i can haz isosceles

My lacy Baktus, nearing the finish line.

Jesse's homemade RC plane, ready for take-off.



A beginning flight.
Fun in the making!

whatta weekend

It started on Friday with a remote control airplane flyers club with Jesse (where I met a super nice knitter from Maine), then to Taekwondo with Leah, then the haunted corn maze with both kids. Saturday morning, Jesse and I headed to NY for Makerfaire, a.k.a. tinkerers' happy place. Since crafting is also part of making, I felt right at home among the yarny goodness.

The boy, though, was out of his mind with delight. Arduinos! 3D printers! Pulse jet motors! Steampunk contraptions! Tesla coils! Life sized Mousetrap game! CNC machines! Mentos and Coke! Geeks and freaks galore!

I had a blast watching Jesse, who was in his element and drinking it all in. And when I wanted to rest in the shade for a little while, I crocheted up a square to add to the rocket yarnbomb for the weekend, eventually to be made into blankets for charity. Ran into a couple of knitbloggers along the way too.

Sunday, up bright and early for another fabulous farmers' market. Really awesome how the work blends seamlessly with the party, the social aspect, the fabulous a cappella and folk music, and how fast the time goes. Rock on!

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Hey, just noticed I'm in the pics on the blog of the woman who did the rocket yarnbombing at Makerfaire. On her Sept. 26 post, 3rd pic from the bottom, that's me in the blue shirt (really? that's me? that's like a normal sized human!), crocheting away in the shade as fast as possible so I could meet Jesse at the Eepybirds show on time.

a bird in the hand

What's the Goob up to? Inquiring blog readers want to know.

Well, last Wednesday we passed a sign for an upcoming Renaissance Fair, so the next day we stopped at the fabric store and she bought a pattern. The day after that, she rummaged through her fabric stash. Saturday morning, I spent the day with Jesse at rocket club. By the time we got home, she had a wearable Renaissance style outfit, stitched entirely by hand, brocade on top, velvet on bottom, just needing a few more edges to be finished off.

When she picks up the pointy sticks, her project lately is these Bird and Vine Mitts.

In her spare time ;-), she's settling into the school routine and apparently getting a kick out of it. I think the perspective shifts tremendously when going to school is optional, so she seems to be looking at it as one big, interesting adventure, just another thing she was curious to explore and experience. It seemed to take her about three days to feel like she had it under control. heh.

The after school club sign-ups start today. Her calendar is already pretty full, but there's one club in particular that she'll be checking out...

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p.s. I have a big clear-out in progress with lots of crafty stuff up for grabs. Check out my offerings on the Ravelry barter group and LMK if you're interested in any of it.

twisted

Sunday was the Fiber Twist at the Coventry Farmers' Market. It couldn't have been a more perfect day.

My sister was helping with the bakery booth, so I had plenty of time to visit with the steady stream of knitterfriends who stopped by.

A highlight for Leah was when a Civil War reenactor noticed the hand stitching on her outfit and complimented her on it. He really made her day.

A highlight for me was when my nephew, Zach, asked me to knit him a bulky earflap hat for this winter. Requests like that are music to a knitter's ears!

steeking Sipalu

Instructions for the Sipalu bag have you starting with the band that runs along the three closed sides, knitting its stranded pattern flat, which means doing stranded knitting on purl rows. That doesn't sound like fun to me, so I cast on a few extra stitches and knit it in the round so the right side was always facing me. The color combos with the yarns chosen from my stash didn't have the contrast I would have liked, so you can't really see the stranded pattern anyway, but it's only an issue on the side of the bag (so far) and I'm not bothered by it. Today at Jesse's rocket club launch, I finished the reverse stockinette band that turns the corner from side to the face of the bag, so it was as good a time as any to steek.

A few quick snips, open up that circle of knitting into a U shape, cast on 80 more stitches to go across the open top edge of the bag, and now I'm working on the ever-decreasing rounds, perimeter to center.

