Homemade "soft" cables for Boye Interchangeable Needles

[rsmre]

Hello All,
I guess that you can tell that I have been knitting lately. The clapotis is coming along nicely, but I am still working on section 2. Anyway, here is a link to a tutorial for making your own "soft" cables/cords for the Boye Interchangable Knitting Needles.
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=360820.0 If you have this set of needles, you know what I am talking about. The needles are wonderful, but the cables are just horrible. I was able to find everything that I needed without having to order anything from Amazon. I found the weed eater line at WalMart, and I found the 2-56 screws at a company called Fastenall. A salesman at an independent hardware store recommended a fastener company for the screws. By the way, they only had the 2-56 screws in 3/4" length, but that was plenty long enough. Also, in the directions it says to cut off the head of the screw and sand the rough edge of the screw so that one does not strip the threading in the needle. If the rough end of the screw is placed into the tubing, there is no need to sand the rough edge of the screw. I now have "soft" cables in sizes 24", 47" and 60", and they are wonderful.
Rosemarie

[Judy]

I'm hiring you for all my fix-it jobs! Clearly able to devise and execute your own plan to get the job done for the lowest price! There were some other steps in there... like how did you know what size screws to use, etc. Whew!

[rsmre]

Hello Judy,
Someone named Rheatheylia came up with the idea. She did all of the trial and error work. All I had to do was to find the materials and to follow the directions. My hat is off to her.
Before I decided (actually hubby made them - I helped, though) to make the soft cables, I scoured the internet for soft cables that would fit these needles. (That was how I found the tutorial.) I noticed that some other knitters were looking for them, too. I even sent an email to Simplicity about making soft cables available for this set of needles, but I didn't even get a response from them. I see many sets of these needles for sale on ebay. I'm just wondering whether they are selling them because they do not like the cables, and they cannot find soft cable substitutes.
Rosemarie

[rsmre]

I just noticed that a set of the Boye knitting needles were sold here at InTatters. If you are thinking of getting rid of your set because the cables are stiff and just plain miserable to use, please see post #1 of this thread for the materials and the instructions needed for making a set of "soft cables" for these needles.
Rosemarie

[Susan B T]

Very clever!