I can remember as a kid taking finishing nail and a wooded spool from sewing thread and making this type of knitting loom. You nailed the finishing nail ( 4 or 6) around the hole in the spool. You used either thick thread ot fine yarn to make you cord.

I seem to also remember seeing a similar model with a hand crank. I did a quick search on the internet but could not locate a crank model.

They also make larger models in rings or oval and you cold in theory knit hose on the right size model. You could knit and do cables on one of the rings, but, I am not sure you could purl to do ribbing.