How to make simple Sock Poi

Sock poi are simply the best thing to practice with full stop. A colourful set is an essential part of any spinners kit. The most simple design is to put a ball or a small bag of rice into some socks and go for it... It works! If however, you'd like to apply a little (and I mean a little) sophistication to them, try this design. It isn't very labour intensive and it will give you a perfectly good set of practice poi for like... not much money and about half an hour of your time. They won't last for a long time but they are fine for practicing.

You will need :

  • 1 pair of funky "over knee" socks
  • some scales
  • some filling (rice or something washable)
  • about 30 minutes

The first thing to do is turn your socks inside out. Fairly easy this bit isnt it ? Just reach in, grab the bottoms and pull. No problem.

Next you need to weigh out your filling and drop it into the socks. This is the filling for your sock poi heads (handles come later.) It should be 3 X the weight of whatever weight you are putting in your handles.

Once you have dropped the filling into your inside out socks, tie a knot in the ankle of them or just above it. Try to get these knots in exactly the same places as each other or the ends will look different when you are done.

Ok, done that? Good, now you can turn them the right way out again and admire your knot from the other side. Notice how your careful placement of the knot has produced symmetrical poi ? Looks fairly neat doesnt it? Mmm hmm, good job :P

Now then, onto the handles part. Weigh out your filling again, this time it should be one third the weight of what you put in the heads. Drop it into the sock and tie a knot as close to the top of the sock as you possibly can.

Once you have done the above step turn the whole thing upside down and let all the handle filling drop down to your previously tied knot. Then you need to bunch it all up as tight as you can and tie a knot underneath it.

Voila!! There you have it, a perfectly good set of practice poi, made by yourself and ready for some practice. They should last you for a good while, especially if you used washable filling. The only minor issues with this method are :

  • the knots can sometimes annoy the insides of your fingers.
  • the handles only have one layer of fabric covering the filling.

The one layer of fabric on the handles tends to see them get holes fairly quickly if you practice throws (badly like me) otherwise they are great. Enjoy!