Lamps

After discovering that my bedside table lamp was not, in fact, packed up with my lamp shade last night when I really wanted to read in bed - just 5 minutes! - with minimal disturbance to DH, I resolved to go through the unpacked boxes again and find the rest of my lamp get a new lamp. So I was thinking about lamps today, and craftiness and knitting.

First I found a really gorgeous decoupage how-to. I'm so going to make this. Only, you can't get the required  Grono lamps, except by physically going to an Ikea, and I'm not prepared for a 3-hour shopping trip within the next two weeks. I checked Target, they don't have cheaper more available knock-offs. Maybe I'll gather all the supplies and host a party, like the Painted Fish Studio people did, and we can all decorate lamps together. Or something. Someday.

Then, I saw this really nice lace candle-holder mason jar cover. And that's great. I'll make that, too. But I want to read, and DH is convinced I'll set the house on fire with all my candles, anyway. He'd totally not go for nightly bedroom candle-lighting.

So. I need lamp guts, and some kind of frame for the shade. There are two ideas in my head:

1) Use the 6" outer diameter Plexiglass tube from these nice folks. Use a hot something-metal (screw-driver?) to make a little hole for the cord, and glue or melt in the lamp guts. Consider sanding the inside of the tube (or the outside - does it matter?) to soften the light. Knit a cover for that. I think it'd be really pretty, like a combination between the candle cover and the Grono lamp decoupage. The challenge would be getting the lamp guts stuck in.

2) Use a wire frame, like the one to the left, that I'd order from these other folks, and knit around that. I'd have to order lamp guts, probably here, and hope that they all fit (or can be made to fit) together. The plus side is, I think it'd be easier to add some feet to the frame (to give the cord room to slide out the bottom) and add lamp guts to this, than it would be to trick out the Plexiglass tube. The down-side is that, other than the yarn, there's nothing to soften the light.

I think the cost is roughly the same ($15ish) for the wire frame as for the plastic tube. I can steal the lamp guts from the lamp that's still in a box somewhere (I never liked it anyway), if I ever find the rest of the lamp, or buy new guts like I mentioned above. I think, either way, I had better assemble the guts and the lampshade frame before I start knitting, or I'll finish the knitting and not want to do the rest.