Ilona writes:
<<Two of the women fastend the balls of yarn to the aprons. One has a
pouch, but the other? I'm wondering how she'd done it? How is it
fastened, because one must be able to pull yarn easily for the knitting
(centerpull won't work), or else have the ball rolling around the
fastening thread at your hip>>
I don't subscribe and haven't seen the picture, but these are easy
questions :)
Centerpull balls can be wound by hand, and they're easy to attach to
something. Just take the end of the yarn on the outside of the ball,
wind it round somewhat firmly (though not enough to squish the ball),
tuck the end under itself a few times, and then fasten *that*, plus a
little of the exterior of the ball, with whatever is handy. I would use
a large safety pin today most likely, but it would be easy to use
another piece of yarn worked under the surface of the ball and tie it to
something on one's clothing.
<<I'm also wondering if this two women were left-handed. They placed the
balls on the right side of the apron. I'm right-handed and the ball of
yarn is on my left side, for I work my knitted stitches (on the right
side of the piece) from the right border to the left. >>
Those of us who knit with the yarn over the right hand would naturally
have the ball on the right--has nothing to do with which hand is
dominant, as knitting, like spinning, is essentially ambidextrous. Has
to do with which hand you tension the yarn with. I think over here we
usually call the left-hand-tensioning the "Continental" style, while the
more common US style of tensioning with the right hand is often called
the "English" method, reflecting, supposedly, areas in which one method
is more common than the other. But I could have them reversed--I can
only rarely remember which way they go :)
It's also possible the yarn is being tensioned by passing it around the
back of the knitter's neck. In that case, the ball will be on the side
of the knitter opposite the tensioning hand. I've always thought this
would produce a very tight tension--probably that was the point :)
If the picture gives enough detail, look to see which hand is holding
the yarn while knitting.
On another list I'm on someone reported reading that some women were
able to knit with just one hand, while using the other for sowing seed
(the specific example given in what she read, but she couldn't remember
the reference). I figure that was possible by using a knitting sheath.
If the needle opposite the hand that tensions the yarn was firmly
stuck in a knitting sheath or belt, then a little practice would have
the knitter doing all the knitting worth with the other hand, with just
a quick occasional change of needles involving the non-yarn hand.
Haven't tried this yet, but I mean to one of these days--just need to
make a hat on 5 longish dp needles.
Holly
To stop mail temporarily mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
with the message: set nomail To restore send: set mail
