As so many of us out there, the Boye Needlemaster was the first interchangeable needle set that I bought....one, because there was a discount, and second, it was being shipped to India without me having to spend a fortune on shipping. Also, like so many of us again, I absolutely loved my Boye needletips, but hated the stiff cables.
A friend of mine who lives in Colorado mentioned to me that she had a Knitpicks harmony interchangeable set and she loved the slick cables that Knitpicks offers. I looked up the website of Knitpicks and found the needles and cables very desirable. I placed an order for the Options interchangeable set immediately since I preferred metal needles to wooden, but to my misfortune, Knitpicks did not provide shipping outside the US. I was disappointed, but then my friend said I could buy from Knitpicks and give her shipping address, so she could reship the needles to me once they arrived. This seemed very do-able and I placed an order with her shipping address. Now I started waiting eagerly to be able to lay my hands on the KP set, and when it arrived, it was like a dream come true....I had the KPO set, and it was love at first sight.....I absolutely adored the KP needles and the cables were awesome. I could do magic loop so easily on them. Now I started using the KP set for all my knitting projects...but, somewhere, like you love your first born the most, I still loved my Boye needles, but found the cables even more aweful after using the KP ones. I felt sorry for my Boye needles and wanted to somehow be able to use them....but...if only I could get better cables !!!!
Thus began my research for flexible cables for Boye needlemaster. I would have read every word and every blog available on the topic. I was inspired by Rheatheylia's blog a lot, so I started searching for supplies that she had used. I found everything at Amazon, but to my misfortune, they wouldn't ship to India. I tried finding similar things out here, but no luck !! Then one day I came across this blog byKat, and my imagination started dancing again. I started researching where all I could order the taps from. I did find a couple of stores who shipped internationally, but the shipping was way too high to be acceptable. I thought maybe my Boye set was destined to lie neglected forever.
Again one afternoon when desperation got me searching again on the net, I read Fleegle's blog. Now it was time to hunt for gunsmiths in New Delhi. I found one easily, but he did not have the required taps since his technician had decided to retire, leaving him out of tools and work! I thought maybe I should just stop worrying about the Boye needles and concentrate more on my family rather than cable reassignment projects. So I told myself that this was an end to my research on flexible cables for Boye needles. But fate brought me to this discussion on Ravelry, and I got thinking again. I approached a few Ravellers who had leftover supplies after they made the weedeater cables, and were willing to trade their supplies. There were quite a few wonderful Ravellers who volunteered, but then, the shipping cost to India was far too much as compared to the cost of these supplies. Now my patience was wearing down, I thought, is living in this part of the world a crime, do I not have a right to access craft supplies that so many people world over are finding so easy to get?!!!
Thankfully, I did get some very good suggestions, even links to stores who shipped internationally from fellow Ravellers, who probably loved their Boye needles as much as I did and sincerely wanted me to be able to use them with better cables. So, finally, I ordered the required supplies to make weedeater cables from ebay on a Sunday morning. By Thursday, I had received only the Sullivian screws. I was generally going through some discussions on Ravellry, and I found this forum. I thought, hey, I do have the KP cables, and I have the screws as well, so why not give this idea a try while I wait for the remaining supplies..!!!!
I began by collecting together everything that I needed right now. Here's what I used :
A friend of mine who lives in Colorado mentioned to me that she had a Knitpicks harmony interchangeable set and she loved the slick cables that Knitpicks offers. I looked up the website of Knitpicks and found the needles and cables very desirable. I placed an order for the Options interchangeable set immediately since I preferred metal needles to wooden, but to my misfortune, Knitpicks did not provide shipping outside the US. I was disappointed, but then my friend said I could buy from Knitpicks and give her shipping address, so she could reship the needles to me once they arrived. This seemed very do-able and I placed an order with her shipping address. Now I started waiting eagerly to be able to lay my hands on the KP set, and when it arrived, it was like a dream come true....I had the KPO set, and it was love at first sight.....I absolutely adored the KP needles and the cables were awesome. I could do magic loop so easily on them. Now I started using the KP set for all my knitting projects...but, somewhere, like you love your first born the most, I still loved my Boye needles, but found the cables even more aweful after using the KP ones. I felt sorry for my Boye needles and wanted to somehow be able to use them....but...if only I could get better cables !!!!
Thus began my research for flexible cables for Boye needlemaster. I would have read every word and every blog available on the topic. I was inspired by Rheatheylia's blog a lot, so I started searching for supplies that she had used. I found everything at Amazon, but to my misfortune, they wouldn't ship to India. I tried finding similar things out here, but no luck !! Then one day I came across this blog byKat, and my imagination started dancing again. I started researching where all I could order the taps from. I did find a couple of stores who shipped internationally, but the shipping was way too high to be acceptable. I thought maybe my Boye set was destined to lie neglected forever.
Again one afternoon when desperation got me searching again on the net, I read Fleegle's blog. Now it was time to hunt for gunsmiths in New Delhi. I found one easily, but he did not have the required taps since his technician had decided to retire, leaving him out of tools and work! I thought maybe I should just stop worrying about the Boye needles and concentrate more on my family rather than cable reassignment projects. So I told myself that this was an end to my research on flexible cables for Boye needles. But fate brought me to this discussion on Ravelry, and I got thinking again. I approached a few Ravellers who had leftover supplies after they made the weedeater cables, and were willing to trade their supplies. There were quite a few wonderful Ravellers who volunteered, but then, the shipping cost to India was far too much as compared to the cost of these supplies. Now my patience was wearing down, I thought, is living in this part of the world a crime, do I not have a right to access craft supplies that so many people world over are finding so easy to get?!!!
Thankfully, I did get some very good suggestions, even links to stores who shipped internationally from fellow Ravellers, who probably loved their Boye needles as much as I did and sincerely wanted me to be able to use them with better cables. So, finally, I ordered the required supplies to make weedeater cables from ebay on a Sunday morning. By Thursday, I had received only the Sullivian screws. I was generally going through some discussions on Ravellry, and I found this forum. I thought, hey, I do have the KP cables, and I have the screws as well, so why not give this idea a try while I wait for the remaining supplies..!!!!
I began by collecting together everything that I needed right now. Here's what I used :
The things that I used were - empty refills from a ball point pen ( I cut 20 mm pieces for each end ), sullivian screws ( which were originally an inch long, but I cut them into two equal halves ), nail buffer, wire cutter for cutting the screws into half, and scissors for cutting the refill.Here is a picture of the cut screw and the refill tube
After cutting the screw and the tube( the refill tube), I screwed one end of the screw, the smooth end, into the Boye needle, like this...
The screw was about 12 mm long, and almost 6 mm of it went into the needle tip. So I screwed the remaining 6 mm into one end of the tube, which I had already filed smooth using the nail buffer and some sandpaper.
The above needle is the Boye size 2 with the tube in place, screwed securely with the screw to the needle tip. Since the screw was wider than the refill tube, I did not have to use any glue. I had put in some effort to screw the tube, I know that it would stay in place even without an adhesive.
Next, I screwed the KP cable to the other end of the tube.
I hope that reading this blog would prove to be inspiring for anyone who's out there looking for a solution to make their Boye needle tips more usable, and I whole heartedly pray that no one goes through the struggle that I did for finally bringing justice to my Boye needles.
Happy knitting, and thanx for reading.
