Corking?

What is corking, grannycool? i did google the term but that didn't help. When you mentioned wooden bobbins, I wondered if you meant what we used to call French knitting. You hammer four nails into a bobbin and knit a cord on these. Is that right?

Hi baggythecrust, yes you're right. I had forgotten that it was also called French knitting!
Many thanks.

Fantastic - thank you so much baggythecrust - I can get exactly what I want from Amazon.

Just shows - use the right terminology and hey presto! Success.

grannycool I have only just found your thread.
Lakeland did have some French Knitting dolls in their sale. If you haven't found one its worth taking a look

And I think, Early Learning.

I saw somewhere a lovely picture of a crocheted waistcoat for a little girl! I want to crochet one for my DGD. I'm not sure if it was on gn or not? Can anyone remember it?

You might get some help on ravelry.com, jeni. Someone is bound to have a suitable pattern on there.

baggythecrust Unfortunately bobbins are all made of plastic nowadays so they don't take the nails like the wooden ones did. Anyway are there any Gransnetter out there who ever actually made anything with the inches of cord which came out of the end of their bobbins?
My guess it was just invented to keep little girls busy when there was nothing else to do and to stop them from getting under the adults feet.

A good reason to invent something, don't you think?
Someone in the US (I think) has made some amazing tree decorations with giant versions of bobbin knitting. I'll see if I can find a link to a picture.

BTw, I still buy sewing thread on wooden bobbins – quilting thread. Anyone want one? Let me know if you do

I had one made for me using an empty cotton spool and 4 nails - I can remember all the different colours of the thread.

I still have a wooden bobbin with white cotton on it, inherited from my mum almost 30 years ago. Shows how much sewing I do.