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.

the blue period

We're no Picasso, but it appears that we too are having a Blue Period. Ours is infinitely happier, though.

When we were rummaging through the spinning stash with our friends last Friday, I came upon some roving and novelty yarn (a.k.a. crazy funky stuff) that had been spun and dyed in indigo at the CT Sheep and Wool Festival last spring. I always intended to make this into a hat and finally set out to do it on Saturday. I wet felted the loose roving into a dome shape over a plastic bowl. Then I punched holes around the edge with an old leather punch and picked up stitches of the novelty yarn (some spun by Scott, some by Leah) to knit the brim. Quick, fun, warm, and one-of-a-kind.
Jesse's main focus of late is his new stash of assorted K'nex motors. Most recently he has come up with this train, where the blue box is the motor and I'm not sure what all the other sticky-outy things do, but I'm sure he could tell you in great detail what every single one represents in the history of trains. He made the track yesterday and needed to redesign his train so the wheels could turn to navigate the curves. Mission accomplished. This and the gatling gun behind it and the Nerf armory in residence provided much entertainment for the boy and a friend he had over today.
Since January 1 has come and everybody in the world is on a diet right now, this is the bakery's slow time, so Scott's making more beads again. When there was a mix-up about who was drinking which of the beer selection on Friday, he decided to make a bunch of beads for us and friends, each with a name written in glass, to prevent any such confusion. Worked well for New Year's Eve too. No, the kids weren't drinking beer; theirs were used for soda bottles. The blue thread made them the right size for the bottles, but they'll double as stitch markers when the blue thread gets snipped off.
And the biggest blue project of all to have been completed here recently is the poncho Leah knit for herself. She used the Very Harlot Poncho pattern and has been knitting it off and on since we were in Nova Scotia this summer. It has some boo-boos in it, but man, that's a lot of knitting for an 8-year-old! She's been working on it like crazy for the past few days, since I told her I'd help her start knitting her Twinkletoes ballet slippers as soon as she finished her poncho. She finished the fringe today and wore it with pride to meet friends at the hockey game tonight.
Do you see what I just wrote? Kids and Scott are at a hockey game tonight?! That means I have the house to myselfffffff! :::happy snoopy dance::: And off I go to work on a super secret project that has proven to me that my eyes turned 40 already, even though the rest of me still has a few days at 39. :-)