Stitching tools?

Cable needles come in a range of sizes to match the size of the needles you are knitting with.

I think in trying to describe the ends of the needle is that they are cut off like a mint humbug is. One end is like a half turn to the other. Shirley

I'd got the wrong end of the stick altogether. I thought it was a circular needle, like the one Maureen used to use when knitting sweaters from Lopi wool.

You don't *have* to. Cables are certainly doable without special cable needles. I do most of my cabling without an extra needle of any sort. If I do use a needle at all, it's whatever size double-point needle I grab first (as long as it's smaller than the needles I'm knitting on). I guess that if I were to try a complex cable I might use a short, straight, cable needle (I hate the ones with the kink in them), but I've not done anything complex enough to need one yet.

jenn

-- Jenn Ridley : snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com WIP: Poppies (Art-Stitch), two knitted tops, Oriental Butterfly Most recently Finished: Floral Sampler, Insect Sampler

I like J hooks -- a needle bent into a U, with one short end and one end long enough to knit off -- though I usually just use the long end for a handle while slipping the stitches back onto the source needle. (I use "source" for the needle I'm knitting off'n, and "destination" for the needle I'm knitting onto.)

Joy Beeson

I could easily see the metal tool being used for weaving or upholstery, since it's long and heavy. And that might make sense, since their next-door-neighbor was an upholsterer and he gave her

I could also see this.

I really doubt it is used for knitting, since the ends are flat.

Joan

You don't, really. An extra needle of any size is all you need...just something to hold them aside until you bring them around to knit them.

Joan

Yes, exactly, Shirley! Thank you! I just couldn't find the right words. When DH gets home with the camera, I'll try to take a better picture of them.

Joan

If it's a simple cable, with only one or two turns, I don't use a needle at all. I just hold it with my fingers.

It does create crampy fingers that way, but it's easier for me then using a cable needle.

Lucille

I am not so sure that long flat needle like metal is a bodkin , it could easily be a Weaving Needle or used for weaving . as well as a bodkin , it could also be used for UPHOLTERY , and in this case the wooden object was used to stuff Cushion corners ,,, but it also can b e used as a cable needle , and last not least it reminds me of sme loose feet for the Sock repairing Myshroom i saw , with 2 kinds of heads ,,,,, [child socks and grwon up socks] mirjam

Netting tools maybe?

The smaller wooden one looks like an "orange stick", did any one in her family work at the phone company? I have one in my tool pouch. It is used for cleaning solder off lugs or terminals. I think orange stick was just a nickname for it. It is also called a spudger, but that may be another nickname. Can you tell me what the writing on it says? Does it start with KS and then numbers?

Might not be but it looks like it to me from the picture....

It looked like an orange stick to me, too -- the kind that you buy in the dime store to clean your nails with. (But I think the stick in the picture is a little bigger.)

When I was young and dime stores were still around, orange-wood sticks were made from the wood of the orange tree. Now they call them "manicure sticks" and don't tell you what sort of wood it might be.

I, too, would like to know what the writing on the stick says.

Joy Beeson

Orange sticks were around when I was a kid. They were the forerunners to Qtips - my mother would take some cottonwool and sort of 'spin' it round the end to use as a Qtip. The ones I knew though had a flattened end, spoonlike. No idea why they had that name, maybe made from orange wood? Or made by the Orange Company ?

My mother told me that they were made from orange wood, because orange wood never produces splinters. FWIW.

That would likely be correct, one didn't buy a box full, one orange stick lasted all my childhood and beyond.

The ones at work were made for AT&T and most likely were made out of orange wood. Everything in the company had a KS number stamped on it. That picture sure looks like one of these. I can look Monday and tell you what the numbers are, I have a few that have never been used in my tool box.

Actually, DFIL worked for Ma Bell nearly all his working life! I will check on the writing and let you know....

Joan

DINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDING!!!!

You hit it on the nailhead, Richard! The numbers on it are KS6320. Do the numbers have any significance?

Oh, with the metal needle-type thingy, it's in a metal-bound leather case with "Diadem no. 9" impressed into the leather. Does that ring any bells with anyone?

Thanks! At least now I know what one of them is!

Joan