Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

While the mash water heats up, I grind my grain using a hand grinder. For some recipes I get my malted barley pre-ground, but I have started buying my base malt in bulk, and the barley comes whole.

Grinding the grain removes the kernel from the husk and exposes more of the starch to the water so the mashing process is much more efficient. Malted barley contains an enzyme that will convert starches in the barley to sugar when immersed in water. #brewing #happybrewyear #beer

Happy Brew Year! Today I'm going to brew a simple Mexican-style dark Lager which traditionally were based on a Vienna dark lager but with US ingredients including flaked corn. In this thread I will document my brew day.

The first step is to heat up my mash water. I brew beer using a Grainfather brewing system, which automates a lot of the process for me and shaves a few hours off of my brew day. #brewing #happybrewyear #beer

Oh yeah! Vintage toasting perfection! #vintage #toaster #ifyouknowyouknow

My son asked if I would teach him how to weave so yesterday he learned how to warp a rigid heddle loom and the basics of plain weaving. Now he is busy making his mother a scarf. I'm wishing I had a smaller rigid heddle loom, this 32" Kromski is not ideal for a kid. That said, his beat is pretty consistent and he's doing a decent job managing his selvedges so far. #weaving

My copy of Ada & Zangemann by @kirschner arrived in the mail today just in time for Christmas!

I just finished reading The Romance of French Weaving which covers the history of French textiles from the early Gauls to the early nineteenth century. I learned quite a bit about the origin and etymology of fiber terms in general from it.

Next on the list is The Valkyries' Loom, which covers Scandinavian weaving history of the Norse people.

I'm enjoying reading about the weaving histories of specific cultures. Are there any others that folks recommend? #weaving #history

I finished my scarf! I had previously made a scarf as a gift that I liked so much that I decided to make a narrower men's version for myself. I've attached pictures of both for comparison.

This weave was pretty loose to get the pattern I wanted. As a result I had to be very careful with it off the loom, and also fix a few picks that were out of place.

I ended up washing this in hot water and agitating it quite a bit, because I wanted it to full and shrink a bit into its final form. #weaving

Fixed! I had to undo all of my weaving and white header, and then I untied the left warp bundle and removed the floating selvedge and then unthreaded the leftmost thread from its heddle turning it into a floating selvedge. Then I retied that bundle to the beam and started over and caught up to where I was. That's enough for the night. #weaving

Spot the threading mistake! It turns out there is one extra thread on the left than the right. That will drive me crazy so I will be removing all the picks and the hemstitching at the bottom and remove a warp thread.

Here we go again. I liked the last scarf I made for a gift so much I'm weaving a narrower men's version for myself. #weaving

Fourth time's the charm! I figured out the right number of stitches per row, and overall rows to make a hat that fits the way I like. I still need to learn more about better ways to reduce stitches so it bunches up less at the top. Still, overall this was a good project to learn machine knitting with. #knitting #machineknitting

Now that I set up my knitting machine semi-permanently in my office, the room has become a nice shapshot of my interests, from computers to 3D printing to antique calculators. #knitting #machineknitting #3Dprinting #antiques #calculators #vintagecomputing

Third hat is (almost) the charm! The fit around my head is just about perfect this time. The hat is slightly too long but other than that and a little sloppiness in parts of the seam I am pretty happy with it.

I am still going to make a fourth hat that is closer to perfect though. #knitting #machineknitting

I finished knitting my (adult-sized) hat this weekend. I ran out of yarn before the end so I starting reducing rows early. The result is that the hat sits high on my head. But I can take everything I learned from this hat and apply it to the next one to make one that fits me perfectly. #knitting #machineknitting

I have knitted a hat! ...for a baby?
So I suspected this might happen because the pattern called for thicker yarn than I chose to use, with fewer stitches/inch. I wanted to follow the instructions anyway just so I understood the process and outcome before I started making modifications. While I really like this wool for a hat I'd wear, I do think it's a bit too fine for my first knitting project. #knitting #machineknitting

The knitting has begun! This is attempt number eight or so at a simple wool hat. The previous attempts uncovered a problematic hook that meant undoing and unraveling all of my work and starting over until I discovered the source and fix for the problem. Learning a lot! #knitting #machineknitting

The Knitking KK93 knitting machine is set up and I've done a few sample rows. Everything seems to work, so I think the next step is to pick a simple knitting machine project and make it. It will probably be awhile before I advance to programming it with its punch cards. #knitting #machineknitting

I finished the scarf this weekend! I'm really pleased with how it turned out, to the point that I think I want to make another for myself (this one is a gift). #weaving

You can see the pattern emerge on this fabric very quickly. Here is the first few inches of the scarf. Instead of just repeating the pattern throughout the full width, I extended the pattern on each edge to give it a one inch border on each side to frame the central pattern. #weaving

In the warp zone again. This time I'm making a black linen (warp) and black wool (weft) scarf. I'm using a standard "Ms and Ws" point draft twill pattern from Handweaver's Pattern Directory pg 90. #weaving