Custom fabric poi?

Hey, since Hyperloop isn't making poi any more, anybody know where to go to get custom sock/cone poi made? I *could* make them myself, but my sewing skills are pretty dodgy and with my luck I'd botch up a seam and a weighted tennis ball would fly away and knock out a spectator, and I'd be exiled from my village and be forced to walk the earth until some neighboring tribe took pity on me and brought me in, letting me work as a stableboy until I can find my place in.... er... well my point is something might go awry!

I know exactly what I want, I'm just hesitant to try to make them on my own because my sewing projects have all turned out disastrously, and I want my poi to last more than a couple hours! And look nice, too, which I'll definitely screw up if left to my own devices.

Since you know what you want, if you can't find someone making them you could try asking a local seamstress to run some up for you. They actually are pretty easy, for any one who's done a bit of sewing.

I found when I tried making my own that my sewing skills werent the main problem... it was my lack of ability to actually get the pattern right. I knew what I wanted in the POI, but getting the pattern as I wanted was so, so hard.

Yeah I include proper pattern under the umbrella of my poor sewing skills!

Thanks for the suggestion Jameth, I may do just that.

*Sigh* if only HoP made custom poi..... *Whistles*



MNS, did you make those poi in your profile pic? Wait, are those poi? Haha...

They are poi, my friend, they're the most gigantic balls of rice stuffed into socks. Thats it. Knee high socks. They're amazing once they're stretched out properly. The poi I attempted to make failed dismally, I ended up making the hole to insert the weights too small for the weights I use because I underestimated the amount that folding it back in the other way would alter the end product... I guess a tailor or other such qualified person could probably work off the idea of the end product you want, though.

And yeah, its poi and a music festival where everyone you meet is pleasant to you, the two most wonderful things ever created.

Ohh yes knee socks! I have a marvellous pair of them that I had originally wanted for poi purposes, but I have since determined that I want poi with sock-shape but zero stretch, and unfortunately the fabric on HOP's cone poi (with zero stretch) is not as slick as I'd like; I'm going for umbrella/tent type fabric, 'cause then it'd have the bonus property of being completely all-weather poi without the awkward drying-out period the next day.

I've been using heavier and heavier heads since I started poi, every month or so I wonder why they feel so light so I add something else to make it heavy... Soon I'll just be using lead shot haha!

I thought of using some for really small poi.

Either that or a sliver or two of osmium.

Mucky, I'd consider the knee high sock alternative. If you whirl a lot they'll stretch pretty quickly, especially if you have a decent sized weight in em.

Mine have about half a centimetre of stretch left in them up their entire length.

Have you tried thigh high socks with juggling balls tied inside? If you tie the knot on the inside of the heel it wont show and you wont have to sew them either! HTH

Hahaha, mine are so stretched you can't even tell they ever were socks, the heels are just a white patch... they no longer resemble socks. ^_^ But what do you mean by tying the knot on the inside of the heel??

Actually I have made several pairs of poi using socks of varying natures (my current set is 2 layers of tights whose stretch is pretty much nil at this point), but unfortunately using pre-made socks that are designed for feet means I have to limit myself to whatever design I can find, as well as the material in which that design is offered. However, I have a fairly specific design in mind, as far as appearance, material, and shape.... At this point I want something a little more flashy than simple practice poi, since I'm pretty content with the practice sets I've made. I think I'll follow Jameth's advice and find a seamstress (or seamster? Is that even a word?) who is more capable (and less lazy) than I.

radgirl: Do you mean turn it inside out, tie the heel in and turn it right way out again?

yeah thats what I ment

How much does that affect the shape and fly of it??

Do you cut off the excess?

If not, I guess its possible that once it starts to tear where the head is you could simply pop out the end bit! (I've actually had to replace one of my ends it got so bad! !)

Hi Mucky. I forwarded your post to Malcolm with a suggestion to see about making some rip-stop nylon versions of the Cone Poi as it sounds like that may be just what you are after? HoP has the rip-stop nylon in all the colours of the flags (but not rainbow striped like MNS's socks unfortunately).

I'm not sure if you already did this or not, but if you want to ask about a custom toy/new product, there's a link on the shop index pages to "Suggest new items" - you can always use that to get HoP HQ's attention rather than relying on the forum, as quite often the team don't get to read the forum as you think they might - especially at the moment with the new site change and all the fixups Malcolm is having to do.

Hey George! Yeah ripstop nylon would be just about the perfect material. I do enjoy the overall design of the HoP cone poi, but I wasn't hinting that HoP should make new poi, just asking if there was a new Hyperloop-type poi crafter somewhere out there..... Although I may use that Suggest New Items button while I'm at it!

Thanks for the responses guys!

They're pretty good, they were the first poi i'd ever had so I didnt really have anything to compare them by but I find them really good for practising with. They havent got to long as yet, but I guess if they do it is easy enough to take the balls out and replace the socks. Ive got juggling balls in mine so they arent to heavy but at the same time give them enough weight for a good swing. The only problem I would have is because they have no handles they do sometimes make your hands ache.

Radgirl... try wrapping them once around both your index and middle finger and once around your index.... thats the way i grip my socks, that way the middle finger and index finger take the weight, the index finger is just for control, but you don't have to grip the poi so much...

Happy Schpinning!

