Some New Sheaths

I recently bought a small portable  ‘lightroom’; a collapsible white box with top lighting that functions as a miniature photography studio, and I’ve been using it to take photos of some of the sheaths I have recently acquired. I’m gradually building a collection with sheaths representing the different types that were used in Yorkshire and neighbouring counties. The recent acquisitions include the following two sheaths, the first of which is very typical of the Teesdale goosewing sheath style. Unlike other goosewing sheaths, these were held in the armpit instead of at the hip. Typically the hafts are square, hexagonal or octagonal in section, and the shaft is very angular, with lots of chip carved decoration, including around the perimeter and some filled circle, diamond and cross shapes.

The second one is a ‘chain sheath’. These were used pretty much everywhere in England, but I think this one may hail from Middleton in Teesdale, just outside Yorkshire’s northern border with County Durham. The whole sheath is remarkably similar to this more elaborate one, which is in turn identical to one that belonged to Hartley and Ingilby, writers of The Old Handknitters of The Dales. The style of the hook lantern is very like those on chain sheaths known to have been carved by Timothy Tarn of Middleton in Teesdale. The hook was used to either prevent the knitting from dangling to the floor, or to hold the yarn, which would presumably have been wound into a centre-pull ball.