Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

@tyler No idea at this point, I'm still finishing up this design. I imagine it wouldn't be cheap as the raw components (knitting machine, electronics, 3D-printed plastic) adds up. That said, I hope to write up the steps in a simple enough way that anyone with access to a 3D printer and basic electronics know-how could make one.

@Bloomfer It makes a long tube that you could turn into a sock I imagine. The goal is to print one row per day for a year, and at the end of the year have a narrow scarf. We plan to add bands of colors for notable days throughout each year.

@blinken Thanks! I'm trying to take a lot of pictures and do plan to write something up about it and publish my 3D designs when I'm done.

@apples_and_pears Yes, there is a small switch to disable carries that you hold with your thumb while pressing the complementary digits on the comptometer, for subtraction/division.

I thought some of you might find it interesting to see a short video of the knitting clock in action. I'm simulating multiple days here, one complete rotation (day) at a time, with a short pause in between.

This is a lot louder than the final clock will be, because I'm using faster and more powerful double steps for these steps. The actual on-the-hour stitches will use quieter, slower, microsteps.

#3dprinting #knitting #electronics

@apples_and_pears I tend to prefer the Monroe myself, although I also like the Facit approach too (both are barely visible on the right side of this picture).

I prefer Comptometers for basic addition and multiplication but will go for a Monroe or Facit any day when I need to divide.

More progress on my knitting clock. I have finished designing and printing the bottom half of the "top" of the case that covers the knitting machine and provides a spool and tensioning guides for the yarn.

Here you can see it after I set up some white waste yarn and then switched to black yarn. I simulated a day or two's worth of knitting and then let it auto-progress a stitch every hour overnight.

Next I will design the "roof" for the clock.

#3dprinting #knitting #electronics.

I was on FLOSS Weekly yesterday, and had a great time talking with @dsearls and @shawnp0wers.

Check it out to hear me talk about the chip supply chain crisis in toilet paper terms, my history with and vision for convergence, and culture clashes in the FLOSS community.

#convergence #FOSS #FLOSS

https://twit.tv/shows/floss-weekly/episodes/721?autostart=false

Well I think I'm calling it quits on this towel set early. This is the last in a long series of warp threads that came loose from the weaver's knot that attached it to the previous warp.

That by itself I could deal with, but what is worse is that all of the loose warp threads on either side of the weaver's knot are now tangling and making it almost impossible to get a shed without separating them each time the shed changes. I don't think I will tie onto an old warp in the future.

#weaving

@triantares Yes, I ultimately used mine as a "crash cart" for a headless server in my house, and eventually that HDMI port broke. I still have the hardware in case some day I feel motivated to repair it.

"I don't like how fragmented Android is and how beholden you are to your carrier to get OS upgrades on your device. I also don't like that all of my favorite Linux apps can't be ported over easily. " 2/2

Of course this pull quote shows that some things haven't changed:

"I'll be honest, I don't really like Android. I want a true Linux distribution in my pocket, not a phone OS where you need a special app to do anything. All of the pre-installed junkware you get from your carrier reminds me of Windows desktops. I don't like that you have to sneak around and root the device to use it truly how you want (and to get a halfway usable terminal)." 1/2

Due to all of the news around our Lapdock Kit, I was recently reminded of this Linux Journal article I wrote almost ten years ago (wow...) about my desire for what we now call convergence--using your phone as your main general-purpose personal computer.

Back then the best I could find was docking a Droid 4 on an Atrix lapdock, and running local Linux apps in a chroot over VNC.

How far we've come!

#convergence #librem5 #lapdock

https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/whats-dock

@golemwire Yes! and there is always the question of whether turning something you enjoy as a hobby, into a job, would rob you of its enjoyment.

@matthew_d_green I admit that using a Roomba to clean my house, and watching Battlebots for entertainment, won't do me any favors when the machines rise up.

I *think* I have managed to talk myself out of getting a very affordable used 60" production mechanical dobby loom with all the automated attachments.

One against it is the fact that it would only fits in my garage, and by the time I could clear out the space it would likely be gone. Do I really want to do production weaving in my dusty garage?

Finally, I guess the biggest argument is that I can't justify actually doing mass production weaving since this is just a hobby.

#weaving

@Kymberly @chipati I have heard of people painting part of their metal heddles, but haven't seen that with texsolv. Maybe you could use colored strips of tape for a colored band?

@chipati Thank you! It has been a very rewarding project so far.

Final beer update: Keg time. I take my time when it comes to fermenting lagers, since at a minimum I want them to ferment for around three weeks and then lager for a few weeks after that. Sometimes I lager in the keg while it carbonates if I'm in a hurry, and other times in the fermenter.

As I transfer to the keg I collect a bit of the beer to take a final gravity reading for my brewing notebook (which I've maintained since 2009) and for a taste. Flat, but good!

#brewing #homebrew