Thursday, February 24

Knitting Towers: Bought and Made







The knitting tower (also known as a Knitting Nancy or Spool Knitting) was introduced to my daughter recently. This tower comes from Nova Natural Toys and Crafts (Palumba also sells them). My almost 5 1/2 year old daughter has been enjoying sitting down with me while I practice my knitting and she works on her knitting tower. At this point, she needs me to sit next to her for occasional help. One of the "frustrations" she runs into seems to be the fact that her nail biting habit makes it difficult for her to grasp the yarn from the tower. While we work on not biting nails and getting some heavier yarn, I made our own version of a (little bit larger) knitting tower.





I tried the actual spool knitting idea without much luck and wanted something sturdier than the toilet paper roll idea I've seen. This contraption (shown above) actually has been working well and because it is a little larger it is a little easier and makes a bigger yarn rope result.




This homemade knitting tower is made from a wooden napkin ring, four wooden golf tees, and rubber bands. I basically just kept adding rubber bands until the tees stopped moving around.





As of now my daughter enjoys using both of the towers. It is fun to see the progress as the rope becomes longer and longer. We like to talk about what we could use it for with ideas like garland, climbing ropes for her dolls, snakes, and doll accessories.

11 comments:

Becky said...

I love your homemade tower. I've been wanting to buy it for my oldest and now I'm not going to. Now I have to figure out how to actually use the tower...

Shirley said...

Great homemade tower. Have you seen this giant spool knitter? I suppose it could be made with a smaller bottle too. http://etcetorize.blogspot.com/2010/11/spool-knitter.html

Mummy Kim said...

Have you considered giving your daughter another golf tee or a small crochet hook to help solve her nail problem? I had a knitting tower when I was her age and I used a mini crochet hook to move the yarn off the posts.

Amber said...

Thanks for this idea; I may try something like that for one of my younger girls at some point while I do knitting or sewing with the older ones.

Janice Richardson said...

I just found your blog today! Thank you for the great ideas!

-Janice
babybrainstorm.blogspot.com

Amy said...

Shirley- I checked out that link and was amazed at the size of the spool knitter. Very creative! Kim- thanks for that idea we will try it! Thanks for the other comments too. To see someone in action using one check on You Tube under spool knitter, to get a better idea of how it works. I can also post step by step photos if anyone needs them, just let me know.

Sarah at Bella Luna Toys said...

Just discovered your sweet blog, and was delighted to see you linked to Bella Luna Toys. Thank you! Wondering if you've seen the similar Knitting Mushroom and Ring Knitter at Bella Luna: http://www.bellalunatoys.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=knitting

Qam said...

reading about your knitting tower brought back so many memories (though fuzzy on specific details). i made so many of these ropes way back when, when i was a little girl in elementary school. for some reason though, i seem to remember my chum & i making the ropes on our hands. would that even have been possible? i know we did it on the bus, so i'm pretty sure we didn't carry around a "tower". we were of course, older than your girls, so if there was a "hand method" we were probably able to handle the more intricate process. the thing i remember most was that my parents let me put all those ropes on our christmas tree as garland. i looked at photos as an adult and shuddered at how silly it looked having pastel ropes, but now that i am a parent, i completely understand how love makes art seem beautiful. my 2 yr old is just starting art/craft projects. thanx 4 the memory. -qam

Amy said...

Yes, Qam, you probably were finger knitting. I tried it and found it tricky so I didn't introduce it to my daughter. I know lots of 5/6 year olds finger knit though so maybe it was just me.

crazyhaberdasher said...

Hi Amy! Just found your post on the Knitting Tower. I currently manage two worldwide groups - Yahoo Spoolknitter and Flickr Spool Knitter and also have my own blog devoted entirely to spool knitting - http://spoolknitter.blogspot.com - you and your girls might like to check them out for ideas for making something out of the knitted cords. We also have competitions, Happy Spooling .... cheers, Maz

rotherford said...

This iss great