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jennidina
Gabber Extraordinaire
USA
485 Posts |
 Posted - 08/05/2004 : 10:47:21 AM
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ok, i was sent this link from a friend of mine (knit nerd)
has anyone here ever seen or heard of anything like this before?
http://www.surfshopcomputers.net/temporary/exploded_knitting_needle/
and if not, does anyone have any idea how this could have happened?
Jenn
http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v282/jennidina/ (password, jennidina)
http://www.livejournal.com/users/2knitis2love/
www.theknittinkitten.blogspot.com
i wasn't busy enough being a fulltime student, studying, music, looking for work, playing around with computers, starting a club in school, working in my house, playing with my cats, etc... Thats why i took up Knitting |
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Boogie
Permanent Resident
USA
3073 Posts |
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sarahsthreads
Chatty Knitter
USA
178 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2004 : 10:56:33 AM
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I've never heard of such a thing, but I'm sure not going to tell my husband! Then he'd never let me knit in the car again!
Sarah :)
http://sarahsthreads.com/journal/ |
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SerMom
Permanent Resident
Canada
6412 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2004 : 10:58:30 AM
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It sounds like a gag to me. I can't imagine such a thing could happen.
Barbara
Remember, we're self-selecting!
My photos:
My blog:
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xmasberry
Seriously Hooked
826 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2004 : 11:15:28 AM
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looks photoshopped to me.
holly x
"The person who is saying it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it" |
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sarah_knits
Chatty Knitter
161 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2004 : 11:22:52 AM
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It doesn't look real to me, but the woman who it supposedly happened to is the mother of my friend's wife! (Ha, ha, typical urban legend, right? Always a "friend of a friend".) The only thing I can think of is that perhaps there was some quality-control issue with the needle, some water-gas mixture was trapped inside, the needle got hot sitting in the sun in the car, and kabloom!
Sarah |
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purlewe
Permanent Resident
1687 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2004 : 12:41:12 PM
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If it is real.. I would tell them to contact the maker of the needles and as for a refund. I mean something is seriously defective if this happened.
Cats always feel underestimated, underappreciated and underfed. ~Jon Carroll
http://www.livejournal.com/users/purlewe/ |
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knittykat
Seriously Hooked
USA
710 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2004 : 12:54:56 PM
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Has all the hallmarks of misinformation to me....and it looks seriously photoshopped.
I have never seen a needle with a metal cable as the story describes. Most needles have a small plastic plug in one end. IF it were possible for that much pressure to build up within the needle, the explosion would occur at the weakest point. That would almost certainly be the place where the cable connects to the needle (which is not part of the actual structure of the needle) rather than in the middle of the needle. In other words, the cable would become detached, the plastic plug having been popped from the end of the needle tip, rather than the aluminum being opened up.
If the needle did in fact send "dangerous aluminum shrapnel" through the air then where did said shrapnel come from? It certainly looks like all of the aluminum needed to cover that hole is present, so it couldn't have been blown off if it is still there!
It makes a big deal out of the potential health endangerment ('the very same needle that had been used only moments before!'), it attributes the actual event to a friend-of-a-friend (FOAF) and it's a pretty implausible story to begin with.
I don't think this is anything you have to worry about!
Kat in Illinois |
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knit_chick
Permanent Resident
1484 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2004 : 4:08:36 PM
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It sort of does look like the photo has been altered. If this is a real photo, then I guess it would be possible if there there was a weak spot in the aluminum. Enough pressure could build up enough to "pop" the needle at the point of weakness if the needles were left in the sun or if enough heat was generated with the knitters hands.
But, as Kat mentioned, how much shrapnel could have been produced with a pop from a relatively small hole? |
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jennidina
Gabber Extraordinaire
USA
485 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2004 : 4:17:30 PM
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i was looking at the photo in photoshop, and i noticed that it does seem a bit altered towards the top of the "blasted" area, and the area on the bottom thats kind of folded. seems like someone blended it in using the smudge tool and bluring tool. seems a bit like a trick.
it definently could not have been a new needle either way, they have another picture of it on the link. i was told one like that is really old... i dunno it still seems fishy. also the thing abotu the shrapnel, i see where it could have come from... but a blast loud enough to cause hearing loss, i've been next to firecrackers when they've gone off (luckily i was not hurt, i wasn't the one who lit it either, people in my neighborhood light them then throw them near people for laughs) and i didn't suffer hearing loss.
maybe its a ploy by the plastic and bamboo needle makers to get people to stop using aluminum 
or, say we have doubts, and maybe its real, one way to find out..
sarah, ask your friend's wife for us lol.
Jenn
http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v282/jennidina/ (password, jennidina)
http://www.livejournal.com/users/2knitis2love/
www.theknittinkitten.blogspot.com
i wasn't busy enough being a fulltime student, studying, music, looking for work, playing around with computers, starting a club in school, working in my house, playing with my cats, etc... Thats why i took up Knitting |
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mokey
Permanent Resident
15302 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2004 : 6:55:35 PM
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Why not just eamil the link to Paula herself: lalish@waypoint.com
"There is no beauty in the finest cloth if it makes hunger and unhappiness." Gandhi |
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amaknda
Chatty Knitter
159 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2004 : 7:41:55 PM
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It's not on Snopes.com yet. Anyone care to email it to them?
