This is sort of off topic - not about the needles but when my sisters were in elementary school we were living in Northern Wisconsin. A woman moved there from England and she taught all of the children to knit during recess. They knit hats and mittens. The teacher some times supplied the needles and the wool. What was surprising was that they had an exceptionally high rate of reading in that school.

Right now I'm on a knitting kick and have made some 10-11 pairs of socks and am now working on some legwarmers. That's just in the last two months. I'm still learning. I wanted a stretchy cast on for the legwarmers but only knew one way to cast on and it wasn't stretchy. I learned tubular cast on and it's stretchy. Google and YouTube to the rescue (along with a lot of frogging).

Suzanne, what is frogging?

My mother taught me to knit when I was 5 yrs. old. I will be 62 in Sept. Still like to knit. Have knit quite a few different things along my way. Now I do a lot of lace shawls and scarves. Cables are not hard to knit once you get the hang of it. Just follow the directions in your patterns and you will be fine. PM me with questions if you want. I teach knitting and crochetting for free. My mom taught me to crochet when I was 8 yrs. old, right affter she leaarned.

Looked around the net.... One seller claims his set was made of bone. Also, the empty space is for sock needles.
I'm a knitter, but your chosen projects would be too difficult/tedious for me.... .

Frogging = unraveling

Rippit, rippit= undoing your knitting, same as quilting when you make a mistake.

way too funny

beautiful needles and case

Jeanette, You're probably 100% right. I'd completely forgotten about the draft and all of the Americans who came here. I would expect a number stayed and put down roots. It's funny, one of my favorite bands did that early in their career and when I was reading this this morning, guess what was playing?

I read a little about the foot rot. Several sock changes a day -might- prevent it. What terrible conditions to live in. I think they talked about it in some of the Red Cross literature, possibly off that link I posted.

I'm not old enough to retire but I did leave computers and find something I like better and it's almost like being retired. :)

It seems to me that a cable stitch might be like tension or timing. A little bit of boogieman status but if you take it slowly and logically, it's probably not as hard as it seems. That's the theory I'm operating under anyway. I did 11" of 8" width of a stocking stitch last night without dropping many (which I also saw immediately and fixed) or picking up any stitches so I'm feeling cocky. ;) The beginner knitting book I have shows cables and I really like that hat and gloves... it might be worth trying.

Aurora! Yes, they had a conversation about these needles 2 years ago. I snooped but there was a lot of conversation but still not too much in the way of first hand experience with them. One person called them a Red Cross Knit Kit but when I Googled that it looked very different.

Miram - What? We never go off topic!??! So, you're saying knitting causes higher literacy? That's funny because I feel like I'm reading a different language when I'm trying read a knitting pattern!

Suzanne57 - That's an impressive amount of knitting. Especially the socks. I'm told that's a somewhat more advanced topic when it comes to knitting. I do a lot of research on YouTube too. I told the friend of the family who did our eavestroughs (I think you guys call them gutters?) that I learned to shingle last summer on YouTube. I think he almost fell off the roof!

dirty1mom - I may just have to take you up on your offer! I'm bound to get stuck here when I finally get going. I have a list of things as long as my arm to complete this week then once the Easter long weekend hits, I'm taking some time to relax so I might actually get a chance to try some things out. Cables seemed fairly logical when I skimmed the directions in the How To book but when I actually have needles in my hands, we shall see. I look like a rookie juggler if I try to manage more than 2 at a time.

sews - I saw that listing too. They're not bone. They're definitely a "plastic" of some sort so I agree with most of the comments from Knitting Paradise that they're celluloid. Either way, I think they're gorgeous so even if I don't use them, I love having them and looking at them. :)

Sock needles? I had thought the ones missing were DPNs. What are sock needles like?

I think I will still try the cables, mostly because I don't know what I don't know at this point. I never thought I'd sew, let alone fix sewing machines or understand tension or timing, nevermind teaching on tensions and timing sewing machines. :) I guess I like a challenge and no one I know around home knows how to do them so I can't cop out and ask someone to do it for me. :D

DPNs are for socks, mittens, mitten thumbs, seamless hats, what ever.

Tammi, I have mastered cable - it is very easy. About as easy as that quilt block I showed you. Once you see how it is done you won't be disturbed by cables at all.