Tool kit

This was my mother-in-law's knitting needle case. It is now crammed full as I have added all my needles and my mother's. My father-in-law made the case in the style of an upholsterer's tool roll.

Well actually I suspect he got one of his craftsmen to make it. My husband comes from what is called in High Wycombe UK a 'furniture family'. His grandfather was a master upholsterer who, together with a man called Ercolani set up a firm in the 1920s that still produces Ercol furniture today. My father-in law worked for Parker Knoll, running the department that produced prototypes of the designers' ideas. All family members have treasured pieces of furniture that never got past the prototype stage or were made as apprentice pieces.

Although father-in-law had someone stitch the needle case he wrote the numbers on. He trained as a draftsman, even in simple numbering and lettering I recognise his hand.