Knitted raffia pendant light

When I moved a year ago into an older house, there were several pendant lights that needed a bit of a refresh, and being a lover of natural fibres and a bit of a boho look, I was drawn to lots of gorgeous styles from Balinese basket shades to Morroccan crocheted ones. But lighting is expensive and I didn't want to spend a lot, so I decided to have a go at making my own either using crochet or knitting.

After buying some paper raffia and experimenting a bit, I went with knitting. I'm not a very experienced knitter or crochet-er but I found it easier to knit, and having recently been working on my knitting skills I was more confident in getting the look I wanted that way. I've only ever knitted a couple of garments completely on my own (my granny and mum helped me with a couple a long time ago) so I certainly hadn't made any patterns before, but I figured I could just knit in the round (on circular needles) to make a tube and wing it using increases and decreases until the diameter and height was about what I wanted.

The first image was the inspiration pic, which was described as being crocheted in Morocco, and cost over $700 USD - I think it's beautiful, but out of my price range.

On the right (not great photos but you get the idea) is my knitted version which cost me about $20 NZD for materials and I love it!

I'm considering making a tutorial/pattern e-booklet that maybe I could sell, let me know if that's of interest!

The supports giving structure are made from rattan core round cane, and I used paper raffia because it is easy to find, continuous and less irregular than natural raffia (which comes from the leaf of a type of palm). You can also get synthetic raffia but I don't know why you would want to!

I think it is hilarious that one of my first solo knitting projects is a lamp shade, not the usual scarf, and I've really got the knitting bug now so my ever growing list of things I want to make has increased dramatically!