Noreen Crone-Findlay

NOREEN CRONE-FINDLAY

.... THE QUEEN OF SPOOL KNITTING

Noreen's boundless enthusiasm, her capability and
knowledge in so many fields of yarncraft and
crafts, writing and publishing books,
internet connections, her crafting of
wooden needlework tools and
spool knitters, beautiful
artwork and painting, and her extreme talent
in producing so many lovely patterns,
never ceases to amaze me!
She is down-to-earth and has a great sense of
humour - always looking on the bright side of life,
and is always approachable. If you have a
question/problem regarding
spool knitting (or any of the yarncrafts),
Noreen is the one to ask.

Here is more about Noreen ............
...."Noreen is passionate about the fiber arts. She is an
author, professional blogger, designer, doll maker,
jewelry maker and carver of handmade fabulous and
fanciful needlework tools. She takes the greatest of
delight in opening doorways to creativity for her
readers and workshop participants. Noreen can not,
however, dance, so don't ask her. Noreen is married to the
most wonderful guy on the planet, composer and jazz musician,
Jim Findlay. They are blessed by being friends with
their daughter and her husband, and their son and
his wife. They have lots of cats and many dogs in
their extended family."...............

Because Noreen's talents are numerous,
I think it would practically take a
whole book to talk about all of them.
As this is a blog about Spool Knitters and
spool knitting, I want to focus
on that side of things.

Below are
Noreen's two newly published books -
Rosie Recycle Dolls and Spooligarumi
which would be of particular interest
to fellow spool knitters.

(image shown with kind permission by Noreen)

Rosie Recycle Dolls is available to purchase
in book form - click here.
Mary-Beth Temple of Getting Loopy
recently spoke with Noreen in an interview
about her Rosie Recycle Dolls book and a little
about herself - listen here.

(image shown with kind permission by Noreen)

Spooligarumi is available in
PDF form - click here.

I have the great fortune of owning some of Noreen's
magnificent one-of-a-kind spool knitters.

Noreen did a series on one of her favourite authors -
Jane Austen. Both Noreen and myself love this
era and I was so thrilled when Noreen created them
for sale. Above and below are four of the
series.


Noreen will also create spool knitters by request -
below being my special spool knitter.
You will also see in the foreground a fabulous
one-of-a-kind crochet hook, one of many by Noreen.



Below are some more of my collection of
spool knitters by Noreen and another of her
books - Spool Knitting Treasures (2002).
Click here to order.


In the column to the right of my blog page are links to -
her website (you will also
find many individual patterns here for spool
knitting), her two blogs,
her spool knitter group on Yahoo,
and her tutorials on how to spool knit. She also has a
group on Ravelry - Cool Spool.
I am also proud to have her as a member in my own Spool
Knitter group on Flickr.





UPDATE 2011
Sad to say that Noreen no longer
makes spool knitters for sale.
Also, Noreen asked if I would take
over her Yahoo Group for a
while, and I am very honoured
to do so and have now for
over a year.





*******************

New Post Coming Soon!

Noreen Crone-Findlay

Spool Knitting Artiste Extraordinaire!

Stay tuned for a little about Noreen
- new post soon!


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Catalogs

Many vintage catalogs

carry a great deal of information
for collectors of toys.
Dating the toy, of course, is one
important fact, as well as, the
look of the toy and the packaging/box,
all the contents contained in the box,
very often the maker's name can
be found, and also what other
similar sets were offered.
Such is the case with the last
piece of information.

I was able to discover two
more knitting sets that were
available to children in the 1930's.

The W. Bingham Co. offered a
Tricky Knit and a Loom Weave
Knitting Outfit.


This little soldier above is also found in
the Toykraft Knitting Spool Set from
1936.




Above is the Loom Weave
Knitting Outfit with its knitting spool
and other knitting requirements.
(Click picture for larger image)

Surprisingly, on looking for some
information on the W. Bingham Co.,
we discover that it was mainly a hardware
company! For more information - see here.

~~~~~~

Kentoys Product

Magic Knitting Machine

Made by Kentoys Ltd, Hong Kong


It is such a shame that these knitting
machine toys are no longer being made.
I was fortunate recently to find these
two old stock toys - so there could be more
still around hiding in some dark box in the
back of an old toy shop.
There is no date at all to be found on
the toy, the package, or with the
directions.

However, there was a patent applied for and this
can be found on the internet.
The inventor of this particular knitting machine is
a Mr. Wai Kwok Wu of Hong Kong.
The date of the patent is Aug. 21, 2001.
Below are just two of the pages in the application -



There are eight characters in the series - Grandmother, Lady,
Little Girl, Little Boy, Duck, Chicken, Bird, and (I think it is.....a)
Squirrel? (click to enlarge photo)
Added March 15th - I have now found out that the "Squirrel"
is an Owl.


The above Little Girl is the model in the
Patent's illustrations.

Early in 2008 I did a post on plastic knitters.
I introduced these Nitta Crittas by Moose Enterprises
Pty Ltd, a Melbourne company but
the toy is Made in China and they are
Carly Cow, Doris Duck, Penny Pig
and Fran Frog.
No date again so I cannot say if these were
earlier or later than the Kentoys' model.





These appear to be as rare as hen's teeth
much like the Magic Knitting Machine.
If, by chance, anyone reading this has any or
knows where I might find any of these little
machines, both the Kentoys Magic Knitting
Machines and the Nitta Crittas,
I would dearly love to hear
from you. I am very keen to find more
of these!

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