make your own knitting needles: dowel, fimo and pencil sharpener!
Posted July 19th, 2006 by
Abigail Percy
i saw these pretty handmade knitting needles at nicole’s knits. she made a cool pink and blue design… and it looks like “i could do that!” she shows how you get the wooden dowels, match up with a knitting gauge guide, and whittle with a pencil sharpener. you make fimo ends, paint, and voila! you have your own very pretty knitting needles. (i suppose after a couple layers of paint and polyurethane you’ll have to check gauge again).
there are some more detailed tutorials online:
Detailed tutorial by Curious Girl
Tutorial with lots of tips at CheapStix
How to make circular needles at Strings and Things
Anyone else have pics of their own homemade needles?
July 20th, 2006 at 7:36 am
i made these
dpn’s nothing fancy, but i sanded, polished and olied them really nice. there is another pair that i made, but i can’t find the pic on my server.
July 20th, 2006 at 2:06 pm
hahahaha you said “By Curious Girl” hahahaha
July 21st, 2006 at 12:29 am
Here’s a tutorial I did awhile ago, although mine were larger than my pencil sharpener, so power tools were employed.
http://www.talkingcrow.com/blog/2004/10/how_to_make_knitting_needles.html
July 21st, 2006 at 5:41 am
Loved reading this Blog!Lot’s of different things, artists and crafters!Congrats!I’ll be back!
July 21st, 2006 at 7:32 pm
Yes, made 12mm dpns using a lathe. Great fun. http://need2knit.blogspot.com/2006/07/fo-yarn-swifts.html
July 22nd, 2006 at 2:27 am
Thanks for the links. I may have to try and make some circs soon.
I’ve made my own straight needles (http://toysaregoodfood.com/content/archives/000096.html) and some fun polymer clay ends (http://toysaregoodfood.com/content/archives/000100.html). Hmmm.. perhaps these will be my holiday gifts for my knitgrrls.
November 11th, 2006 at 1:24 am
[...] She also points to a great roundup of other DIY knitting needle tutorials. Nice! [...]