Re: The Gross Errors of a Needle Maker: 000, 00, 0,

Somewhere in the archives of this group is a detailed description of my needle making. I think there is also something on my blog -

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started making wooden needles because I wanted to understand how tip shapeaffected my knitting - Why buy commercial needles if you are just grind theheck out them? Wooden dowel is cheap and easy to find - unfortunately thekinds of woods that are used for cheap dowel these days do not make *great*knitting needles. However, with a pen knife and a bit of sand paper, veryfunctional knitting needles can be made. (Once you have learned thetechnique, you can get more suitable woods and make some really fineknitting needles. (And, once you have confidence, you can buy a set ofcommercial wooden or bamboo needles and use them as blanks to make needlesthat really suit your knitting style and that really work with the yarnsthat you like.) I harvest dogwood twigs in the spring, split them, whittlethem to shape, and make fine knitting DPN with a minimal investment in timeand materials. I feel that those dogwood needles are as good as the best(or most expensive) commercial wooden needles. I believe that dogwood isthe very best wood for knitting needles. This puts me in the minority as*rosewood* is the official religion in this group. I am interested in traditional knitting methods that used long steel needles. Such long steel needles did not seem to be commercially available. After some experimentation, I settled on using a small, electric bench grinder to form the tips by rotating commercial "music rod" against the grinding wheel with my screw gun. Music rod or piano wire is available inexpensively in most hardware stores. This process produces a DPN blank. These were tools that I felt many "handy" households were likely to own and which produced a good needle. The blank is then hand polished with emery paper and crocus cloth. The result are quite satisfactory for using with a knitting sheath to produce traditional fisherman's ganseys such as described in Gladys Thompson's and Mary Thomas's books. The needles are 2 to 3 mm in diameter and 12 to 18 inches long. My handmade needles have a much lower level of polish than the commercial cast and plated needles that are available in 10 inch lengths. Thus, my needles are less slippery and I find them easier to use. Also, 10 inch needles are also much harder to join with without twisting when you are working with cast-ons of more than 220 stitches.

Knitting with a knitting sheath allows much faster knitting than knitting with SPN or cable needles. Knitting with a knitting sheath and spring steel needles uses the spring of the needle to perform half of the knitting motion, reducing joint rotation and stress on the hand and wrists. The sheath frees the right hand to focus on tension control, and supports the work. Knitting with a knitting sheath and long steel needles has dramatically improved the quality of my knitting, increased the speed of my knitting, and reduced the stress on my hands and wrists.

On the other hand, knitting in the round with long DPN is very dangerous. These are the knitting needles that your mother warned you about. When knitting in the round, long sharp needles poke out from your lap - you do not want a child running up to you while you are knitting with long DPN. One needle is poking up just below the knitter's eye level. Bend over to look more closely at your knitting and you could get a knitting needle in the eye - wear eye protection when knitting in the round with long DPN. Moreover, long DPN can poke and scratch furniture.

Aaron "lanfear32" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...

