Take your love of Star Wars to the next level with your own knitted lightsaber. The blade is simply a long tube with one closed end. The hilt has raised grip welts at the bottom for all those hectic Jedi battles. There are instructions in the pattern to make the hilt and blade detachable, for ease in carrying the hilt around on your belt. Making the lightsaber detachable requires several parts found at a hardware store like Lowe’s in addition to a few basic tools.

Yarn: Any worsted weight yarn will do. Sample is shown in Cascade 220.

Construction: The blade is knitting in the round from the bottom up, then before the top is closed, a padded dowel is inserted. The hilt is knitted modularly. First the welted bottom is worked sideways and seamed together, then stitches are picked up around the top and the hilt is worked in the round up to the blade join. The “on” buttons can be either felt circles or actual buttons.

The sample shown has an internal structure of a dowel wrapped in quilt batting, but several testers came up with their own internal structures, especially if the lightsaber was for a child. Use whatever you like inside the lightsaber, but I would recommend something with some rigidity. No one likes a flopsy lightsaber.

May the Force be with you.