Today is a good day to poi.
After a really horrible grey day of getting nothing done yesterday, I got out of bed this morning with the intention to at least do something. So I decided I'd learn five-beat weave. I'd been mulling it over the previous day, and I reckoned I'd figured out the movements which were involved - but before I could test my theory, I needed functioning poi!
It didn't really take very long at all to remove and replace the rice weight bags inside the poi - one poi was already burst, and the other yielded its contents with a couple of judicious applications of the seam ripper. I halved the amount of rice, then sewed the bags back into the poi, stitching them a bit more securely this time - I'd rather not have to sew them back up a third time round. I also appropriated a couple of waxed shoelaces from my dad's box of shoe-care stuff, and replaced the horrible fraying string.
So now the poi are all purple, silver and black. They look classy, and they're wonderful to spin - the weight and length are just right, and the waxed cotton laces are really easy to untangle :)
Unfortunately, it's kinda drizzling outside, so I had to spin in the utility room in the basement, which is currently full of beds. This was interesting - I had to stand on a bed to get any room, so I ended up bobbing up and down in rhythm with my spinning.
It turned out that my thought-experimental poi technique wasn't quite correct, but it only took minor tweaking to get it right. So, yay, I can do five-beat now! :) Only for a few rounds before my poi start drifting out of sync and colliding with each other, but that's just a matter of practise - I now know how my arms are supposed to move, which is what matters.
It didn't really take very long at all to remove and replace the rice weight bags inside the poi - one poi was already burst, and the other yielded its contents with a couple of judicious applications of the seam ripper. I halved the amount of rice, then sewed the bags back into the poi, stitching them a bit more securely this time - I'd rather not have to sew them back up a third time round. I also appropriated a couple of waxed shoelaces from my dad's box of shoe-care stuff, and replaced the horrible fraying string.
So now the poi are all purple, silver and black. They look classy, and they're wonderful to spin - the weight and length are just right, and the waxed cotton laces are really easy to untangle :)
Unfortunately, it's kinda drizzling outside, so I had to spin in the utility room in the basement, which is currently full of beds. This was interesting - I had to stand on a bed to get any room, so I ended up bobbing up and down in rhythm with my spinning.
It turned out that my thought-experimental poi technique wasn't quite correct, but it only took minor tweaking to get it right. So, yay, I can do five-beat now! :) Only for a few rounds before my poi start drifting out of sync and colliding with each other, but that's just a matter of practise - I now know how my arms are supposed to move, which is what matters.