By Kid’s Craft Contributor, Gillian from the blog “Dried Figs and Wooden Spools”.

Between the pool and the park and camp and play dates, summer can be a whirlwind of activity, and even the most energetic kids will sometime need a quiet activity to do in the cool of the indoors. If you have a burgeoning knitter this summer, or a child interested in learning to knit, but you aren’t ready to hand over your good needles, why not put the kids to work making their own knitting needles?

Here’s what you need

Dowels – 1/4 inch and or 3/8 inch
Pencil sharpener
220 grit sandpaper
Rocks, buttons or beads, even small toys
Hot glue or super glue

If you have longer dowels, cut them into pairs of even lengths, 12 inches long works well but you can go shorter depending on your preference.

Using the small hole of the sharpener for the 1/4 inch dowels or the larger hole for the 3/8, sharpen the end of each dowel until you have an almost sharp point.

Sand the sharpened end until smooth, then sand the shaft of the dowel to make sure there are no nicks in the wood to catch on the yarn.

Using either the hot glue or super glue, attach the beads, buttons or rocks to the flat end of the dowel.

Allow the glue to dry before using.

** a 1/4 inch dowel give you a size 10 1/2 knitting needle, a 3/8 inch dowel makes a size 15, both are great sizes for beginning knitters, especially when paired with a bulky yarn.