How to Make Your Own Knitting Needles

Handmade knitting needles are fun to use, easy to make and can be creative gifts for the knitters on your list. You can make them from items readily available in craft and hardware stores, using tools you have at home.

Things You'll Need

• Knitting needle sizer
• Hard wood dowels
• Pencil sharpener
• Several grades of sandpaper from rough to fine
• Oven-hardening clay (Fimo or Sculpey)
• Baking sheet
• Acrylic paints
• Craft glue

Instructions

Making the Needles

1. Take your needle sizer to the hardware store. Using the tool, select dowels that fit through the hole the size of the needles you want to make.

2. Cut the dowels into 10-inch lengths.

3. Sharpen one end of each needle with the pencil sharpener.

4. Starting with the roughest grade of sandpaper, sand the points of the needles until smooth. You don't want rough spots to snag yarn. Use finer grades of sandpaper for each successive sanding.

5. Variation for double pointed needles: Cut the dowels 7 to 8 inches long and sharpen both ends.

Making the Ends

1. Shape the clay into caps that are slightly bigger in diameter than the needles. The caps need to be able to keep the stitches on needles.

2. Be creative. Mix the colors of clay together, shape the clay into animal shapes, or make other decorative caps.

3. Gently push the caps onto the dull ends of the needles.

4. Put the needles, with caps on, on a baking sheet with caps hanging over the edge.

5. Bake the clay following the manufacturer's instructions.

6. Let cool. Gently pull the caps off needles. If you want to paint needles with acrylic paints, now is the time.

7. Put a drop of glue inside the cap and gently push the cap back on the needle.

Tips & Warnings

• This is a great project for a scout troop or classroom. You can follow up by teaching them how to knit.

• Knitting needles are basically pointy sticks. Caution children not to use them as swords. You don't want to poke somebody's eye out, do you?

References

• Another Way to Make Needles
• More Ways to Make Knitting Needles
• Still More DIY Knitting Needles