Knitting Nancy

This knitting spool girl is a tool I have had since I was a child. My mom got it from one of those catalogs, Lillian Vernon or something like that. She didn't give it to me at first, I wanted it, but she had some purpose for it. So I made one out of a regular spool. In those days all spools were made of wood. I put about 6 or seven finish nails into the top of the spool and happily knit my cord. Later, I was given the little spool doll. She makes I-cord with five stitches.


I am making a felted "Carpet Bag" I like the idea of a felted bag, so I had to design my own. I knit this with unspun roving. My favorite way to felt. I have never had any problems, because the roving has very little twist, so it felts easily. There is little waste, not much shedding of fiber.
This one has a flat bottom, the sides are tapered to indent like the old carpet bags of the Gone With the Wind era. It looks like a doctors bag.
The I cord is for the handle. Where the white yarn is now. The acrylic yarn holds open the space as it will not felt. As soon as I get another three feet or so of cord finished, I will felt the bag and the cord at the same time.

My youngest daughter turns 21 in about a week. This event has caused a bit of nostalgia. Another milestone come and gone.

I was thinking about when I was pregnant with her. At the time we had a goat named Daphne.
Daphne was always an adventure. Keeping her in a pen was a full time job. She was an alpine goat, so climbing was just her nature.

One day when I was pregnant out to here, a car drives up our lane and parks under a tree in the shade. It was one of those blast furnace days we get in July in Kansas. The temperature was over 100 and the hot dry wind turns corn leaves into dust in a matter of hours. Parking in the shade was just survival instinct. Sitting down in a car left in the sun can cause severe burns.

I come out to the porch to find out what the man wanted. He starts giving me his spiel about insurance. I look out to his car to see my beloved goat Daphne on top of his car happily munching leaves, as he has given her access to branches not available from the ground.

I asked him if he had good insurance, he replied yes the company he works for is very good. I tell him that is a good thing, because his car roof was likely being damaged by my goat who was tethered to the tree he parked his car under.

He did not stay to tell me the advantages of his insurance.