nancy. There is even a pattern book for it. I never knew all you could do with it. We only ever made mats or started the corking and didn't finish! I'm off to find some yarn at Michaels to finish another mat.
