This summer I fell in love with hoop dancing and have been brainstorming fun ways to combine hooping and soft circuits. Most of us have seen the fancy LED and fire hoops that make for great performances, but can it be taken a step further and have truly interactive hoops?

To show support for my friends currently doing the RPM Challenge (writing and recording an album in 28 days), I’m going to spend February focusing on sound-making and musical projects.

This Thursday is Thanksgiving, which to most Americans means a big meal with friends and family. Here are a few projects focused on food, eating, and digestion which would definitely make my Thanksgiving meal a lot more interesting!

Today I made a sock puppet that makes sound when you open it’s mouth. I used one of those greeting cards that plays sounds when you open it, some felt, and plastic buttons. It was a quick project for a rainy day and is a great way to use up old cards.

Last week I found some WiFi Detecting Keychains on sale for $5 and decided they would make a fun weekend hack. I personally don’t like keychain gadgets, but they are great for incorporating into wearable projects because of how small and compact the circuit boards are.

This weekend was the annual RPM Challenge Listening Party. I was inspired the afternoon before to make a project to wear there. Though it was a little too ambitious of me to expect to get something functioning for the event with only a few hours of prototyping/design time, I did have fun and got a good start on a little soft circuit necklace hack.

Ever since I first saw the Drawdio, I have been itching to buy one and put it in some sort of wearable project. It is a nice little synthesizer that has a lot of potential. This week I purchased the Drawdio Fun Pack from Adafruit to play with and spent Saturday night stitching it into a quick prototype. I brought it to today’s NH Media Makers meet-up and it was a big hit!

Over on Instructables there are a couple cool little projects using toy pianos by kobakant. Hacking and reconstructing these toys for a new interaction is a great learning exercise – so I’m going to try it out for myself. I don’t do a lot with sound in my projects so I think it will be a fun exploration.