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French knitting
noun a type of knitting done on a knitting Nancy.
Contributor's comments: French Knitting to me in Brisbane in the 60s was introduced to me by a teacher at my primary school. It involved finding an empty wooden cotton reel, putting four tiny nails in a square around the top of the hole and then weaving wool around the nails. A long tubular snake like knitted object would begin to appear from out of the bottom of the cotton reel. We tied them in our hair.
Contributor's comments: Also used in Darwin.
Contributor's comments: What's a 'Nancy"? In my childhood experience ('50's, Central Coast NSW), a wooden cotton-reel with a ring of panel-pins (brads) was the 'loom', with the tube of knitted wool slowly emerging from the bottom of the reel hole. I never did work out what one used the resulting "pyjama cord" for, though!
Contributor's comments: Used in London schools in 1940s.
Contributor's comments: Also used on King Island in the 60s.
Contributor's comments: French Knitting was one of many crafts taught in early primary school in mid-north SA. The output was used to make a range of 'useful' gifts such as tea-pot stands or cosy's when coiled.
Contributor's comments: I've never heard of a "nancy" (other than as a "dandy"), but French knitting was done by children in Sydney in the 1950s, using wooden cottonreels.
Contributor's comments: French knitting was a childhood activity in Melbourne in the '60's. The "Knitting (or maybe that's Nitting) Nancy" was the name of the commercial toy used in the same way as the cotton reel and nails.
Contributor's comments: I had a "Knitting Nancy" in the 1960s in Melbourne. She was about 6-8cm long and painted to look like a girl. She was like a long thin cotton reel, but shaped in at the neck and waist. She also came with a wooden handled nail for "knitting" There was also yarn and instructions in the box. I didn't hear of the term french knitting until after I left Melbourne a few years later.