Monday, January 19, 2009

Spindolyn Bean Bag Base -Take Four

I have had several customers bugging kindly requesting a pattern for a bean bag base for the spindolyn. The thing is, even though I have made several that work quite functionally, they are not worthy of writing up a pattern for. Rather, they have been children of my usual "method operandi"


That is to say, I start out with yarn and needles, or fabric and thread and good intentions to make a "standard bean bag base"..and then I get sidetracked into trying out some shaping or technique or stitch that I have been wanting to try, and although the resulting base works, it is not a "generic bean bag base for cradling your hardworking spindolyn"


Nay, it is more like, gee, there is another one of Cady Mays strange experiments.


The truth is that a base/bag is not that big a deal... the bag can about 3.5 to 4 inches wide, round or square, with the sides about 3.5 inches tall, it narrows towards the top so that it holds the spindoly base snugly (could be drawstring, could be elastic, could just be ribbing. In order to keep the bean bag beads (or corn, or beans, or rice spilling out, it needs to have an interior pocket that the spindolyn base goes in, and then the beans go in between the pocket and the bag itself. You can make your own, anyway you want, from this rough sketch and description. Kinda like this poor rendering, but you get the idea.


spindolynbagsketchs


So, here is the latest bag under construction and how it started out....

I was looking for something to knit the bean bag pattern with that would be handspun

(coulda used commercial yarn, but that sorta seemed like cheating, but upon reflection, whose counting, anyway?)

when I stumbled upon some old roving from the early 90's that a friend had given me. It was a some type of luster long wool blended in lots of pastel colors, and some glittery stuff that made it too scratchy to use for socks. Gee, this would make a good base, thought I.


2009 01 08 017s


The yarn, when spun up, was so 90's, glitter and all, which does not show in the photo, but it is highly glittery in real life.


2009 01 08 026


So, I threaded up the knitting machine and knit the sides of the base, then slipped it off onto a circular needle to do the decreases and have the "hand knit fun time"


And was discouraged to see that I had either overestimated the quantity in this ball, or underestimate the quantity needed for a base...either way you look at it, I ran out.

Typical.

2009 01 12 017


Of course, matching pastel multi colored glitter roving doesn't come along every day, so I went searching through my old fiber stash for something at least lustery and pastel, and found some dyed mohair that must date back to my angora-goat-rit-dye-days of the late 80's and found this! Close enough!


2009 01 12 022.sJPG


Just a little spinning and I should be good to carry on!

1 comment:

  1. Believe it or not, the bean bag furniture is perfect for Feng Shui because of its shape. Practitioners of the art would tell you that the shape of household items is very important. And when it comes to shapes, circle has that balance factor all accounted for.

    ReplyDelete

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