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

<agres · 2006-06-15T17:11:59+00:00

Somewhere in the archives of this group is a detailed description of myneedle making. I think there is also something on my blog - 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 steelneedles. Such long steel needles did not seem to be commercially available.After some experimentation, I settled on using a small, electric benchgrinder to form the tips by rotating commercial "music rod" against thegrinding wheel with my screw gun. Music rod or piano wire is availableinexpensively in most hardware stores. This process produces a DPN blank.These were tools that I felt many "handy" households were likely to own andwhich produced a good needle. The blank is then hand polished with emerypaper and crocus cloth. The result are quite satisfactory for using with aknitting sheath to produce traditional fisherman's ganseys such as...

Jun 15, 2006 22 Replies

Rate this thread:

YarnWright 20 years ago

On Sat, 17 Jun 2006 17:06:40 GMT, Carey N. spun a fine yarn

spewwwwwww! LOL, Noreen

Vote

Carey N. 20 years ago

Figured you'd like that comment! ;--))

Vote

YarnWright 20 years ago

On Sat, 17 Jun 2006 20:06:31 GMT, Carey N. spun a fine yarn

I DID, I DID! (I towt I taw a puddy kat, and I DID, I DID) :D Noreen

Vote

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required