Making Knitting Needles

I made knitting needles with class two today.  I was so impressed with the kids work and how lovely they all are. I'd love to do this with the other class groups at some stage.  I spent yesterday morning sawing dowel into 20cm lengths and gathering gumnuts from under the tree up the street.

List of supplies:
Dowl -  12 lengths of 1.2m x 8mm clear pine from Bunnings cut to length (20ish cm)
Pencil sharpener - with a large opening - metal ones are the best
Sand paper - 2 grits p120 p240 garnet (red)
Gumnuts or beads - to fit the top 8mm
Elastic Bands to keep them needles in pairs
Name tags to label them
PVA glue
Olive oil or light oil and some rags

The kids get 2 pieces of dowel each and sharpen one end of each piece using the pencil sharpener. First using p240, then the p120 the needle is sanded in long motions from the middle down to the tip, rounding the tip so its not too pointy.  They need to be super smooth so that wool doesn't catch on them when knitting. The needles are then lightly oiled and rubbed down with the rag to remove any excess. Glue a gumnut or bead on top using the pva. Pair and label.

Next Friday we are all going to cast on for 20 stitch square. When the class have finished their squares I'm going to sew them into a blanket, which will be kept in the classroom as a comfort
blanket until class six.