Knitting on the cheap!

My church had a women's retreat a little over a week ago, and I was asked to teach knitting during our fun time. I eagerly agreed and began preparing.

I asked around at my church for ladies to donate yarn and/or needles to the cause... and while I had a few takers, I still needed about 5-6 sets of needles for the amount of people I expected.

Then, one of my friends recommended using dowel rods purchased from Home Depot. I was initially hesitant because I didn't want to spend much money on this adventure (the Women's Retreat was already operating on a very tight budget). Steven and I decided to just go price it and see how much it would cost to make about 10 sets of needles.

Well... even with the purchase of a new pencil sharpener and a full pack of sand paper it cost about $8 for 10 sets of needles.

We purchased all of our supplies and began working on the needles. I loved that all the girls had the same size needs (~10.5 US) and that they were able to take home their very own set. Here is how we did it!

Measure the rods out to about 11 inches & cut

(based off a set of needles I previously owned)

We were able to snap them in half after only

cutting part of the way through them.

Steven made points on them

with a pencil sharpener.

I sanded down the rough spots

We had all kinds of ideas for a stopper at the end...

rubber bands, those slip on pencil erasers, etc..

but I had some hot glue and no gun so we melted

down the glue in a cup and dipped the end in.

Here they are!

And finally, a picture of me teaching. I had a good time. By the end of the day I had no needles left and just a few balls of yarn. I felt like everyone at least learned something and a few girls were really able to pick it up. I didn't have time to teach anyone how to bind off, but I did teach a few the purl stitch. I sent them all away with a hand out, needles and a ball of yarn. Mission accomplished!