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Knitting Poetry – Winding Wool

by

Winding Wool

 

by Robert Service

 

She’d bring to me a skein of wool

And beg me to hold out my hands;

so on my pipe I cease to pull

And watch her twine the shining strands

Into a ball so snug and neat,

Perchance a pair of socks to knit

To comfort my unworthy feet,

Or pullover my girth to fit.

 

As to the winding I would sway,

A poem in my head would sing,

And I would watch in dreamy way

The bright yarn swiftly slendering.

The best I liked were coloured strands

I let my pensive pipe grow cool . . .

Two active and two passive hands,

So busy winding shining wool.

 

Alas! Two of those hands are cold,

And in these days of wrath and wrong,

I am so wearyful and old,

I wonder if I’ve lived too long.

So in my loneliness I sit

And dream of sweet domestic rule . . .

When gentle women used to knit,

And men were happy winding wool.

Source 

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Comments

  1. “Winding Wool” made me homesick and left a tear on my cheek. There is no reason for that still, simple, lifestyle to be gone. A path way has to exist, to have Robert Service’s words not to be lost in living rooms and kitchens; for us to enter again. Knitting is peaceful and loving. Keeping the family warm, home cooked suppers, the kids asleep, and husband and wife love and respect each other; their house is in order and their values are straight.
    In the poem, so plain, yet so perfect are wise words. “Winding Wool” is a yearning for days gone by and people that have passed. A beautiful tribute to wool and knitting. I really was touched and I want that time back, once more.
    Thank-you, Robert

  2. I can remember my mom and dad both talking about doing this back in the days before “pull skeins”. They’d sit on my mom’s front porch and dad would hold out his hands with the yarn wrapped around them and mom would wind away. Of course, if it were a Sunday and Mom’s grandmother came walking up the hill, they’d have to stash the yarn and needles under the cushions on the swing. There was absolutely no knitting, crocheting or sewing on Sundays.

    Mom and Dad are both gone now ~ Mom before Dad. But this little poem brought back some fond memories and gave me a few tears.

    Thank you for posting this.

  3. I just love this site , I have learned a lot from it!
    It’s so interesting and full of ideas ! Keep them coming please !!!!

    whoknits

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This modular design is worked in two parts, the “waxing” and “waning” sections. Both pieces are asymmetrical and use the same yarns in different ways to mix up the colors and make it even more interesting. 

You can choose to use two contrasting solid yarns, a solid and a gradient or two complimentary gradients for your yarns. And you can use any weight of yarn and whatever gauge you like to make shawls of different sizes. There are also a bunch of different size options (seven, in fact) that take the project from a little collar like design to something more like a scarf to a large shawl that wraps around the neck to keep you warm. 

The sample projects use fingering/lace weight yarn, but you can use whatever you have on hand to make your own beautiful version of this shawl. Using lace weight, you’ll need twice as much of one color as the other.

There are lots of yarn suggestions on the pattern page on Ravelry, and I love the color choices the designer made so much I’d definitely be tempted to use the same colors they did (there are a couple of different versions on the pattern page if you want to see how it looks in different sizes and different colors). 

I love the little diamond shapes a the edges of the pieces, which add a little more drama to the project, as if it needed more. 

I’m still not sure this boils down to anything beyond this project looks really cool and you should probably knit it, but that’s pretty much how I pick all the projects I share, so I guess that’s fine. You can check it out for yourself and grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry. 

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