They are still in fairly common use (have one somewhere myself…). If you want to see one in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shPD28G2kHI&list=PLcRKQy580CertleilrbnULVL5-0HPRi9T&index=9 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shPD28G2kHI&list=PLcRKQy580CertleilrbnULVL5-0HPRi9T&index=9>
The wood is nice because slippery yarns stay put while you work. But for a knitter more skilled than I, all you need is something rounded so that your stitches have some tension and open up a bit to work with, especially in the toe and heel of socks which are curved all on their own. The egg shape is nice because it has different sizes of curve, which works well with both different sizes of socks and different sizes of holes.
Elizabeth
Elizabeth Terese Newman, PhD
Assistant Professor of History, Stony Brook University
www.elizabethnewman.org
Check out my new book, Biography of a Hacienda <http://www.elizabethnewman.org/biography-of-a-hacienda.html>(University of Arizona Press 2014).
> On Aug 10, 2015, at 5:30 PM, Boyer, Jeffrey, DCA <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Harding, my grandmother and my mother used burned-out bulbs for darning tools. No fancy-dancy glass eggs for them, no sir. You didn't throw out a burned out bulb in our house or my grandparents' house until Mom or Granny gave the okay since it might be needed in the sewing basket.
>
> Jeff
>
> Jeffrey L. Boyer, RPA
> Supervisory Archaeologist/Project Director
> Office of Archaeological Studies, Museum of New Mexico
>
> * The Center for New Mexico Archaeology
> * PO Box 2087
> * Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504
> * tel: 505.476.4426
> * e-mail: [log in to unmask]
>
> "Essentially every model is false but some models are useful." -- George E. P. Box, mathematician and statistician
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Harding Polk [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Monday, August 10, 2015 3:24 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Glass egg
>
> Incandescent light bulbs work just as well.
>
>
> Harding Polk II
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dedie Snow <[log in to unmask]>
> To: HISTARCH <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Sat, Aug 8, 2015 11:33 am
> Subject: Re: Glass egg
>
>
> Right you are Smoke,
> My grandmother, various great aunts and cousins all had
> darning eggs used to repair holey socks and stockings. The eggs were not toys
> and were not to be played with although I remember sneaking it out of
> Grandmother's sewing basket on occasion. While mostly made of wood, one of the
> great aunts had a simply glorious darning egg made of a large pigeon-egg sized
> chunk of amethyst that had been shaped and tumbled to satiny finish--I wonder
> whatever happened to that?
>
> Dedie Snow
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Smoke
> Sent:
> Friday, August 07, 2015 1:05 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Glass
> egg
>
> I have seen lots of darn eggs but all of them have been wooden. The come
> in shape ranging from egg to ovoid with out the egg shape and may or may not
> have handles. Often the ones with handles were called "mushroom". The were
> common in late 1800s and early 1900s. My grandmother (born in the early 1880s)
> knitted a lot and had a lot of trouble with her grandchildren taking her 2
> knitting and playing with as toys but she was very patient with us. I half
> remember that she said they were often given to girls as one of the items for
> their "Hope Chests", if anyone still remembers the term. This is the first I
> have heard of them be used to induce egg laying in chickens. I am also not
> familiar with those made of glass.
>
> On Fri, Aug 7, 2015 at 1:08 PM, Keith Doms
> <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>> We recently
> discovered a blown milk glass egg. It
>> appears to be a dummy egg that was
> used it encourage chickens to lay.
>> My informants tell me that door knobs
> and darning eggs were also used.
>> It comes from a midden that dates between
> 1880 and 1910. The little
>> research I have been able to do has not answered
> the following
>> questions. 1. When did they start making blown eggs? 2. How
> far did
>> the practice of artificial eggs to induce laying go back? 3. Does
>
>> anyone know of an advertisement for these things.
>>
>> Keith R. Doms
>>
> Newlin Grist Mill
>> Site Manager
>> 219 S. Cheyney Rd.
>> Glen Mills, PA
> 19342
>> (610) 459-2359
>>
> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Smoke
> Pfeiffer
> Eschew Obfuscation!
|
