Yarn holders

Today was the last day of Hook & Needle Week at Lee Mills.  There are still some knitting needles left to sort out, and a lot of crochet hooks, but it's much more organised than it was.  We are left with dozens of odd knitting needles, and a lot of pairs that are duplicates - an exercise of this kind leaves you feeling that the big advantage of crochet hooks and circular knitting needles is that they don't need pairing up.

Today we sorted out the yarn holders.  I wrote about a couple of them here, but there are lots more in the collection.  The Beehive ones made for Patons & Baldwins, whose symbol was (and still is) a beehive, are very nice indeed.  We have a lot of them, in about eight different colours (depending on how many different shades of green you choose to identify).  

 
There are several other plastic yarn holders, some older than the Beehive ones, possibly in Bakelite, and some more recent ones in a softer plastic.

And there are two made of wood, with a transfer print on each one.  I think they are Mauchline ware, a type of holiday souvenir made in the late 19th century. They would make a good souvenir - practically useful, and a reminder of the holiday at the same time.   

Last year, I was inspired by the yarn holders in the collection to buy one of the later plastic ones for myself (on eBay).  They are very useful if you are knitting on the move - in a car, on a train, on a plane - and it's a pity that they aren't made any more.