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A 'nancy' or 'pegotty' used for French knitting, to knit tubes of wool for use as mufflers, hats or socks, depending on the size of the nancy.
This tool, known as a 'nancy' or a 'pegotty', was used for French knitting to knit tubes of wool for use as mufflers, hats or socks, depending on the size of the nancy. It consists of a ring of wood, 9 inches in diameter, with small wires or pegs sticking up at regular intervals. It was used at Peppard Common, Oxfordshire.

MERL 'Handwritten catalogue' form – 'NANCY // Used at Peppard, Oxfordshire. See also correspondence relating to nancy photographed for records owned by Mrs F. M. Longman... York // [pencil sketch]', MERL miscellaneous note - 'Copy of letters and notes which appear in Classified Information files under CRAFTS - TEXTILE - KNITTING // / ... 19.7.61 An old lady in this village has two unusual tools, if that is what they are, and has had them for a very long time. Could you please tell me what they would be used for. She lived for a long time on a farm in the North Riding, but she cannot remember them ever being used... // Comments from The Countryman (by JWYH) August 1961 // Mrs. Longman's apparatus seems to be what I believe is called either a Pegotty or a Knitting Nancy but I can find neither of these names in any reference book. We have one at home about the same size as the larger of the two but I have never met one with wires. The only ones I have seen have wooden pegs. The process is approximately the same as the gadget which children make on the top of cotton reels and produced with minimum of effort long tubes of woollen stuff which I presume were used as mufflers, hats or perhaps crude socks. It seems strangely mixed in my mind with comforts for fishermen and troops but this may simply be an association of ideas. I know they came in different sizes, presumably according to the diameter of the muffler required, and certainly 30 or 40 years ago were quite common.'