This has been so much fun!!!

It's alive. . .It's alive. . .it's aliiiiivee. . .well, almost

Last night, after work, I headed over to the Josefina Fine Knits trailer and excitedly started working on my Maker Faire project. 

The first step to this "Knitting with Weird Stuff" project was to make sure I had enough airline tubing to knit with. What a mess, right! It took a while, but we finally straightened everything out. I now have four, neat piles of equal length, to begin my project!

Yesterday, while at the hardware store, I purchased rope to cast on with. The cast on edge always has the hardest bends; why risk kinks in the tubing!

​Lately I've been addicted to orange, and finding an orange rope was perfect!

Doesn't it look pretty, orange rope with flecks of reflective tape! Oh, look, hello shoes!

The next step was the actual knitting. It took me two tries to get it right.

I was nervous knitting the first row. I know I had tested this out previously but still, I was nervous. But it worked, first row done! Then picking up a different tube, the second row was knit back, picking up a third tube a third row was knit and finally, with the fourth tube, the row was knit back. 

I decided I wanted to knit two sets of 4 rows. So, I started searching for the the tube from the first row. But after I started examining my work more deeply, following the tube stitches, it appeared that I knit using the cast on tail!

Darn tails!

​So I tore it all out, and started over again, careful not to make the same mistake. 

Finally, after an hour, I had everything knit, and was ready to test my work. 

The storage lot where we keep our trailer has only one electrical outlet. And it's all the way on the other side of the yard. You have plug a couple of extension cords together, then stretch it across the yard if you want electricity. 

My Faithful Sherpa was visiting his mother, who lives in the same harbor where we keep our trailer, so I called him and asked if he had a super long extension cord. Mine was only 50'. Thankfully he had a 100' cord in his work truck and they both brought it over to me 

Oh, look, Hi Esther's shoes!

Now, the moment I've been waiting for. . .I've been dreaming about. . .I've been planning for. . . 

TADA!!!!

I have adjustments to make. I wasn't quite sure if the pump I purchased was strong enough. And last night's test showed it wasn't.  So today, I'll stop by the hardware store and pick up the next size up pump. 

That should do the trick!

I'm also a bit concerned about the sparkles sticking onto the inside of the tubing. It could clog things up. One solution is to not use the sparkles (boooo!) and use just a small amount of water in the buckets. This way it'll force air bubbles into the tubing, which will indicate movement. 

But that'll get tested next week. 

Come by the Maker Faire next weekend, and see my Knitting with Weird Stuff project in person! makerfaire.com/bay-area/. I'd love to see you!