A few years ago during a trip to the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes, one of the many wonderful places we will visit in my Yorkshire Knitting Tour next summer, I was delighted to find that they were selling some reproduction knitting sheaths in the museum shop. Knitting sheaths (also known as ‘knitting sticks’) were widely used by Yorkshire knitters in centuries gone by, so I had long wanted to own one, and to learn how to use it. At last my wish would be fulfilled!
The knitting sheaths in question were of the spindle style, and that was particularly satisfying for me because this is the type of sheath that was used in the part of the West Riding where I live. On my father’s side my family has lived in this area through at least the last 500 years, so I think it is reasonable to assume that some of my ancestors, perhaps many of them, will have used this type of knitting sheath.
Last year I used the sheath I bought from the museum to demonstrate how to knit with a Yorkshire knitting stick, which I did during a live Periscope broadcast. I have since added an edited version of this video to my YouTube channel, where it has been viewed many thousands of times. Clearly lots of folk are intrigued by this style of knitting!
Here it is:
Very interesting! Must admit I use magic circle instead of DPNs