Cradle
A triangle of string with the diabolo resting inside it, built with the sticks and a finger. The first figure, and the one that teaches you to see the string as shapes.
The cradle is a triangle of string held between your two sticks and one finger, with the diabolo sitting in the middle of it. Nothing moves while you hold it, which makes it the trick to learn when you want to understand what your hands are actually doing to the string.
Everything after this that has a name and a shape is built the same way.
Building the triangle
- Start in a trapeze, diabolo resting in the loop under your left stick.
- Reach the right stick under the far strand of the string and lift, so the string crosses itself.
- Hook a finger of the left hand over the near strand and pull it out to make the third side.
- Spread the three points apart until the triangle is taut and the diabolo sits in the middle of it.
Take it slowly the first fifty times. The order of the crossings is the whole trick, and once your hands know it the speed arrives on its own.
Holding it
The diabolo sits in the bottom corner of the triangle and stays there as long as the string is tight. Tension comes from spreading the three points apart, not from pulling upward.
A cradle bleeds spin quickly, because the diabolo is resting on string that is not moving. Get it fast before you build, and do not expect to hold the shape for long.
Getting out
Reverse the build: unhook the finger, drop the right stick back under, and the diabolo returns to the trapeze. From there, out onto flat string and catch. Do not try to shake it out. The string will find a knot before it finds the floor.
What goes wrong
The triangle collapses. The three points are not far enough apart. Spread them wider than feels necessary.
The diabolo will not stay in the middle. It is not fast enough. A cradle is a resting shape, and a slow diabolo simply lies down in it.
You get a knot instead of a triangle. The crossings happened in the wrong order. Unwind completely and rebuild from the trapeze rather than trying to rescue it.
It works but the diabolo stops. Expected, to a degree. Build faster and hold shorter.
When it is working
You can go trapeze, cradle, hold for three seconds, and back out to flat string without the diabolo dying. At that point you can read a string picture, which is what the rest of the string tricks are made of.
