One of my goals for 2011 is to learn to knit and crochet. I love the look of handmade yarn projects, and lately have been seeing more and more using soft circuits. Here are a few techniques I’m hoping to try once I get the hang of some needlework basics.

Last weekend I traveled to Boulder, Colorado to attend the ‘Where Electronics Meets Textiles’ workshop hosted by SparkFun Electronics and taught by Lynne Bruning and Troy Nachtigall.

A few weeks ago, Makezine & Craftzine introduced a new DIY platform called Make: Projects. Soon after the site launched, I jumped right in and started posting some of my project tutorials and playing around with the system.

I recently received an email from Lee Guichan, who attended the Soft Electronics Demo at the Craftzine booth during Maker Faire. Lee sent some great images of Becky and me presenting soft circuit techniques to share on the blog. All images courtesy of Lee Guichan.

Last weekend my friend Erin and I attended the first public workshop on paintable electronics/paper computing held by the High-Low Tech group at the MIT Museum. Part of the Cambridge Science Festival, it was a day-long (10am-5pm) demonstration and work session using conductive paints, batteries, and computing components to make interactive paper artworks.

While packing up my projects and doing a bit of spring cleaning, I came up with the idea of a portable scrapbook/notebook to house all my favorite techniques, prototypes, components and samples. I was inspired by textile sample books to use a three ring binder and removable pages as a storage solution for my ‘must have’ items.

The last couple of weekends have been surprisingly warm and sunny for April in New Hampshire, so I’ve been trying to spend as much time outside as possible. At first I thought this would directly compete with my goal to work on soft circuit projects, but there are a lot of things you can take outdoors and piece together while enjoying the weather.

[Image via Knitty.com]

When I first got interested in soft circuits, getting materials was a combination of ordering free samples and sourcing items on your own. Luckily in the last few years things have changed and there are a variety of kits available to get you started with e-sewing. Here is a round-up of some readily available kits.

This week I had the opportunity to attend the 4th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction down at the MIT Medial Labs in Boston. I’ve been covering the event for Fashioning Technology and am posting lots of pictures and recaps of my experience.