Homemade knitting needles

[bindi10108]

I don't have knitting needles, i can't get them anytime soon, but i learned to knit yesterday with pens. is there anything better found in my house that i could use? the yarn gets stuck on the pens.

[Granny Square]

Heh, I tried to use bamboo skewers for DPNs once (double pointed needles). They worked, sorta, but were a little rough.

 

I read someone's blog reminiscing about being in eastern Europe during/after WWII as a child, and she or her mom using some sort of wires for knitting needles. That sounds challenging. Wire hangers? Don't know how you'd file the ends to make them smooth, though. Wooden pencils?

[craftconnie1]

pencils. seal the graphite ends with nail polish or white glue / dowling sharpened will work/pm with your address and I'll send you some

[Becky Morgan]

Pencils are roughly #10s. Screwdrivers...I'd have to look at the needle gauge, but they work, especially those long-shanked ones they throw in with do-it-yourself furniture kits. If you have two crochet hooks that match in size, you can knit with them ...in-line heads work better and Tunisian hooks are the best!

 

With the skewers, you pick two (or four or five if you want DPs) that match in size, smooth them with really really fine sandpaper, then--and don't skip this step--rub them with candle wax and warm them up with a hair dryer until the wax softens enough to rub into the wood. Car wax doesn't seem to work as well for the first coat, but it'll keep them slick enough after they're built up a little. I usually have to wax and buff them several times to get them smooth. I haven't tried making circular needles with aquarium tubing yet, but there are directions on the Net that make sense.

[mva5493]

There is a guy in my knitting group that knits with chop sticks. I dont know what size they would be but he has used them for socks, fongerless gloves and scarves.

[Island Girl]

I was going to say chopsticks but you beat me to it.

There is a guy in my knitting group that knits with chop sticks. I dont know what size they would be but he has used them for socks, fongerless gloves and scarves.

[jimbo]

dowels. You can buy wood dowels fairly cheap, point them (shudder) with a pencil sharpener and sand them smooth....and you can find lots of instructions on youtube. I've done them before but instead of trashing the ends with a pencil sharpener, I've whittled the points and finished with sandpaper. You get a much smoother surface that way, and you can set your own taper.. but you have to be careful to keep the points centered. As to materials, I'd suggest maple.

Good luck!

Jimbo

 

A hint. Dowels are always standard sizes. Knitting needles are metric, so there are very few standard size dowels that will match knitting needle sizes (but some come close). I'd suggest you take your Bates "Knitt-Chek" gauge along while dowel shopping.