Among the rocket dudes today, there were at least three knitters lovin' the sunshine and the rocket show.
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To Anonymous, who requested an update on Leah's projects, it'll come soon. She's been a busy stitcher and has much for me to photograph, if we're ever both home at the same time long enough to snap some pics!

fixer-upper

So, I keep thinking that I'm not really in the knitting world much anymore, but then I realize how untrue that is. I may not be devoting quite as much time to thinking about it/doing it lately, but it's still definitely a part of every day, even if just in some small way. I'm making good progress on my Lacy Baktus now, getting a kick out of the ever-shorter rows on the second half.

Meanwhile, my mom finished another Juno Regina recently and was thrilled with it until she stretched it out for blocking and noticed this:

Ack! It's just one broken yarn strand, though, so a fairly easy fix, as Vanna White'd here by nephew Zach:

Ending up with a beautiful alpaca scarf w/ beads, to be given to a friend, just because.

Anybody remember Northern Exposure? I used to get a kick out of that show, so I watched some old episodes lately. Had to smile when I saw Marilyn happily and peacefully knitting while Joel bounced off the walls of their office.

Looking forward to the Fiber Twist at Coventry Farmers' Market this weekend! Come say hi!

little bits

I was recently given a nearly completed baby blanket knit by my BIL's grandma. She passed away before finishing it, so it was given to me to finish off and donate somewhere. It ends up that all it needed was to finish casting off a small portion and weave in the ends, so I did that, give it a wash, and donated it to Project Linus through my favorite LYS.

Just a little bit of effort on my part, but a BIG baby blanket added to the donation pile! The grandma's knitting basket, needles, patterns, and some yarn were scooped up at our local put-and-take (freebie swap space at the dump) before Scott even pulled out of the parking lot. Yay. Pass it on, folks. It's all good.
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On Friday, I chauffeured Jesse to yo-yo club and struck up a conversation with a quilter who was hand-stitching the binding on a wedding gift quilt while her son yo-yo'ed. She doesn't knit and I don't quilt, but we shared the passion for making useful items by hand and had a great conversation.

This girl wound up her yo-yo string and came over to chat a couple of times during the evening. She wanted to know all about the knitting, all about the quilting. So much interest. So sweet. Between all the chatting, I only got a little bit done on my Lacy Baktus scarf, but I didn't mind.
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I started these socks way back in April, when we were heading out on vacation. Finished the first one soon afterward, but realized it was too long, hanging off my toes by more than half an inch. That's what I get for not trying it on when it was time to start the heel gusset because I was at the beach and didn't want to put it on my sandy foot.

Figuring I'd deal with it later, I went ahead and knit the second sock in little bits here, little bits there. A few evenings ago, I threaded my needle through a row of stitches of the long sock at the place where I wanted the toe decreases to start. I snipped a thread, expecting to easily zip off the excess and then knit the toe. But the socks were knit toe up and this repair would be knit top down, so I actually had to unweave the yarn through all the stitches around the row. Still no biggie, but not the quick fix I was imagining. Eventually, though, I ended up with a pair of socks that fit well and feel great.

Random bit: Live music I've enjoyed in the past three days: Carolina Chocolate Drops on Saturday, Echo Uganda on Sunday, and little bit of bagpipe music on Monday. :-)

a weather study

In the past week, we've had...

Hazy.

This is my kids parasailing off of Cape Cod last Tuesday. Not a bad way to spend the first day of (not) school. ;-) Leah has since decided she'd like to check out the school scene this year, so off she'll go this Fri. Should be interesting for all of us.

Hot.

Me and two of my bestest friends from the past, chillin' in the shade, catching up, and having a blast. Which, BTW, means that we have visited with/heard from/talked to six of the eight people in our wedding party (19 years ago) within the past two weeks. Good friends, those.

Rain.

RainBOW, to be more precise. Pic snapped while at a stop light.

Perfection.

The past few days have been simply gorgeous. I cranked out a good bit of sock knitting during an outdoor zydeco concert last week and the rocket club's launch in NY on Saturday, and have otherwise been working on a Sipalu bag. I chose my own colors and it's not working out quite like I hoped, but I'm going to keep knitting and see what happens. I hope to finish the side band tonight and will take a pic once I make some progress on the front face of it.

But now, it's sunny and breezy and I'm heading for a good walk in the woods. Catch y'all later!