Big Damn Knitting Needles

So in an earlier post I made reference to the big knitting needles that The Bagsmith offered here in size US 35 and US 50. I also found a site by Ingrid Wagner that sells big needles that are 25 mm (US 50) and 30 mm (US no idea, but it's 1.18" in diameter). The 30 mm ones are 4 feet long! You can find hers for sale here, but these are overseas so shipping is probably a bunch. These are some whopping big needles!




Well I didn't want to pay $50 for a set of basswood needles when I can buy dowels myself for a whole lot cheaper and in a wood I find beautiful. If you are going to be looking, handling and working with wood tools, why not make them pretty too? I went to a local wood shop down the street from me and bought 2 walnut 1" dowel rods for just under $10 each that are 36" long, which is roughly the same diameter as a US 50 knitting needle (which is 25 mm or 0.98"). I also bought 1 cherry 3/4" dowel that I plan to cut in half to make 2 - 18" long knitting needles that are the same diameter as a US 35 (which is 19 mm, or 0.748"). For the 3 dowel rods it only cost me $24. All I need to do is cut the cherry rod in half, then shape one end of each of the tips into gentle points and sand the crap out of the shafts to make them smooth.

I already have a piece of ebony wood that I will get my husband to machine down into either a donut, or a square and then drill a hole that will fit on the ends of the needles and them wood glue them on. Ta da! Super sized knitting needles for a fraction of the cost that you could buy them online. Here are the dowel rods before any work has been done and you can see the difference in color:

Here is the scrap of ebony I'm using to make the end caps with. The color really shows up well next to the walnut and cherry dowels.

Here are the designs laid out on the ebony.

I'll post pics when I'm done with them. :)