Girl Guides and the cheaper needle!

#1

Hey there…

I was thinking about teaching my Pathfinders (12-14 yrs old - an older branch of Girl Guides - or Girl Scouts as some of you may be more familiar with) to knit. We don’t have a lot of time, or money for this venture…I was just wondering if anyone knew of a good place to get a bulk of needles cheaper?

I was thinking that most of them likely have at least one pair at home, and asking them to bring their own wouldn’t be the worst thing, but I would like them to all be working on the same size or perhaps this isn’t too important?

I have lots of time, I think if we do venture into this a little, it won’t be until March…

Has anyone ventured into a simular thing?? Any suggestions would be wonderful! :wink:

#2

Have you looked into wholesale? I think most places require a business license to order wholesale, however, if you explain the situation, they may be lenient.

I do believe there are also wholesale companies who don’t necessarily require a business license, but, you have to buy in bulk. Which apparently wouldn’t be a problem since you need the needles in bulk…lol

#3

Yeah…we have about 10 girls, so I am not sure if it is considered bulk at that point, and I am sure that pushing it, we could round up about $40 for that craft, however, that is a high end craft smiles

#4

Dowels are cheap - give each girl a knife and some sand paper, then Femo for beads for the ends (so yarn can’t slide off!) and they can make their own. I’m guessing other than the knives, you’d be looking at 50 cents to a dollar per pair of needles. My 7 year old has a good start on a pair (that will be roughly size 7/8 when he’s done) I’m sure older girls could too. Amy even has a vid on it!

#5

Check out thrif stores, they may have a bunch. They wouldn’t have to all be the same size; for worsted yarn anywhere between 7s and 10s would work.

#6

Have you ever considered the dollar stores? Some of them carry needles and yarn. Good luck.

#7

You can also try ebay. Search for “knitting needle lot” and see if you can’t get some that way

#8

Round barrel pencils are in between US 10 - 10.5, and ubercheap.

Sharpen and rub the exposed wood with lots and lots of wax paper until really smooth.

Use light gray yarn to teach with - light so they can see the stitches, gray so the graphite doesn’t mark up the yarn too badly.

Or watch the videos here on how to make needles from dowels. More time-consuming, but if you are looking for things to do, one session making needles and next one knitting with them would be cool.

Tip: craft stores’ dowels are generally more expensive than home improvement stores’ dowels, which also have more variety. Make sure to get a soft wood rather than a hardwood dowel, though.

Bonus: There’s a thing on Knitty Gritty on how to make a spindle from a CD, a dowel and a screw-in hook. Get some roving and teach them to spin their own yarn first!

: )

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#9

That would be great as well because you’ll teach 2 things : how to knit and how to work with wood

#10

Yeah…dowels could be good…I will see how much time I can allow for the project…that might be a good way to go!