The best part about buying the dowels from the big chain hardware stores is that they tend to have ridiculously long dowels, so you can usually get at least two pairs of needles per dowel if you like your needles
Making the needles from dowels turned out to be one of the easiest things ever and I cursed myself for ever buying needles.
When making needles from dowels: First one needs to measure and mark the dowel to the length of needle you want. Everytime I made needles, I measured the entire length and then divided that by four. I then measured along the dowel and marked each spot where it would be cut.
Next, you need to cut the dowel. In situations like this, it helps to have a guy with power tools hanging around, especially if they have a Sawzall. Otherwise, it's helpful to have your own Sawzall, know how to use it, and be confident when using it. I found the easiest way to cut the dowel down was to cut it in half in the middle and then cut each end in half.
Once your needles are cut down to size, you need to then sharpen one end with a pencil sharpener. I had an easier time doing this by first starting the point off with a nice hand sharpener and then quickly running it in an electric sharpener (provided it fits!) to make the point more uniform. One can always correct a wonky point with sanding, tho. But it's harder to get the point just right when making the larger needles.
After sharpening comes the sanding. You start with a higher grit sand paper and then work your way down to really fine sand paper. After sand paper, you need to rub the needle with wax paper. This helps to give it a nice, smooth finish and fills in any little spots on the needle that would otherwise snag the yarn.
After you're done waxing, you can then glue something to the top of the needle (button, piece of sea glass, a little trinket, a bead, or something made out of polymer clay) and be done with the project, or you can paint them and seal them. I painted mine, but when I did I only painted the top halves of them so that the paint wouldn't bunk up my knitting.
See? Extremely easy. My friend Wolfe wants to start up a knitting group, and I think I might propose that project to those who decide they really enjoy knitting. Like, it could be a project we do in lieu of a knitting night. But it will be totally fun anyways :)
But anyway, the dowel needles are by far the easiest and cheapest method for procuring needles when you are a beginning knitter. But I just stumbled upon a tutorial for making needles out of resin. Using straws. And embedding items such as glitter, gold leaf, powdered minerals and yarn in the needles! Holy jeebs! The main post is here and the tutorial is on this page and is the second one down from the top.
What a completely brilliant idea. It is fairly affordable as far as crafts go, too, since one just needs to snag straws from a fast food establishment in order to create the 'mold'. The only things of notable expense are the dremmel and the resin supplies. But how cool are they? I think they are super beautiful and, if given the right amount of care and attention to the steps would produce lovely needles. I'm personally a big fan of the ones she made with yarn embedded into the resin. They look so neat!
EDIT: And to prove that the last thing in the world I need is more knitting needles.....I went to my list of needles on my Ravelry profile today (1/10/09) and counted all the needles. I have, roughly, 138 pairs of knitting needles, which includes circulars, DPNs and straight needles. And a fun bonus: I own about 82 crochet hooks. The reason for so many? My gramma gave me all of her old knitting and crochet supplies when she gave it up for good (due to arthritis and eyesight). Yep, needles and hooks are not a necessity for me at this point, thanks gramma!
