French knitting (also called tomboy stitch or spool knitting) is a great craft for kids to make long snakes of knitted braid. The handheld tool used for french knitting is often called a ‘Knitting Nancy’, French knitting dolly or tomboy. The stitches are created by wrapping yarn around pegs and then lifting the stitches over the pegs. Here’s how to make a homemade French Knitting Nancy out of a toilet roll, lollipop sticks and washi tape.

You will need:

Toilet roll or thin tube

4 lollipop sticks

Washi tape

Glue

How to make the French Knitting Nancy:

Decorate your toilet roll first if you like. You could colour it with pens, cover it with wrapping paper or some decorative sticky back plastic.

Glue the 4 lollipop sticks vertically around the toilet roll, leaving about 2cm of lolly stick sticking out above the toilet roll.

Wrap some decorative washi tape around the top and bottom of the roll to secure.

How to French Knit

To learn how to do French knitting using your toilet roll knitting nancy, click here to see our Red Kite Days French knitting photo tutorial.

French Knitting Fun Facts

The Guiness World Record for the longest French Knitting is 31.42 Km by Edward Hannaford in April 2016! It has taken him over 20 years to make and he’s still going!