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klfrazier
Permanent Resident
1745 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2004 : 7:48:38 PM
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Very silly. But FYI - circular needles once upon a not so long ago time really did have metal cables. I have a bunch of them in my knitting closet that my Gram gave to me. They would have been miserable to use.
Kristin |
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Ophelia
New Pal
35 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2004 : 8:46:43 PM
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Hmm, I definitely don't think the pictures are photoshopped - the two pictures are consistent with one another, and the shadows are consistent as well. What a few of you saw as blurryness are actually jpg artifacts that happen with photo compression. They're actually throughout the picture, not just around the damaged area. Also, if you look at the 2nd picture, you can actually see a slight reflection of the damaged needle in the undamaged one. That would have to be one heck of an artist to do something like that.
I would suppose there was some sort of gas trapped in the needle, and when heated (probably from being left in a hot car) it exploded - as for the weak point being the end, I suspect the ends of the needle (where it tapers down to the cable) are probably solid - which is why it didn't break there. |
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lakeviwa
Gabber Extraordinaire
569 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2004 : 9:51:53 PM
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I'm was thinking that some trapped air must have been present in the needles and when the pressure changed due to elevation, this caused the air inside the needles to explode.
Timeless Endings Soar Skyward |
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mokey
Permanent Resident
15302 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2004 : 10:33:25 PM
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I've sent an email to see if this really happened, or if someone is just using this poor woman's name. Kristin is correct; people would even make circs by twisting several wires together.
I'm skeptical of the photo because the actual website is really one page, and gives no info. It is however for a computer place, and the pics could easily be faked by soemone who knows what they are doing.
I doubt these are older needles. They look like Addis with a most unusual cord. Have any of you ever seen a white cord like that?
"There is no beauty in the finest cloth if it makes hunger and unhappiness." Gandhi |
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shaggy
Permanent Resident
USA
3826 Posts |
Posted - 08/06/2004 : 04:43:19 AM
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Doubting Thomas here says it is a hoax
but then again what if the car window was open and the needle was shot 
Can you picture a sniper on top of a building or overpass and they shot into the car and the lady was saved by her knitting neelde
shaggy
Every day a peddler pulled his cart of wool from his home to the village market. It was a long trip. He had to travel around the perimeter of a large lake that was owned by the town tycoon, a modernday scrooge. One day during the winter the lake froze over. The peddler realized that he could cut off 2 miles from his trip if he crossed over the lake. He was spotted halfway across the lake by the tycoon. Scrooge came racing out of his mansion and screamed at the peddler, "I’ll be danged if I let anyone pull the wool over my ice!" |
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LJ
Permanent Resident
USA
1837 Posts |
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Suzann
Seriously Hooked
USA
869 Posts |
Posted - 08/06/2004 : 06:17:54 AM
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quote:
I doubt these are older needles. They look like Addis with a most unusual cord. Have any of you ever seen a white cord like that?
Yes I saw older needles for sale on ebay with that white tube like cord. I thought at the time it was rather large in diameter. I will take a look again and see if I can find them, and post a link.
It seems that there is not enough metal for shrapel to be flying. I could understand that part, if the needle had been completely destroyed or more of it missing. I think someone is pulling our circulars 
Suzann
Making cables is like making love. There is a lot of foreplay before you get to the deed |
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jennidina
Gabber Extraordinaire
USA
485 Posts |
Posted - 08/06/2004 : 08:01:09 AM
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ok, ths post (just my response here) is one big joke.
the gunshot theory makes sense. thats where the extra shrapnel came from lol (i guess??)
i could see the sniper saying "i meant to do that, i mean the color, the stitching, the...ugh" LOL but to make a hole that size on the neelde? what was he using, a bb gun sized bullet?
back to reality
if he happened or didn't, only way to find out is through the lady it happened to.
but for the truth of the matter, i know that the project had to be a nice one :)
and the needles might have been old addi turbos
Jenn
http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v282/jennidina/ (password, jennidina)
www.theknittinkitten.blogspot.com
i wasn't busy enough being a fulltime student, studying, music, looking for work, playing around with computers, starting a club in school, working in my house, playing with my cats, etc... Thats why i took up Knitting |
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Roxanne
Seriously Hooked
Canada
714 Posts |
Posted - 08/06/2004 : 08:18:48 AM
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I belong to the MSN group where this lady posted her pictures and she's been advised by an engineer that most likely it was a build up of static electricity while the car was moving and that generated enough energy to cause the aluminum needle to explode. She went to her LYS and they are saying they are Addi-Turbo needles. Last I read, she was contacting the manufacturer but was satisifed with the scientific explanation of static electricity.
It seemed like a hoax to me at first too but she seems genuine in her story. She even said her hand was bruised.
"Success is a Journey; not a Destination"
http://photos.yahoo.com/roxanne_delorme |
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