Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

I knitted a shawl! Well, the flatbed knitting machine did a lot of the work, but I helped. This was the second attempt as I ran out of yarn halfway through for the first attempt and the local yarn store only had the single skein. I ended up selecting a different yarn for this attempt.

#knitting #machineknitting

@katherined But you can see a video of the project that is inspiring my own project here: https://hackaday.com/2023/01/23/knitting-clock-makes-you-a-scarf-for-next-year/

@katherined I will definitely make a video once it is done, but it will be so slow moving (one stitch per half hour) that you would need a time lapse over a few months to see something interesting.

All the functional pieces of my hackaday-inspired knitting clock are in place:

* Working circular knitting machine
* Spare Raspberry Pi I had lying around
* Adafruit motor control hat
* Spare stepper motor from a broken 3D printer
* Software to control the stepper motor

The next and more challenging step is to figure out the best way to attach the motor to the knitting machine and build an attractive case to mount everything.

#knitting #electronics #rpi #raspberrypi

@JoanESheldon Thank you!

@spaetz They are very, very cool and work surprisingly well. I give it a good wind when I start shaving and then just wind it up a bit each time I rinse the blade.

You can find vintage advertisements which show the clockwork mechanism. I have one framed by my sink: https://social.librem.one/@kyle/108064701145880186

I rotate through my set of favorite razors whenever it's time to change the blade. The Gilette Fat Boy and Slim (far left in picture) are great razors, as is the red tip (3rd from left). Yet each time I rotate to the Stahly Live Blade (center of picture) I'm surprised and impressed again at how well it shaves.

I don't know if it's the fact that it vibrates, or the design of the head, but with a new sharp blade it beats everything else in my collection. Underrated razor.

#shaving

My Purism GPG key expired today so I updated the expiry and published the key to keys.openpgp.org (the link is in my profile).

In my case I normally use subkeys stored on smart cards, and keep my private keys offline and stored in a safe place on a pair of thumb drives for redundancy, so updating the expiry is a bit more involved than it might be for most people.

#gpg #pgp

The best way to get over the fear of messing up something you have handwoven is to put it to use right away!

#weaving

@Triffen Thank you for these updates!

I finished weaving my pair of doubleweave overshot hand towels! I'm really happy with how these turned out.

In these pictures you can see how the colors invert on the opposite side of the towel. On one towel I experimented with inverting the colors for the stripe and I think it does add an extra dimension and visual interest to it, but I'm also curious which of the two you prefer. I also subtly modified the pattern on that one so the pattern around the stripe was symmetrical.

#weaving

@betsywaliszewski If you mean Linux Fest NorthWest, in the past it was James Mason.

@Viss @hacks4pancakes I also got into 3D printing during that era and I can say a lot has changed since then. In particular these days you can get a surprisingly high quality printer for $200-300. The Ender 3 and Ender 5 product line in particular seems to have a big community behind it. I personally have an Ender 5 Pro and have been pleased with the prints I get from it.

Another batch of vintage Knitking magazines arrived! This is an even larger batch than the last one from the late 80s and early 90s, and spans the years 1972 through 1978. I have the full year's worth of issues in some cases in this batch.

My wife reviewed the last batch and while she found many of the pictures amusing, she didn't want me to try to make any of them. We'll see whether this batch from the `70s does any better!

#knitting #machineknitting #vintage

@yaelwrites I'd love to see a round-up of links to your favorites at the end!

@shawnp0wers DNS.

After seeing this @hackaday post about a knitting clock, I've decided to try to make one of my own. It will be my first electronics project with stepper motors so I imagine there will be quite a bit to learn.

https://hackaday.com/2023/01/23/knitting-clock-makes-you-a-scarf-for-next-year/

#knitting #hackaday

@RL_Dane Thank you! Persian carpets are a whole different level! I have a new appreciation for what goes into carpet making ever since I started weaving.

@rowenamonde Thank you!