As a collector of antique knitting artefacts one of the problems I have is dating the objects I acquire and establishing their region of origin. Sale descriptions are often very vague, and in my opinion are not very reliable. Many of the objects I buy are from sellers who sell wide ranges of antiques, and who are therefore highly unlikely to be knitting specialists. They probably have less knowledge than me about knitting traditions in this country, and I often find myself disagreeing with their opinions about the origins of the knitting artefacts they sell. Thus, in an effort to date and identify the origin of my finds, I carefully compare the artefacts I buy to similar objects in books and online sources.
A few weeks ago I bought an exciting selection of antique knitting artefacts from various online sellers. All the objects attracted me because they were characteristic of specifically Yorkshire knitting tools. They mostly comprised knitting sticks of two kinds; spindle and goosewing. The spindle style is a rarer find than the goosewing style, and particularly interests me because it is the style of knitting stick that was most used in my part of Yorkshire, the industrial West Riding. By way of evidence for this I can refer you to the knitting sticks that belonged to the Brontës. The Brontë Parsonage Museum Collection has six knitting sheaths, none of which are in the goosewing style. Two are heart-shaped tin sheaths, one is a straight-sided, tapered wooden stick, and the other three are all turned wooden spindles.
I hope that the folk joining me for my Yorkshire Knitting Tour next year (fifteen people have already booked!) will be able to see the Brontë knitting sheaths in person. I will also show them my own small collection of antique knitting sticks, and we will see many knitting sticks and other knitting artefacts in the Hawes and Dent countryside museums. For those of you who can’t join us there are some pictures of mine below. Having compared them to sheaths in Peter Brears’ comprehensive article about regional knitting sheaths (Folk Life magazine 1981-2), it seems possible to me that these are all Yorkshire knitting sticks, though the thin spindle style one most closely resembles a stick pictured in his article that was made in Cumbria.
The goosewing style sheath above matches Brears’ description of Dentdale sheaths, which have a pronounced diagonal step. These were often carved by hand and gifted as love tokens. However, the brass ferrule suggests that this one was commercially manufactured.
Though I love knitting sticks, I think the most exciting of my purchases was two sets of hoof-shaped knitting needle protectors. I had previously only seen a set of needle protectors like this in the Hawes Countryside Museum, and I was very intrigued by them. I had no idea of their date, and I am still unsure. I’ve found an online listing for a pair just like them that states they are early to mid 19th century. However, I’m not convinced that this is accurate. I think mine are possibly made from bakelite rather than horn, which would date them to 60-100 years later.
The hair seems to be real, but is attached to a paper-like backing that is glued to the hoof. On the other pair the hair has all rubbed off the backing. That pair is still however connected by a ribbon which is very like the ribbon that connects the hoofs in the online listing I linked to above.
If you know anything about the provenance of needle protectors like these, please educate me!
