What does slinging do to a sling ball?

Well it's not pretty.  Slinging your ballistic crochet will make it dirty, looser, and the stuffing will break and fall out a bit.  But after a dozen or so hard slings at a rough rock face target, this ball is holding together well.  So not to worry, you can always make more, and as they say, sling balls would be safe if you kept them in your pocket but that's not what slingballs were made for.

Ball's well that ends well

A stuffing trick

Getting your projectiles stuffed tight enough can be difficult.  Often, it comes down to you jamming one bean at a time into the last stitching hole before you close.  But here's a trick.  Twist stitch the last two inches or so a bit loose, then stuff the ball tight as usual.  Right before the final closing knots you can go back and pull both sides of the twist-stitch tight.  This will give you a bit more slack for the closing knots and pull the halves together giving you a nice solid ball to sling with.  

16 row bean-fed...Jupiter spot?

One of planet Jupiter's most striking features is its big red spot. Longer than three earths, this storm has raged for over 1/2 a century and is somewhat of a mystery. A mystery much like these spots on this 16 row bean-fed. I have noticed these hole features appearing on the last few slingballs and am wondering if they are consistent artifacts of errors in the crochet pattern. After all the pattern is merely an approximation of a sphere and perhaps the non-perfectness of it produces these holes of mystery.

16 row cornfed finds its calling.

This is where sling balls find their greatest joy.

sling made by slingmoore, see the sling warehouse at
slingmoore.com

Proven: balloons inadequate

I stuffed this 16 row asymmetrical trichrom with a balloon.  Inside the ballon stuffed with this tiny "yellow dhal". The dhal makes a great stuffing with a few small problems.  First it extrudes out of the crochet holes no matter how tight I crochet.  This is the reason for the balloon meant as a liner to hold them in.  But these projectiles are intended for slinging, and after only two throws the balloon ruptured.  I have experimented with balloons off and on but I am hereby official done.  

16 row two-tone cornfed

the clippers are useful because they
can travel with you on an airplane,
not so the lighter, and the hooks are
hit and miss, depends on the THA
agent

16 Row Projectile Pattern:
Row 1) Ch 2. 6 Sc in second Ch from hook. (6)
Row 2) inc in each stitch around. (12)
Row 3) 1, +, 2, +, 1, +, 2, +, 1, + (17)
Row 4) 1, +, 3, +, 2, +, 3, +, 2, +, 1 (22)
Row 5) 2, +, 5, +, 4, +, 5, +, 2 (26)
Row 6) 4, +, 7, +, 8, +, 4 (29)
Row 7) 7, +, 9, +, 9, +, 1 (32)
Row 8) 13, +, 18 (33)

This guy is the perfect size and weight for slinging.  I am hoping it will also work for slinging at live targets that you want to hit but not hurt.  We will see.  This ballistic crochet ball was done with a # 2.5 hook, and I tried a different closing, tying it outside and then pulling the knot down into the ball from the other side using the hook.  It is likely to come out after the beating it will definitely receive being slung, but, it is also possible to res-tuff it with something different because I left enough tail to be able to retie it.

Slingball anyone?

What does one do after perfecting the slingball? One plays it.

Twist-stitch closing step by step

In order to make a 16 row cornfed, first make two halves with the following pattern.  (+ = increase stitch)

16 Row Projectile Pattern:
Row 1) Ch 2. 6 Sc in second Ch from hook. (6)
Row 2) inc in each stitch around. (12)
Row 3) 1, +, 2, +, 1, +, 2, +, 1, + (17)
Row 4) 1, +, 3, +, 2, +, 3, +, 2, +, 1 (22)
Row 5) 2, +, 5, +, 4, +, 5, +, 2 (26)
Row 6) 4, +, 7, +, 8, +, 4 (29)
Row 7) 7, +, 9, +, 9, +, 1 (32)
Row 8) 13, +, 18 (33)

Twist Stitch:  Using about 40 cm of cord from each half pull the cords up through the stitches then twist them so that the colors match up again.  White cord on the white side etc.

Push your hook down into the next stitch from outside the sphere.  Hook the cord of the matching color and pull through.

Do the same for the other side.  And repeat around the circumference.

Twist- stitch is shown here under my middle finger. I am sure someone out there, (of ballistic crochet's tens of thousands of followers) is saying, "why is he calling this a "twist stitch" it is only a __________ stitch."  If so please inform, I am ready to learn.

'76 er

This is ballistic crochet's premiere slinging projectile.  76 grams of raw velocity waiting to be unleashed.  

The perfect closing

This closing is completely flat, with no sign of stitching aside from the jog in the color line you would not know it was there.

18 rows with a 2.5 hook

This is way too big but... At least I have eliminated it.  It took a huge amount of lintels to fill it and it hurt when my 5 year old chucked it at me so... That's not working for a sling... 

14 rows are not enough

My pattern for this guy is below, but for slinging, this ball is too small.  Nice tight weave but too small a radius.  18 rows here I come.