How A Knitted Swiss Hobby Horse Came Back to Life

re: How A Knitted Swiss Hobby Horse Came Back to Life

RobbyD — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 12:58:30 GMT

I made a sock horse for my daughter 30+ years ago, without a specific pattern. I also made a sock caterpillar head on a broomstick! Your difficulty with making many for your family would seem to have an easy solution - recycle your hand knit socks into hobby horses - just wash, patch and applique. The large men's size socks would be plenty big. Have fun!

re: How A Knitted Swiss Hobby Horse Came Back to Life

carolily531 — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 09:57:22 GMT

To KatherineH

www.menwhoknit.com/community

I can't quite see men knitting lacy shawls or booties, (but then again, why not?) but there are definitely yarns and designs that would lend themselves to a man's taste.

re: How A Knitted Swiss Hobby Horse Came Back to Life

HHansen — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:06:41 GMT

I love Sandi's wonderful story of the Hobby Horse. I always enjoy reading her work. She is not only a talented knitter, but a gifted writer as well. As other readers have commented, knitting has been taught in European schools for many years. But it is not to encourage "womanly skills," instead, both boys and girls were taught to knit because it was believed to improve a young child's handwriting. A doctor told me years ago that knitting is very effective in developing fine motor skills in children, along with other activities such as sewing, crocheting, etc. It's what we've known all along--there's so much more to knitting than just two sticks and some string!

re: How A Knitted Swiss Hobby Horse Came Back to Life

KatherineH — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:38:37 GMT

The hobby horse is amazing. I love the face on the original!

But since when is knitting a "womanly skill" in this century? I was actually thinking of showing this article to some of my guy friends who have been considering taking up knitting -- the hobby horse would be right up their alley -- but now I'm going to have to tap-dance around the whole gender thing.

re: How A Knitted Swiss Hobby Horse Came Back to Life

carolily531 — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:24:23 GMT

I spent some time in Germany and went to a German school. I had learned to knit in the US when I was 8 so I was prepared to knit the "kinder hose", socke und handschue in the 6th grade. I got the same funny glances when I proceeded to knit in the English style. I learned to do it the German way, but I just can't do it for long. I also was impressed that we always knitted something useful.

I teach school and I always tell my students the story of my first period class in the winter months at my German school. (that story and the fact that all students STOOD when the teacher walked into the room!) My school building was over 100 years old. I don't know why, but we NEVER turned on the overhead lights during the school day. We had lights on in a student lounge in the basement if we got to school early, but that was it. Due to the high latitude, it was dark until about 9:00 AM. No problem, we all had a candle (yes!) at our desks, and we knitted while our teacher read the day's lesson to us. This was in the mid 1960's. It sounds like life right out of Little Women, doesn't it?

re: How A Knitted Swiss Hobby Horse Came Back to Life

KathleenBC — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 06:59:43 GMT

Though I think that both hobby horses are cute, the old one certainly has more personality! You should knit just one and try to give it some personality.

re: How A Knitted Swiss Hobby Horse Came Back to Life

MelanieD — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:05:17 GMT

Lovely story! I have often seen this type of hobby horse around here.

I actually live in Switzerland - when I came to live in the German-speaking part, my new Swiss (teenage) friends laughed themselves silly at the way I knit: English-style! They couldn't for the life of them imagine why I would let go of the yarn etc. so they taught me how to knit the "proper" way ;) Knitting, especially using fantasy yarns, was an absolute craze here in the 80s/90s, less so now.

My three daughters (25, 18 and 13) all went to school here. The elder two both learned to knit in the 1st and 2nd grade, though these days there are no obligatory socks any more; they knitted sausage-shaped clown money "boxes" and hand puppets to learn circular knitting, in fact, what I always noticed over here is that they always knit or sewed or crafted something that was genuinely useful and attractive, which impressed me a lot.

Sadly, by the time the youngest daughter came along, knitting appears to have been dropped from the obligatory program, although they all learn to use a sewing machine in the 4th grade and this daughter just brought home the cutest black fur bean bag, decorated with appliquéd gold stripes....

My eldest daughter now happily knits for her young son and her husband, as well as for herself, friends and sisters, giving us an additional bond!

re: How A Knitted Swiss Hobby Horse Came Back to Life

Diane@2 — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:28:38 GMT

What a delightful little horsey! I vote for making just one who will live at your house, and see from there how it goes.

One question: Why does the I-cord on the picture of the original look like a crocheted chain?

re: How A Knitted Swiss Hobby Horse Came Back to Life

Ellen — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:12:28 GMT

I wish I could put into words how much this website means to me. I have been enjoying it so much. The girls do a fab job in all the fields here, esp. Sandi. THANK you extra much!!!!

re: How A Knitted Swiss Hobby Horse Came Back to Life

knitterpatter — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:11:27 GMT

I love Ms. Budds Hobby Horse, and know that at 11 yrs. she was a "budding" artist!

When I was her age, I was with my family in Germany, and the same thing happened: the wife in a couple who picked us up at the airport, gasped when I said that I had tried to learn to knit but couldn't, and explained to me that I would need to know this to go through school in Germany. She took me to her home, produced a pattern and some yarn, and taught me to knit in an hour or two, the Continental Way (Americans do it so wrong! This is the only right way, because you should be FAST). The pattern she brought out was for an Aran sweater with five different patterns -- (Don't be intimdated -- knitting is only TWO stitches, knit and purl, and it is simply how you manipulate them). The long end of the tale (tail) is that I was knitting an Aran sweater, not a garter stitch scarf, by the end of that day.

School opened a month later, and behold, "handarbitet" was a required course. In other words, knitting was necessary to graduate from the Gymnasium. I already had an intricate Aran sweater a month after enrollment, and was off to the knitting races, so to speak, because I had the knitting "bug." 40 years later, I am still at it.

re: How A Knitted Swiss Hobby Horse Came Back to Life

Ilse — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:49:26 GMT

to JaimeG:

I would love to join a KAL-CAL in July.

Ilse

re: How A Knitted Swiss Hobby Horse Came Back to Life

Ilse — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:48:19 GMT

Hi Sandi:

The good thing about the adorable hobby horse is that you only have to knit ONE sock - I mean head. I think it would be great fun knitting one of these.

Ilse

re: How A Knitted Swiss Hobby Horse Came Back to Life

ShelleyH@3 — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:48:15 GMT

I think these horses are absolutely wonderful. I can easily see why everyone would want one, though Aunt Sandi may need to knit more than one for her house or there could be a lot of fighting.

re: How A Knitted Swiss Hobby Horse Came Back to Life

w.klassen — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:26:16 GMT

All that Hobby Horse needs is what mine has...a zipper for teeth! My grandkids just loved ours to bits n pieces..

SandyKlass'n

re: How A Knitted Swiss Hobby Horse Came Back to Life

jcrosby — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:47:38 GMT

So cute. Check out a crocheted Hobby Horse / Golf Club Cover I made for a friend. Her name is Patricia.