h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Making Your Very Own Disco Snake - A1146458
Author: Mikey the Humming Mouse - the ferocious Linkinator - U99875

Come on, you know you've always wanted to!

I don't recognise the term 'serger' I think you probably mean an overlocker.

Sounds like the disco snake would also make a good draught stopper, although it would have to be a big pair of child's tights. What age would you recommend, Mikey?

Yeah, I just checked and sergers and overlockers are the same thing -- probably another one of those British/American English things. I'll edit it and add in a footnote. Okay, that's been done.

Hmmmm... yes, I guess it could make a draught stopper, although you'd need to include something a bit weighted inside, as well as the stuffing, or else it wouldn't work very well. And you might consider using something more insulating than regular cotton/polyester stuffing.

Do you think I should add that in?

Oh, and if I was going to make one as a door draught stopper, I would probably actually use adult tights rather than ones for children -- not panty hose, but actual cotton or wool tights in an adult small (or adolescent) size.

OK, that was suitably odd...

I've never heard of/seen one of them before. But a cracking good entry to explain them.

But the entry really is helped by the photo.


- Jimi X

Yeah, I think the moniker "disco snake" may actually be my own invention -- I've always called them that, but I've never seen them called that anywhere else. Actually, I've never seen them called anything anywhere else. I found my first one at a toy store, and the woman who sold it to me was at a loss for words as to what to call it -- "Why, it's a disco snake, of course!" I told her. "I'll take 6 of them!"

And then my supply quickly dwindled down, as *everybody* wanted one. I saw one that was essentially the same at a craft show once, and realized that I could make them on my own -- a little trial and error, and there you go! Made a great crafts project for my Girl Scouts.

And so the legend of the disco snake was born.

Yeah, as I was writing the entry I realized that people would never be able to make it successfully if they didn't know what the end product was supposed to more or less look like. Luckily, my palm pilot has a digital camera built in, so I was able to snap a picture of the one I keep at the office, and upload it to a website.

Well, the bit about the draught stopper has now been added. Anything else?

Probably a silly question, Mikey. Why do you use the open end for the head, rather than using the foot end, particularly if it is a 'turned' foot?

I guess you could theoretically do it either way. I find it easier to start stuffing at the foot and work my way up, largely because the pipe cleaners extend almost all the way down there. Doing the bit with inserting the pipe cleaners in through the stuffing would be a little trickier, I think, if you were pushing it down towards the head end. Because the neck seem doesn't involve any folded fabric, it's just not as strong as the other seems, and it wouldn't take too much to cause a rip or tear from the pressure of pushing all that material and pipe cleaner down.

nuff.

My cats run away from anything snakelike. A friend gave me a stuffed rattlesnake from the gift shop of one of the local desert national parks, and they treat it warily when it's on it's own, and never come near if they see me handling it.

Perhaps a strip of batting could be torn from the main wodge, and wound q-tip like around the ends of the pipe cleaners and then the tip covered with rubber caps typically found at the hardware store (or a kite- or archery-supply place). They are typically used for dowel ends and furniture. I personally would band the length-junctions of the pipe cleaners, too. Pipe cleaners are otherwise rather sharp, and I wouldn't let my neice or nephew near such a toy when they were young enough to be interested, because I remember they were quite inventive, exploratory, and destructive at times. There's a bonus, in that if you do this, the pipe cleaner ends are less likely to poke through the fabric when you are inserting them and stuffing it, because this might cause a run, or a weak point for a run later.

Hi, Mikey. I saw your request for opinions in another thread and came over here to take a peek.

I sew and craft and do a good bit of needle work. Your instructions a very clear and easy to visualize. You are right, a very good Girl Scout project.

I noticed a typo in the Steps section, item #2. In the second sentence, "a long skinny tub" should be "a long skinny tube", yes?

Okay, typo fixed, and tips on preventing poking nastiness inserted. Thank y'all so much for catching both of those!

See, Witty Moniker, something good and useful has come out of the other thread after all!

And that is why I'm still here after all this time. The good far outweighs the nasty. And I made a new acquaintance today.

Here are two nitpickies. I normally would leave these for the Sub-Editor, but I have been metioning these in Peer Review because of the request for more polishing in the announcement ending Petunia. You can ignore them as you please.

In step 6, you say 'pipe cleaner' when you mean 'pipe cleaner braid' or 'twisted and elongated pipe cleaners' or perhaps just plain 'pipe cleaners', as pleases you. I have a literal mind when following instructions and went back through the entire list wondering where an individual pipe cleaner might be needed, or if the individual cleaner was being used as a scout to poke a smaller hole to make it easier for the larger braid to punch through the batting. I don't think you meant that, though.

In step 9, you write 'discosnake' as one word. I don't suggest a correction because the end product and it's name is your own creation, but you may wish to be consistent throughout the article.

Both fixed! Feel free to nitpick away!


Mikey

Now that pipe cleaners have come up, did you know that the craft industry (in the US) doesn't call them by that name any more? They are 'chenille stems', I suppose because the vast majority of them will never see the inside of a pipe.

I remember having to use them in elementary school to clean out the inside of our classroom recorders. Sheesh, those were ghastly instruments. There are quality recorders out there, and people who can play the instrument well, but 30 eight-year olds blowing into cheap plastic ones is simply dreadful.

Mikey, this is delightful. I'd love to have a disco snake that I can wrap around my office lamp; right now I have an elephant with bendy arms, who looks like he's holding on for dear life.

Here are some nits I picked...

• A disco snake looks much like a regular snake, except that for his enourmous hair

The 'that' could come out, and enormous is misspelled.

• If you're extremely lucky, you might be buy

Your 'be' is extraneous

• If you're starting with material rather than tights, you will also need access to a sewing machine, preferably an overlocker3. A regular sewing machine often has a difficult time with stretchy material, which is why people use sergers.

This confused me, until I recalled the discussion you had in peer review about sergers and overlockers. A better way of phrasing the second sentence might be - 'A regular sewing machine often has a difficult time with stretchy material, which is why people use overlockers, also known as sergers.'

• (Footnote 5) Although your disco snake is may not be appropriate for children under two

Your 'is' can come out of that sentence.

All in all, a great entry! Easy to understand instructions, and an unusual topic.

Typos and brain farts fixed. What's next?