Sounds great. A friend's DH made me a wooden crochet hook for making rugs and I loved it.

I never thought of using hand-cream, how long does it take to dry with that?

I've made a pair of straight needles, but I used Johnson's Paste wax (for floors) took a while for it to dry. Also, I use a piece of brown paper bag to do the finish sanding with, it will really smooth out the needles.

Just rub in a little hand cream and any excess should be worked into your hands to keep them smooth. Use just a litte; you can always do more later. Use the needles right away as the hand cream soaks into the wood. Lily Chen recommended hand cream for keeping wood needle tips smooth, so I tried it and find it so much easier than using waxed paper.

Thanks Sheilajoyce, I'll try that on my next pair.

I've only made big needles and only because I couldn't buy any at the time.

I cut the dowel down into a rough point with a craft knife (it was much too big to fit into a pencil sharpener). Then I turned on the electric sander, propped it upside down, and turned the dowel on it, holding it an the angle I wanted. The rough timber smoothed out very quickly.

If you don't have a sander, they can be had quite cheaply in bargain shops (at least in Australia). Not sure how long they will last but certainly long enough to make a heap of knitting needles.

I was in need of No. #7 regular knitting needles the other nite and after racking my brain, I went to the kitchen cabinet and got out my shish-ka-bob sticks. I even had a couple different sizes, but the one set was perfect. I smoothed it down with a round file for fingernails and dulled the end some. I'm going to try the hand lotion idea...plus they really could be cut just a little shorter, and my husband will do that for me in his wood shop. PLUS, I haven't done it yet, but I"m wanting an end on them, so I think I'll do an old Aleene's trick and mix a slice of bread with glue and form my ball, mold it around the stick. You can either add acrylic paint to the 'clay' while mixing and/or paint the color of your choice after it dries. Where there is a will there is a way...KNIT ON!!!

I went to Michaels and got some little red apples and super-glued them on the ends. You could even wind up a rubberband on each end.

I used that plastic like clay that you bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Cute ornaments are often made out of it.

My bamboo scewers are a perfect size 2. I either lost, or broke one and DH made me a new one from that.

Tami

Oh dear, and I threw out a package of bamboo scewers only recently!!!!!