Cool! How do you make your own needls? What tools do you use, and > what made you decide to do that in the first place? > > snipped-for-privacy@sbcglobal.net wrote: > > What size is that needle? Hard to tell. > > > > I really do not care. I knit swatches with different sized needles and then > > use the needles that produced the fabric that I liked. If you want to do > > better, get a micrometer and measure the actual diameter of your needles. > > The traditional needle gauges with holes in them make errors in needle > > naming easy. > > > > Consider US # 1 needles. The holes in the "Boye" standard knitting needle > > gauge and the "Susan Bates Knit Checker" have holes for that are just larger > > than 2.50 mm in diameter so that the Boye and Susan Bates # 1 needles are > > just under 2.50 mm in diameter and *just* fit in that gauge hole. However, > > in the Knitter's Companion, there is a cardboard needle gauge that the hole > > for #1 that is 2.25 mm in diameter, but the text in Knitter's Companion says > > that US #1 is the same as 2 mm?!! Then, when I look at the needle size chart > > in Mary Thomas/ Dover reprint, the diameter of the spots she provides in her > > needle size chart do not match up with the diameters given in the text. > > Moreover, my AddiTurbo needle sold to me as a US #1 is about 2.51 mm in > > diameter, thus does not fit in the gauge holes for #1 needles. It is hard > > to tell that it is just a little bit over and so and it must be a # 2?? : ) > > > > Skipping to the chase here. > > > > Measuring my Susan Bates Knit Check (aluminum knitting needle gauge), the > > sizes of the holes are as follows: > > 1 -> 2.50 mm > > 0 -> 2.25 mm > > 00 -> 1.85 mm > > 000 -> 1.50 mm > > > > However, the sizes of the handmade steel needles that I use are: > > 1 -> 2.32 mm > > 0 -> 2.00 mm > > 00 -> 1.65 mm > > 000 -> 1.20 mm > > Which is about what you will get if you make your own steel needles from > > music rod available in the American market. However, precise metric sized > > spring steel rod is available on the world market. > > > > Of course, you could make those size needles and rename them After all, > > what I call a #1 is only 0.07 mm larger than SB's "0" but 0.18 mm smaller > > than what SB calls #1, so by actual size it is much closer to being a "0" > > than a "1". But, it fits in the "1" hole and not the '0" hole, so for me, > > for now, it remains a "1". This why I say that hole based gauges introduce > > real errors in needle naming. > > > > The really bad news is that last night, I did gauge swatches on the cashmere > > yarn that has been sitting like a lump in the middle of the stash, and this > > morning at the breakfast table my wife said that the swatch from the 1.2 mm > > needles is the best fabric. It is a lovely fabric, but that is a lot of > > knitting. Maybe she would like matching hat and gloves rather than a > > sweater. > > > > Aaron >
Reply to
<agres
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Sneeky woman..LOL

Els

Reply to
Els van Dam

I beg to differ; there is no official needle preference here. Personally, I have never used a rosewood needle and don't care if I never do.

Reply to
Your friend

Here in California, dogwood is an expensive exotic, and I am very limited by my supply of the wood. I did not harvest any this spring. However, dogwood is common in the forests of the Appalachian mountains. And, dogwood is very easy to work. I have asked several of the shops that sell "craftsman made" wood equipment such as swifts, to ask their craftsmen if they would make dogwood knitting needles. I have even sent samples to some yarn shops (Halcyon comes to mind) so that they could see what dogwood looks like and how it feels. I offered to explain the particular techniques involved to any craftsman that was interested. No response.

Dogwood is not a beautiful wood -- it looks like birch or linden or bass wood. It is not as hard as rosewood. dogwood's virtues really are not apparent until you start rubbing it against wool or cotton.

There must be somebody with access to an Eastern forest and a utility knife that would like to earn a bit of money with a mail order business. We must find them. In West Virginal, some with 5 acres of land could raise enough dogwood and make enough needles to flood the market.

Aaron

PS dogwood is too flexible to make good needles in sized smaller than about

3 mm/ US #2. The tiny cable needles that I made did not work.

SNIP< I feel that those dogwood needles are as good as the best

Reply to
<agres

On Thu, 15 Jun 2006 21:57:19 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@sbcglobal.net spun a fine yarn

we HAVE dogwood here in middle TN, and not the bush type, the real trees, however, I don't know anyone well enough to go up and ask them if I could trim a limb! I LOVE birch. I hate poppel and poplar. LOVE oak, maple, etc. Ah well. I DID score a set of 000's, btw! Noreen

sneaking right back out again, I am too busy for words!

Reply to
YarnWright

Where did you get wood 000s? What kind of wood? Dish when you have time.

Sure, where they are happy, dogwoods are trees. They made spinning and loom parts out of dogwood for a long time. Since they did not laminate in those days, they required real shop lumber. Think about a commercial loom shuttle sawn and carved from a single piece of wood. That takes more than the twigs that I use.

