I have been a knitter since my teens, and have also always been interested in history. About 1990 I started to combine these interests and began my collection of knitting tools.
I collect all sorts of tools, not just needles, up to about the 1930’s-1940’s. A few later things creep in, just to round out the collection. But mass-produced modern items are not as interesting to me as the hand-made and the early-industrial. Even the lovely craft man-made items of today – surely the collectables of the future – struggle for inclusion in my history-oriented collection.
Of course, the more you collect, the more you want to know. Knitting tools is not a well documented field. My special research interest is the period when knitting needles were becoming commercialised – no longer sold as a commodity by weight, but sold under the brand name of the manufacturer or the retailer.
I live in Melbourne, Australia – far from the early capitals of needle-making (mainly the UK and Germany). Here in Oz, it is hard to do a lot of original research on my chosen topic; but I collect a lot of small facts to build a bigger picture.
I like to travel too …….
