From craftings past....

What is it???

It's a corker.

Remember back to when you were a little girl just emerging on the crafty-yarn scene? I do. This was my first introduction to anything to do with the knitting world. It's a little tool that lets you create loooooooong knit-stitched wormy tubes that you can coil into hot pads, throw rugs or anything else your crafty little mind can think up.

This particular corker is only about 8-10 years old, I can't quite remember exactly when I purchased it, but I do know I purchased it through a Regal catalogue for like 6 dollars. The corkers I remember from my childhood were plastic as well, but much smaller than this one. The one in the picture is a jumbo corker, meant for use with chunky yarn. I've also seen much-much older corkers made of wood with metal or nail pegs.

I found mine yesterday, nicely tucked away in it's original unopened package, at the bottom of my yarn bin. I've pushed it aside for the past, well, 8-10 years, and just yesterday, while looking for something new to craft, I decided it was time to break it out. I also found the yarn, a nice fall-ish coloured variegated soft acrylic, in the yarn bin.

I spent every spare second I had yesterday with my corker in hand... mind you, every spare second in my world doesn't really amount to much time at all. Sooooo, between changing diapers, readying snacks, playing with three babes, throwing on a load or 5 of laundry, yada-yada-yada, blah-blah-blah... I managed to cork a worm that measures about 2 metres in length....phew!

Now! What does one do with a 2 metre long knitted worm, you ask? Well, let me tell you....I spend every spare second today, and the next day, and possibly the next day adding more metres onto what I've already got in hopes of getting enough out of the probably-discontinued skein of yarn that I'm using, to hopefully end up with something useful so my scarce spare seconds aren't completely wasted.... wow! say all of that 10 times fast!

But, seriously, I have something special in mind for the yarny worm, maybe for me or a friend.... and I'm quite excited to see the finished product.... stay tuned for a picture of the wormy masterpiece, lol ;)