Such Sweet Hands

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.

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…

A Simple Ikea Hack:

Lion Brand was very generous, they sent us a ton of yarn to use in our booth. How were we going to organize the yarn in an attractive way that still kept the plentiful supply at the fingertips of our eager crocheters and knitters? Shannon was at Ikea and I was standing in the booth space surrounded by boxes of yarn, so we shopped together via cell phone. She’d announce something she’d found and we’d brainstorm ways to use it, then discuss if it would really work in this booth space. She found the Ikea trash bag holders and suggested we use them attached to the back wall of the booth, but there wasn’t enough space on the booth wall. I convinced her they’d work laying on their backs and begged her to buy a lot of them…

The idea blossomed the next morning when we stuffed the containers with a variety of yarns with the center pull tails strung through the holes. It worked! The set up survived two days and a ton of people using the yarn to knit and crochet.

We also had a lot of fun brainstorming even more ways to use these awesome containers. One suggestion: close the open end and trap a cat toy inside to provide your bored kitty with a challenge. I brought several of them home with me, more later on what I come up with them. I just hope the one I’ve used for 2 years as a boring old trash bag holder doesn’t get jealous!

No pictures today. I’m too lazy to load and then pick through the bazillion pictures we took this weekend. We’re heading even further into Northern California today for a day in the Redwoods. I’ll resurface again on Wednesday with my sum up of the fantastic Maker Faire weekend. It was a whirlwind of yarn and hooks and eager hands in our little corner of the Faire. Away from the yarn and hooks, I had a great time meeting enthusiastic people of all sorts. Totally amazing!

Quick Notes on the Weekend:
-Found a new use for a simple Ikea product (pictures and more to come)
-I taught more people to crochet in 2 short days than I have in over a year!
-Had a great time discussing the effects of technology on crafts (while eating tacos) with people who don’t craft at all but found it interesting anyway…

More Later…

More later…

More to come on what I’ll be doing there, of course it involves crochet…