FAO Aaron

Thanks very much. I have my sets of dogwood sock needles, they will last me for a very long time, and for right now, I am not going into production. Now, I am focused on knitting with thin metal needles.

For best effect, the wood needs to be harvested while the tree.bush is dormant. And, in my primitive production process, the wood needs to be split while green - I find the wood starts to harden within a couple of days. In that way, the grain runs the length of the needle. As the wood dries, I regularly straighten the blanks, so that when they are quite dry, they are quite straight. This is the same process that my father used to make arrows. While the process sounds labor intensive, it is like baking bread - a few minutes here, and a few minutes there. Working the soft green wood is very fast. I expect that the dry wood could be sawn and turned into knitting needles, but I do not have a wood lathe these days. (And, when I did have a wood lathe, I never thought about making dogwood knitting needles.)

What I would ask is that, if someone in or near the group, with a real wood working shop wants to try making dogwood knitting tools, would you make the same offer to them.

Thanks very much for the offer.

Aaron