Making Up A Knit Pinball...

   I you had been following my progress on my knit pinball from last year, here are the steps to making one up. You can follow these steps for an embroidered one too, construction is the same. I had planned on knitting the second side in beads, but my eyes have gotten a bit worse and I stopped as I just cannot see the beads anymore!  It is a project for when I get my new glasses, or a microscopic magnifier, one of the two.

  If you are knitting your pinball, the first step once both sides are completed, is to block them~ this is done by pinning them face side down onto the iron board, then laying a dampened cloth over them, and steaming with a hot iron. I leave them pin'd to the board to dry overnight

 When you pick them off the board, they are wonderfully flat and ready to be made into a pinball.

 Recipe for a Pinball:
sides for making up~ 2
thread
needle
wool roving for fill
pencil or pen
cardstock
scissors

 The first step after gathering your materials is to cut a circle from your cardstock the diameter you want your pinball to be. In this case, I made mine the same size as my knit design. I like to include little notes and things in all my work(dollys included), so I wrote on the cards, and on one of them, included a bit of MY hair affixed with read sealing wax and my favorite seal.

  I like to use natural wool roving in my pinballs, you will need two handfulls, and this is a hand FULL if wool tightly wadded, as you want the pinball stuffed hard

  I place a knit side right side down in my hand, then poke in the wadding and quickly cover this with one of the cards. I have my needle threaded and ready to go, and stitch the excess over the card to itself, going around and around, always stitching opposite to draw the knit around the card evenly.  example, if I take a stitch from 12 o clock, the next one is at 6 o clock, ect ect

  Do this with both sides, they need not look pretty, but do try and keep things as FLAT as possible

 Now you are going to place both sides together, have a care to position your motifs carefully. I like to use the same thread I knit with for stitching them together, a blunt needle works better than sharp here.

 Once positioned where you want, carefully squeeze and stitch them together. You need clean hands of coarse, and a good grip, if you look at my fingers you will see how really tightly I am squeezing, as they are turning white!

  Again here, I like to stitch around twice. Pinball is nearly complete, save for the trim to cover the center seam.

  Colonial Williamsburg offers a wonderful sterling pinball ring, but for 225 dollars. Perhaps when I complete a beaded one I will lavish it with a silver ring and chain, but for now, simple trim will do.  I like this burgundy silk...it matches the color in my design perfectly...

 I also have some precious 18th c silver braid, I like how this looks too....decisions decisions....

Not being able to decide on just one, I used both of coarse. First I laid on the silk, then the silver braid over. For hanging from a waist belt, I just braided a bit of the leftover cotton and tied round the top.

Getting what I asked for.............

aaahhhhhhhhhhhhh. Look at this! What a mess! Yes, I am totally getting what I asked for. More patience. Yes. Need more patience...much more. ::::sigh::::: The above mess is what comes from using too large of beads on too small of knitting. It looked bad...no, not bad, h-i-d-e-u-o-s! I knew when I knit the first bead the beads were going to be too large, but thought, I can make it work. Nope. They are size 15/0, but still way too large for knitting on 6 ought needles. This ball is the only ball of this thread I have, so I unraveled the whole lot, over a weeks worth of knitting, and am going to start over. Have already sorted out those beads and ironed the kinks out of my thread...so ready to try again

This time, I am going to use my antique beads, that range in size from 18/0 to 22/0~ very very small. I didn't use them in the first place because I liked the uniformity of the modern made Miyuki beads, and they came in so many pretty colors! The early tiny antique beads are so hard to come by, and so expensive...but I have picked some pretty colors, and going to try and try again until I do it! Above, you can see the larger Miyuki beads, and the amber color bead center front, is an antique one~ quite a bit smaller

With the smaller outer diameter, comes also the smaller hole in the middle, but I think my thread will pass thru at least once, which is all it has to do the way I knit. The rose color bead is the Miyuki, and you can see how small the antique ones are behind it~ they look like microscopic caviar.

Beads & More beads!!!
Aren't they beautiful? I love beads~ these are tiny! not as tiny as my 22/0 antique seed beads, but still really REALLY small~ they are size 15/0, about 25 per inch strung. These are modern made Japanese glass beads, and I chose them for my knitting because they have a bit larger hole for my thread to pass thru, and, they are all very uniform in size. Did you catch that, that I said knitting???? Yes, I really am that crazy

I have been working on the other side of my little knit Quaker pin ball, and have chosen a wonderful late 18th c design I will be working in beads for it. When knitting with beads, they are strung on first in order, so that whilst knitting, when you need one, just just slip one up and knit it in as you go~ I think the colors look so pretty, really nothing like what the finished design is going to look like~ what do you think my design is, by looking at the beads all strung ready to be knit???

Update on my lil knit Quaker Pinball...

FINISHED! YES!!
Well ok, this is just the first side, but still! I am most proud of it~ my first intarsa knitting e-v-e-r, and on 6ought knitting pins to boot! WOO HOO! Once I got past the first 5 rows or so, and there was a scrimp of something to actually hold on to, it got aLOT easier, and actually, I quite enjoyed it, very much so. More than I thought I would. I was only able to do a few rows at a time, then needed to take a break to let my eyes rest, I think I will look for a magnifier on a stand for my other half...which, in keeping with my insane tradition of always jumping in before I know how to swim....I think I should knit beads into the other side :) never done that before, but am quite excited to try. Ill let you know how it goes~

I hope you all try something you have never done before this year~ you may just find out that you love it, and wish you had tried it sooner~ I had always thought knitting a pinball would be too difficult~ but not so! You just have to go slow and steady, and eventually, you'll be finished. I am keeping notes of my time, and so far, for the first side, it took me 30 hours, 2 minutes to complete

Intricate Challenges.....


I am not the kind of person that makes 'New Year's Resolutions'....but I do like to identify my goals for the coming year at its start...and usually, I like to start some interesting something I have been meaning to get to, in January. I guess, with starting at the head of the year, in my mind's eye, I will have the next 12 months time to figure out my new whatever-it-is. One of my projects for this year, is knitting more period correct, 18th century fancy pinballs. Now the ones I did last year, were FABULOUS and I absolutely adore them~ and so do my children~ they have all asked me to make them one.....but being....well,me...... I want to make dollye size ones, with precious sayings and mottoes and beads knit into them. yaaaaaaa....right. sounds endearing enough? doesn't it? Above is my start, I am using size 12 DMC coton perle, on 6-ought (000000) lace needles. Evidentally, I have gone absolutely looney, and have a subliminal need to make myself go blind in the process.

I mean...good grief! WHAT THE HECK AM I THINKING????? These blasted needles are smaller in diameter than the straight pins I use for my sewing are!!! And this thread...size 12? My dental floss is bigger. Ohh well, I have started already, so will have to finish :) At least I will have one side done eventually~ how difficult it ends up being, will decide if I actually come out with a finished pinball, or a little framed what-not for dollys wall. The above picture shows 4 completed knit rows, and...gasp, as I am tracking my time, a bit over 5 HOURS of work so far.

post script~ if you read the commetns, you will see one of the little doilies my Mom crochet me so many years ago for the dollye house~ of coarse I still have it! Love You Mom! xoxoxoxox