knitting sheath

I didn't like to ask :-)

Mary

Also called a knitting stick. It was a tube, one end fastened to the knitter's belt with a knitting needle sticking out of the other end. The tube holds the right needle, the left hand holds the left needle, the right hand holds the yarn. Have you read _History of Hand Knitting_, by Richard Rutt? That book even has pictures of the things.

Cece

The sticks were often nicely carved; the hole in one end fits the standard metal double pointed knitting needle tightly, so you can use your hands to manipulate the yarn and needle ends while the belt and sheath support it.

Knitting sheaths/sticks were used in many countries in the Middle Ages and still were used in the early twentieth century in some places. As Aaron has shown by his experiments, when properly used they allow him to knit at amazing speed.

=Tamar

More useful is that a knitting sheath allows you to knit with minimal strain on the hands and wrists.

They can be used with ANY kind of DPN, wood, bone, metal, . . . .

And, a knitting sheath really tames fine needles.

Finally, a knitting sheath allows knitting tight. If you want a garment that is going to be worn in the weather, knit it tight. Think of a knitting needle as lever for moving yarn. In hand knitting, you hand provides both the effort and the fulcrum. When using a sheath, the sheath becomes the fulcrum giving you the leverage to knit tight. It also allows the use of the large upper arm and shoulder muscles rather than the smaller hand muscles.

There are many pictures of knitting sticks on the internet. Most do not show the needles. The needles and the sheath formed a system. There were at least 2 entirely different systems with very different physics, and which required different types of needles.

Aaron