Another easy solution is to find a ball of the golf size or a bit smaller and put it into the sock and tie off the handle end with a knot so you can use the ball as a grip. It all depends on your handling preferences I suppose...

oooh thanks will try that...as soon as it stops raining enough to get out and try it

Hmmm... I need a pair of socks for busking... hows yours coming along mucky? ? And what is it about the HoP ones that make you want specifically tailored poi? What kinds of alterations were you thinking of?

Hey MNS sorry for not replying earlier... The HoP ones are great for practice, but they aren't very showy, especially if you were planning on busking (which I'm not, but I'm still an incurable attention junkie). I'm not a fan of the solid color scheme. My practice poi are black and white striped tights (like the jailhouse poi), and I have a couple other striped patterns. They look pretty good but the shape leaves something to desire as far as visual effect. If I were to design the pattern, I wouldn't do stripes the whole way down, probably something more like the right poi in the picture I've attached (Mods, I borrowed a picture of the HoP cone poi just to show the color scheme I was thinking about; if this is a problem please let me know and I'll take it down)

And besides the material for the poi, I keep going back and forth about the actual shape of the poi... In the HoP cones, I like the taper before the head, but I'd change the head shape, make it more of a flair than just a ball in the end of a pouch type look, make it more visible. Probably I would use something like a rigid or semi-rigid plastic cone to give it that flair, and make the head look a lot more visible. The look I'm envisioning is something of a flexible juggling club, something that is highly visible, but also attractive. (Ok, I added another bit to the picture to compare the HoP cone poi with the type of head I'm looking for)...



Oh, and I'd probably modify the handle design somewhat, but I'm still thinking that one over. If I can't figure out a way to incorporate the swivel above where I usually wrap it around my fingers/hand, I'd rather do away with them rather than having an extra metal bit that isn't really doing anything wrapped around me. I like the security of wrapping them, as well as the visual effect of having my hands always open instead of closed; to that end I might go back to the stick handle I started my poiing with, and that way I could keep the swivels, which do make hyperloops and stuff a bit cleaner (at least for me).

Yeah... I was thinking of just getting some of the bright yellow HoP ones and keeping em nice and clean. So they're bright, easily noticable in any setting.

I tell jokes and junk like that while I do it, but I mostly want people watching ME while I do it, as i tend to get a tiny bit of a groove on as I do it.

I see what you mean about the cones... it sounds a funky idea, I'd love to see what is eventually produced, but that isn't my cup of tea for actual use... I'm leaning toward the HoP ones, really. Laziness has a lot to do with it, so I'm feeling iffy on the choice, still.

The reason I'm thinking of getting new poi is that my current ones look a bit scrappy, which is fine when they're in motion... but I want to start using the first movement from bluecats "Spinnach sessions: The Lost Leaves" (Which is tying them in a bow in a funky way) and my currents would look a bit scrappy.

Any thoughts there?

Haven't seen Spinach Sessions.... Have to look it up one of these moments 'cause I can't quite envision the action you're describing...

I have the yellow HoP cones actually, and they are great (but they do get greyed easily... I've only had them for about a month and a half or so, and the handle area (since I wrap them around my hands most often) is quite a different shade already. If you do get the cones, I suggest you get a set of the triangle quicklinks to replace the triangle links with so you can easily remove them and wash them... If you get the ball handles anyway; I suppose the loop handles wont' clunk around in a washer that much. Actually, I'm not sure if they're certified machine-washable, but the fabric is pretty tough! If you're looking for poi that you can use without further modification, though the HoP cones really are the bees' knees.

My picture with the modified head... the size is a bit bigger than what I'd go for actually. But ideally there'd be a distinct "head" portion and "rest of the poi" portion. It may not be the ultimate poi design, but frankly the choices on the market for non-fire poi now are "sphere on the end of a cord" or "amorphous bag on the end of a tube." With lots of variations on the designs of the spheres and amorphous bags, but there isn't a super-cool rounded cone on the end of a tapered tube, nor other cool poi body designs that could be tapped into.

PS. Aw crap, just saw that vid. Thanks, Bluecat, and I was just starting to think maybe my poi spinning was decent. *Sigh* back to the bricks. (Coincidentally, I just spotted Nick Woolsey's review of the HoP cones!)

PPS. I made a really crappy mock-up of one of the heads with a foam football - it's the perfect size, very visible, and I think it looks great. Well, for being a plain sock with duct tape on it. The foam football shape seems like a much simpler solution than my original plastic cone idea; the one I rummaged up happens to be hollow and thus would allow for added weight.

Pretty cool.

How are wraps and such?

Hey Aston, to be honest I haven't used them that much since I made them, but they function a lot like any other sock poi, except the head is longer, and it does get in the way a little bit. The sock material is really thick and bulky so it makes the whole thing feel sluggish. Wraps with normal heads kind of hug your arm/leg/neck/whatever, but this head has a lot of non-flexible length so it kind of sticks out a little bit as you do a wrap. I haven't noticed any perceivable difference with airwraps or hyperloops, besides what can be accounted for by the heavy fabric. I will say that they won't be your general-purpose poi; they're probably going to be best for non-techie stuff. My style involves a lot of speed/direction/timing changes with a lot of really broad movements so I wanted something that would be visually impressive.

Edit: Here's a quick shot of some spinning... The video quality is... lacking... but there it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-qr0TpBRoU

Look pretty decent.