Poi again
Quickly whipped up some better finger-straps for my poi this morning, out of some leatherette scraps from a long-ago-dismembered coat, plus split-rings and clips from a couple of keyrings. They're really, really comfy, and the poi no longer feel so ridiculously heavy either, now that the string's no longer cutting into my hands.
I'm not sure of how they'll stand up in the long term - the leatherette's quite stretchy and I'm worried that the holes will elongate and come apart. Ideally, I'd punch eyelets through to avoid this - I might go see how expensive they are. The other thing I'm not sure of is how they'll cope with the fact that my hands tend to get a bit sweaty in an extended poi-spinning session - while they're really comfy now, they might be horrible on damp hands.
[edit] The poi are really comfortable to spin. I stood out in the garden, soaking up the sunlight and attempting to master backwards three-beat weave - which I did, but not before whacking myself in the head plenty of times. I also got alternating hip/shoulder reels going, but only with one hand - with two hands, I found that I was concentrating too much on my right hand, so my left poi just did weird stuff and eventually ended up hitting me in the face.
One thing that really needs changed is the string - because it's actual string, it's very rough so it gets tangled far far too easily, and it's also starting to fray because of the pois' twisting.
Unfortunately, after spinning for a while, one of the poi burst open and the bag of rice inside started to make its way out. I pushed it back in, though, and was able to continue spinning for ages without a problem. However, I'll need to re-sew it at some point. This isn't a big problem - in fact, it gives me an incentive to lighten the poi, since I only need to stitch-pick one, rather than two :)
I'm not sure of how they'll stand up in the long term - the leatherette's quite stretchy and I'm worried that the holes will elongate and come apart. Ideally, I'd punch eyelets through to avoid this - I might go see how expensive they are. The other thing I'm not sure of is how they'll cope with the fact that my hands tend to get a bit sweaty in an extended poi-spinning session - while they're really comfy now, they might be horrible on damp hands.
[edit] The poi are really comfortable to spin. I stood out in the garden, soaking up the sunlight and attempting to master backwards three-beat weave - which I did, but not before whacking myself in the head plenty of times. I also got alternating hip/shoulder reels going, but only with one hand - with two hands, I found that I was concentrating too much on my right hand, so my left poi just did weird stuff and eventually ended up hitting me in the face.
One thing that really needs changed is the string - because it's actual string, it's very rough so it gets tangled far far too easily, and it's also starting to fray because of the pois' twisting.
Unfortunately, after spinning for a while, one of the poi burst open and the bag of rice inside started to make its way out. I pushed it back in, though, and was able to continue spinning for ages without a problem. However, I'll need to re-sew it at some point. This isn't a big problem - in fact, it gives me an incentive to lighten the poi, since I only need to stitch-pick one, rather than two :)