Week 2

           This week was mainly devoted to research.  I worked to find sources and instructions on how to string may different ways.  I found sources for Stringing with mesh, stringing traditional, and stringing many custom styles.  These sources can come in handy all throughout the project as good ways to start, but I will still need further sources for every different style as I may learn that I need something better or different when I go about trying it.  I have also decided to combine styles as to maximize or fix what other people have had.  Many of the techniques have details that may make the mesh, or center pocket part, lopsided.  If this were to happen then the ball would come out differently based on different situations.  For example, one that it strung in a direction with knots going to the left may pull the ball to the left.  All though this may not be a major issue when throwing the ball righty, when throwing the ball left this may become an problem.

          I also waited until the end of the week to string my first head and will be doing so tonight and over the weekend.  This is due to the fact that I will be restringing my main stick (the one I always use) and, as this was the first week of lacrosse, it was important that I kept things the same all week.  I am stringing a specialty soft mesh for attack which has mini diamond.  This mesh, called micro mesh is very difficult to string for the reason that there are so many more parts to attach to the head.  the thing about this mesh is it is one type that I have never tried.  I will try to string it with a similar style as regular mesh but skipping more diamonds.  This will be a nice challenge and I am wonder How it will turn out.  When I am done I will post pictures on the blog of all of the angles including top string, sidewalls, pocket and shooters.  Until then I will be working on making it.
*Sources are at the bottom of the page and commented on pages are to the right.

Week 1

During this week the challenge was coming up with an idea that I not only liked, but was also feasible.  I thought of topics that I enjoyed such as lacrosse, hands on work, building things and things with music, but could not come up with something that seemed enjoyable and possible.  I was really trying to brainstorm one night though when a random thought floated into my head, I really needed to restring my lacrosse head.  Then it hit me, why not do that as my project.  This would give me the opportunity to try to do difficult stringings, such as traditional, that I never had a chance to do before.  It would also give me a chance to hone my skills and help me for the future.  It would even simply give me a chance to restring my lacrosse head.  It also was something that combine many of my passions.  It allowed me to work hands on with something and to have a physical end product.  It also gave me that chance to work with the sport of lacrosse, which I love.  Lastly, I just liked the activity.  I have strung a few heads before and I like the meticulous nature, slowly going through the process but always doing something different and using a hands on approach to get something done.  All in all, I thought it would work well and I would enjoy doing it.

The next issue was figuring out how to fit a task like this into such a long period of time because when I normally string a head, if I take my time it will take about one full day or maybe eight to twelve hours of solid work and adjustments, not to mention all of the pocket pounding.  Even though this seemed like a lot of time it was not nearly six weeks worth of work.  Then the next part of my idea came to me.  What if I were to restring heads multiple times in many different ways.  This would greatly increase my time and also allow me to practice more difficult styles, and maybe even make my own.  I could try traditional, which would take me days to do, or some of the more custom pockets such as the “pitta pocket.”  Even further than that I could come up with new ideas, such as combining traditional with mesh in different ways.  I could even do simply different styles of shooting strings which, although basic, are a crucial part of the stringing.

Over the course of the next six weeks I am planning on stringing a variety of heads in many different ways.  When finished each I will take pictures documenting the work.  I will later either have the finished projects or the pictures if I must restring the heads if I run out.  I plan on having at least four heads done, two using mesh and two using the traditional method.