Make your own knitting needles
Photo courtesy of The Shopping Sherpa
Although I now happily own a lovely pair of circular knitting needles, I wish I had seen the tutorials I’ve listed here before I dropped $15 on my bamboo set.
Knitting needles are not hard to get, either cheaply or used. I frequently come upon them at local thrift stores, and I recently found a metal pair of size 11 needles for $2. But if you’d rather upcycle or use inexpensive or free materials, or you just don’t like spending hard-earned cash on brand new things, then there’s many DIY tutorials on how to make your own needles easily, quickly, and in most instances using little to no money.
Got a bag of long bamboo skewers hanging out in a kitchen drawer? Perhaps there’s a few too many pairs of takeout chopsticks crowding your junk drawer? Perhaps you have an upcycled art materials store like Urban Source near you that sells wood dowels? Whatever your choice of materials, check out the tutorials below and be on your way to instant cratification!
Hand-painted knitting needles made from chopsticks
Circular knitting needles using plastic weed-eater cable
Brian Sawyer shows us how to make double-pointed knitting needles
And in case you’re super thrifty, check out BitterSweet’s makeshift paperclip crochet hook and the cute project she made with it.
Sweet! Lately I’ve been thinking about making my own needles… this gives me some food for thought.
Thanks!