craftgrrl | Knitting Needles and Stitch Markers (Reply)

After much deliberation in my mind, I decided that I'm going to make my mom knitting needles and possibly stitch markers for Christmas (and spin her some yarn, but that's not the topic of this post...I already know how to do that).
I'm planning on just taking a dowel and making needles that way. Simple enough. What's the best way to smooth these and make them somewhat knitting quality? I figure that running them through a pencil sharpener will be needed? Yes? No? Dowels don't exactly strike me as the best kind of wood for knitting needles either (then again, I'm planning on kind of making this more of a work of art than anything else...). What are your suggestions?

And on that topic, stitch markers! What's the best way to go about making pretty, fancy stitch markers? Should I buy plain ol' stitch markers and fancy them up? Or is there something cheap that I can use in order to make a fancy set of stitch markers?

Thanks for any help!