Such Sweet Hands

If you haven’t already checked it out, week before last I contributed a spooky, tacky, pattern and story for the CRAFT pattern podcast. You can go here to download the pdf. I played around with telling a story to go along with the pattern. I hope to do some more things like that because I have a head full of imagined creatures with stories that need to be told.

One morning I sat at our table prepping the Triplets for a photo shoot, sticking a curved needle through their heads to run thread for hanging and posing… Rob was sitting beside me eating his breakfast and jumped a little at the sound of a needle piercing a rubbery dolly scalp. He gasped and looked a tad spooked. That’s my kind of Halloween fun:)

I could go on and on about how I adore Maker Faire. I love the idea of being a “maker”, I am grateful Make and Craft give their own angle on what it can mean to be a person who makes stuff. But before I get too gushy I’ll just say how awesome it is to meet the people at Maker Faire. Both times that I’ve worked in the Lion Brand booth we’ve seen a nice variety of people wanting to know more. Know more about crochet or knitting or yarn or simply wanting to know what we’re doing in our corner of the Faire. I love that! I find people with no interest in things boring and since this is an event where everyone is encouraged to be interested, it’s certainly not a boring time!

I lost count at how many hands I helped crochet, but I can tell you it was a lot. And more folks wanted to learn about crochet than knitting! Then there were the familiar faces! It was great to see and work with Liz and Karen from Lion Brand again. And several folks I met at the last Maker Faire stopped by and hung out with us too. I’ve always loved the summer camp reunion sort of vibe a bunch of us have going at TNNA and now I’m starting to feel the same thing with Maker Faire. It’s truly wonderful that we can all meet up and bond over these things we love to make!

New faces:

Karli taught knitting in the booth and brushed up on her own crochet skills too. Her new yarn store Gauge will be a very crochet friendly place if I have anything to say about it! She has the kind of Texan dialect I’ve always envied. When I start speaking in my native dialect I sound brusk and staccato, but Karli has this sweet ladylike Texan lilt. She was kind enough to drive me in to the fairgrounds both days and she even brought me a cappuccino! I look forward to returning to Austin and checking out her store in the not too distant future.

I also finally got to know and hang out with Jenny Ryan, a fellow Angelino. That’s the way things just go sometimes, I hide out in the crochet hermitage so much that I have to meet other Angelinos in far off places like Austin! Having dinner with Jenny, Natalie, and Faythe Levine was one of the highlights of my whole Texas trip. Bonding over the odd behaviors of the work at home creative life included the dark secret that we’ve all been following Britney’s exploits a bit closer than we’d like to admit. It was also funny that when searching for a restaurant, we sat in Nat’s hotel room searching for a place on the hotel’s list of suggestions that actually had a good website. Just one of the many little quirks I enjoyed learning I share with all these awesome crafty girls. I have to note here that there was a long drought in my life (late teens/ early 20’s) where there seemed to be no one around who was like me, so now in my adulthood I am still so thankful to find even more kindred spirits.

And I got to get Faythe started with crochet! It was so awesome to meet her and get to know more about her film.

All this said, I never even made it into the bigger hall(s) full of robot fun. I just didn’t have the time or energy! There are several things I’m bummed to have missed, but there’s always the next Maker Faire right? I didn’t get to see much of Austin itself either, but I had enough great company to not have been too bothered by missing robots or seeing any of Austin’s famed cool spots. On Monday morning I boarded another flight and headed to my home town Lubbock, Texas… more on that tomorrow.

Slept late this morning, am now sitting in my robe (missed it, was too thick to pack!) and reading blogs and general nonsense like what Britney’s been up to while the water boils for a pot of perfect black tea.  I had a great trip, but it feels so nice to be back in my little crochet hermitage.

The picture was taken a bit before I left, but it’s pretty much the same view I have right now too.  I looked at this picture a lot while I was away….  I had planned to update while on the trip, but left the cord for my camera at home and decided not to bore you with words only.  There will be pictures and stories to share starting today.

Today’s tea is Tazo Awake.  Feeling too lazy for loose leaf and needing the punch of that strong Awake blend.   Here’s hoping that caffeine infusion won’t send me round the bend because I’m already feeling torn in many directions.  So many home projects, crochet projects, and other diversions/ work I feel compelled to get my hands into all at once!

I’m heading to Austin.  Haven’t slept yet, as so often happens the night before I travel….  Just too much to do before I leave.  I’m leaving behind all sorts of housework, oh well! I’m totally proud of myself, my shiny new suitcase is so organized that I was able to pack for a 10 day trip (I’ll be hanging out in Lubbock and Houston after Austin to spend time with family) in one small bag (and two stuffed carry ons).  Feel like I’ve progressed into a better sort of person, the almost travels light sort.

Check out this week’s CRAFT Pattern Podcast ;)

Every week fellow Craftonite member Tania puts together great photo records of our activities.  This week I baked cookies!  Yeah, I was the girl on the 720 Rapid Bus With a tote bag full of cookie baking supplies (sans eggs).  I must be used to the walking and the bus riding now because carrying a cookie sheet with me didn’t even phase me…

Well, off to get an hour of sleep!  Have a great weekend everyone!  I’ll update soon with chatter on Maker Faire Etc…

My friend Aaron made this cutie pie birdie at our weekly crafty group meet up last week.  He just learned to crochet a few weeks ago, taught by our friend Tania.  And how did Tania learn to crochet?  From Teach Yourself Visually Crocheting!  She stumbled upon the book in a store and taught herself to crochet long before she even moved here from the east coast and the various connections that brought us to meet, become friends, and craft together weekly even existed…    I think that’s really cool.

I don’t even know that it was blogger’s block or what, but I just fell out of the blogtastic loop there for a bit.  A lot of my habits changed, an unplugging of my brain I guess.  And things just keep moving along!  It’s a busy couple of months ahead of us!  I’ll be at Maker Faire Austin in a couple of weeks teaching crochet in the Lion Brand Booth!  And on November 18th a crafty collective of ours that started up this past summer will be selling our stuff at Felt Club!  There’s other stuff on the way too, for real!

Meanwhile, I’ve challenged myself to design and make my ideal sweater for this winter,  something I want to wear and I hope you will too!

More on everything I’ve been up to later…