Reply to
<agres

Aron what dogwood are you talking about there are many different speces. I did a search on the internet and found this bit of trivia that you may find interesting

"The origin of the name dogwood is anyone's guess, but two likely theories have been proposed. The first refers to a European species of dogwood (Cornus sanguinea) that was used for making skewers, or daggers, and would have been referred to as dag, dague, or dagge (dagger) in old English. The second theory is based on the reported use of the same species for washing mangy dogs. As for Cornus, it is Latin for ³horn² and likely refers to the hardness of the wood."

els

Reply to
Els van Dam

Reply to
lanfear32

I use a modern cultivar of native American dogwood, likely C. Florida? It was selected by a landscaper for its flowers, rather than by a forester for the qualities of its wood. It is also very fine grained, but I expect a bit softer than the European wood. American dogwood, found in the Eastern forests was used by the American Indians as material for arrows because (when green) it could be easily split into long, fairly straight shafts, that could be bent to, and then hold an outstanding degree of straightness. Even in the early 1950's it was still used by archers because the arrows did not flex much as they left the bow. In the days when commercial spinning and weaving machinery was still made of wood, (~ pre 1800) it was used for spinning and loom parts.) When fresh cut, it has a greenish cast, but when dry it is sort of a pale, non-descript blond. I am not sure that it is any harder than birch, but it has less grain and is much more flexible. You can bend dry dogwood until you are sure it will break, but it does not. When I tried to make tiny, tiny cable needles out of it, it was simply too flexible to pull cable stitches as tight as I wanted them, or maybe I did not let it dry long enough. (Or, maybe I was knitting too tight.)

Aaron

Reply to
<agres

Remember to ask your local tree trimmers - they might be pruning a dogwood and give the results to you in return for a treat of milk and cookies or a case of beer. ; )

I am sure that your husband can make you better steel needles than I made. Remind him that you do not want a gloss polish on the tips - the finish from crocus cloth (800 grit) is good enough. Maybe he will make a few extra sets and you can and sell them to other folks that want to knit in the style of Gladys Thompson. He might also make you a sharp little cutter that will help you get your knitting needles to nice smooth size.

Mine are whittled and the craftsmanship is somewhere between crude and primitive, or rather they are not symmetrical. They are carved to feel good in my hand and fit my knitting motions.and the fabric seems to come out just as uniform and fast as when I work with slippy, slidy, precise, best commercial metal needles. And, mine never slide out - even when I am doing that last cable, and the left needle is only held by 2 stitches - and I know that even the commercial bamboo would fall out. Because, just half an inch behind the tip, I left tiny dimples that hold the needle in place. It looks like tiny imperfections of craftsmanship. Faberge would never have allowed it in his workshops. I discovered the concept by accident. But, it works. That is what you get when a craftspersons make their own tools.

Aar> >

Reply to
<agres

Aaron while reading your reply, i have a feeling that we have had this conversation before....right. I am going to dig up my dogwood bush and if there is good wood in it we can see if there are knitting needles hidden in there somewhere.

Els

Reply to
Els van Dam

On Fri, 16 Jun 2006 00:12:48 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@sbcglobal.net spun a fine yarn

Dishing: I scored a set from a lady who is 93 years old. These are Palmwood Heart, exotic. I'm almost afaid to USE them! Hugs, Noreen

Reply to
YarnWright

On Fri, 16 Jun 2006 17:49:21 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@sbcglobal.net spun a fine yarn

My DH is whittling on some dogwood between naps! Hugs, Noreen

Reply to
YarnWright

In my first post about it, I mentioned that wood harvested in the winter while dormant is *much* better. Let me know how it comes out!!

Remember to split it while it is green, whittle blanks, and then bind them together as they dry to them straight. I untie them, bend them straight and retie them together every day for maybe a week before sanding and final finish.

Reply to
<agres

I would bet that they are *old*. If they lasted this long, a few hundred thousand stitches more will not hurt them.

Just do not sit on them as they may leave splinters that might damage the upholstery ; )

Aaron

Reply to
<agres

straightness.

Reply to
<agres

Ah Aaron this bush is coming out, it is not doing to well and was slated to be removed, knitting needles or not.

Els

Reply to
Els van Dam

On Fri, 16 Jun 2006 23:44:17 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@sbcglobal.net spun a fine yarn

Yes, Aaron, you DID and we know that, he's basically practicing right now... honing his skills and his knife, y'know? ;) Noreen

Reply to
YarnWright

On Fri, 16 Jun 2006 23:56:55 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@sbcglobal.net spun a fine yarn

Not to mention my delicate posterior! splort, Noreen

who lived in WI and wanted the license plate tag slogan to be:

come smell our Dairy Air.

Reply to
YarnWright

Particularly if that upholstery is of the 'over-stuffed' variety (like mine). ;-)

-- Carey in MA

Reply to
Carey N.

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