Attack of the Knitting Nancys

   

Knitting Nancys (a.k.a. French knitters, knitting nobbys, spool knitters, etc.) have become something of an obsession for me this week.  I’ve been thinking about what to include in a beginning knitting class for kids that I might teach at Sam’s school next fall, so I purchased one at the Bobbin’s Nest in Santa Clara last month.  I never got around to trying it, however (the directions seemed daunting), until I found this Giant Knitting Nancy by UK design company Superblue in a recent Vogue Knitting magazine and watched the video that you can find on Superblue’s page about the project here.

Source: Superblue

You can see the giant nancy in the background of the photo above.  The video shows someone actually using it to knit and, on that scale, I easily understood how it worked and could make sense of those directions for my much smaller- scale nancy.  Once I started exploring these tools on the internet, I found many versions of a DIY toilet paper roll nancy and set out to make my own.

What I love about both the giant nancy and the toilet paper roll version is that you can knit with only your hands and the nancy.  You don’t need a tool like the one shown in the photo with my purchased nancy to help you manipulate the loops of yarn on your pegs.  This is a huge plus for kids (and adults for that matter).  It’s so easy and so fun to do.  Kind of addicting actually.  Your only problem will be what to do with the long, hollow, knitted tubes you create.

I found the stained popsicle sticks for my DIY nancys at Michael’s.  They are cute, aren’t they?  The only drawback is that they will stain your fingers during the first use of your nancy.  They are taped to the toilet paper roll with colored tape.  But again, color is optional.  What I learned from making my own nancys is that the tube (toilet paper roll) size and number of pegs determine the circumference of your knitted tube, while the size of the pegs determines the size of your loops.

There is a wonderful resource on the internet called The Lost of Art of Knitting Nancys.  Here you can find everything you ever wanted to know about them, including how to make and use them.  It was put together by a mechanical engineer who was in third grade in 1959 when a knitting nancy fad hit his school. He says it made an imprint on his brain that carried through to middle age and the creation of his knitting nancy page.  Do scroll through and read the final paragraph where he explains this.  It is funny, charming and very well-written. Some of his methods look rather complex, but there is more than one way to use these knitters.  The six-year-old in this video shows the most simple method I’ve seen. I do something similar, but I wrap my yarn around the peg, and I work in the opposite direction. Whatever method you use and whether you are six or sixty-something, knitting with a nancy is a blast.

For additional knitting nancy posts and projects, please click here.