The Andersons’ bus part three: some wheels, half a floor and a repetitive strain injury

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knitted model bus

It’s perhaps not as cool as a sports injury but, when you’re too excited to pace yourself, a repetitive strain injury is just as inconvenient.  I have been knitting for several hours a day for about two weeks with no ill effects but after making the bus’s wheels I had such bad shoulder pain that I had to take a break.  It seems feeble because all I was doing was winding yarn around a cardboard circle, over and over – it’s not what you would call hard work.  But there it is.  I’ve been stopped in my tracks 🙂

knitted model bus

This is what I’ve got so far:

I decided to make the bus wheels by cutting out cardboard circles which are a little bit smaller than the required (guessed) bus wheel size, cutting a smaller circle out of the middle of them, and winding yarn around them like you would if you were making pompoms.  Unlike when you’re making pompoms, you only need one cardboard circle per wheel, and you stop winding just before you get to the centre, leaving a tiny hole in the middle for the axle.

The axles are going to be old toothbrushes which just happen to be a little bit wider than the bus.

I didn’t have any black yarn but decided that doesn’t matter – groovy people like the Andersons would probably enjoy having different coloured wheels 🙂

knitted model bus

When I’d finished the wheels I needed a floor to attach them to.  I’m no longer following the pattern so this is an experiment which I hope will work.  I’m winging it.

I drew around the bottom of the bus on cardboard and cut it out.

knitted model bus

Then I cast on enough stitches to cover about two thirds (or nearly three quarters) the width of the bus floor.  I haven’t proved this works yet, but the knitting will naturally get wider than the cast-on row and I want the finished piece to be slightly smaller than the cardboard so that it has to be stretched taut to cover it.  It remains to be seen whether I cast on the right amount of stitches to make it work.

dot dot dot 😉

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click here for Part 4

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vegan, vegetarian, crafts, knitting, paper crafts, sewing, homemade, homemade toy, model bus, model furniture, children’s toys

25 thoughts on “The Andersons’ bus part three: some wheels, half a floor and a repetitive strain injury”

  5. Looks like a fun bus. Love knitting, but understand the shoulder pain. Winter is coming and that’s my month to sit and do more crochet and I’m learning to knit now (have lots of holes…haha) Hope the project turns out the way you say you’re winging it, and I bet it does.

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  7. Those are very impressive wheels – thank you for the warning, we will try to avoid injuries when we build our bus. Do you get worker’s compensation? 😉 😀

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  8. Aw bad luck! Repetitive Strain Injury is the worst! I guess it’s not the worst. It’s one of the worst things that can happen to you when you’re making pom poms. 😦

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