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Binome Knitting Needles
A craft that leads to more crafting! Yay!
(If you don't knit, check out the variations at the end of the instructions.)

YOU'LL NEED:

  • small wooden ball and cube
  • 3/16" wide dowel
  • drill
  • hand-held pencil sharpener
  • sandpaper
  • wax
  • glue
  • acrylic craft paints & painting supplies
  • fine-point permanent marker (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Cut two 10" long pieces from your dowel.

2. Using a 3/16" or slightly larger drill bit, drill about halfway through your wooden ball and cube.

3. Use the pencil sharpener to sharpen one end of each dowel.

4. Make sure the unsharpened ends of your dowels can fit into the holes you drilled. If they don't quite fit, use sandpaper to make the unsharpened end of each dowel a little thinner.

5. Sand each dowel until they're very smooth.

6. Rub wax on the dowels. (The wax will help keep your yarn from snagging. Almost anything you've got-- paraffin, furniture wax, etc-- should work.)

7. Paint your wooden ball like the body of a zero binome. Paint your wooden cube like the head of a one binome. I find it easier to draw on the small details with a permanent marker, but you can paint them on if you prefer.

8. Glue the binomes to the unsharpened ends of the dowels.

9. Knit! Your needles should be about the same as a store-bought pair of size 8 needles. (But better, of course, because they're ReBooty!)

Knit a toque!

VARIATIONS (for non-knitters):

  • Cut the dowels shorter to make hair sticks.
  • Drill bigger holes and skip the dowels entirely to make pencil toppers.
  • Drill all the way through the wooden ball and cube before painting to make binome beads.

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