Hurrah, at last I can make a definite diagnosis of an unusual 'thing' on ebay.
It is a 'set-up' for a circular sock knitting machine. When opened out wide it sits inside the cylinder and the bends at the ends of each wire face inwards. The wool is threaded into the machine and a long end pulled through. This end then winds in a zig zag from the set up to needle and back all the way around the cylinder. A weight is hung onto the 'ring' at the end of the handle and away we go. I have 6 or 8 of these as most of the makes of English machines used them. They were made with different numbers of wires as the cylinders can have from 54 to 120 slots for needles, but in fact as it is only necessary to wind around alternate needles to start knitting and you can wind around each wire more than once, the number of wires is not very important. I also have some set ups that aren't collapsable but they tend to have got more damaged over the years, because the wires are sticking out all the time. I don't think it could be used for Teneriffe type lace as a) the wires bend into the centre, not out and b) there is no way to lock it open. Jacquie - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
