Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

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

Yesterday I learned that there is apparently a motorized attachment (knitking kg-93) for my knitting machine that automates most of the process. You set it up, tell it the number of rows, and it knits back and forth (slowly) leaving you with your knitted fabric. https://youtube.com/watch?v=0ejrLRcvYkE #knitting #machineknitting

I'm becoming quite a fan of @great78@mastodon.archive.org here. Part of my morning routine is now queuing up all of the records that were posted while I was asleep and listen to them with my morning coffee.

It would be really cool if there were some sort of podcast-like RSS feed I could subscribe to and automatically pull down the audio posted each day using my podcast application. Because of how these posts are linked, turning the Mastodon feed into an RSS feed doesn't solve it.

For some people, attention is a drug (and online, it can be profitable too). If an attention addict can't get positive attention they'll settle for negative attention. As they say, "There's no such thing as bad publicity."

Maybe I'm just a contrarian, but while everyone else stares angrily at the loud motorcycle driving down the street blaring horrible music, my instinct is to ignore them and starve them of the negative attention they are demanding.

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

It turns out this wasn't really my fault! After trying again with the proper sized yarn I've determined the #knitting pattern is incorrect. Other hat patterns for this type of knitting machine call for about double the stitches per row and about double the rows.

I learned a lot through this painful process though. I understand enough about how this works that I'm going to try to adapt a different pattern that has proper measurements to the style of hat I want. #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

One use case for a phone+lapdock as a personal laptop that I didn't consider when I wrote this blog post last year (https://puri.sm/posts/my-first-year-of-librem-5-convergence/) was that because you can swap between docked and undocked states without powering off the phone or closing applications, you can also swap between *lapdocks* without losing state.

Where would you use this? Maybe at conferences? Imagine if you owned more than one lapdock and swapped to a fully-charged one when the other one drained. #Librem5 #lapdock

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 have finished all of the gifts I had planned to weave for this holiday season, which means the next project is completely up to me!

I think I'm actually going to try out the Brother knitting machine I got for free last month, but have been too busy weaving to set up. #knitting #machineknitting

"Maybe Fediverse," he thought, "isn't driven by hate."
"There are no algorithms that tally and rate!"
And what happened then? Well...in Tootville they say,
That the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day!
And the minute his heart didn't feel quite so tight,
He whizzed with new posts through the bright morning light,
And he posted good posts! And his kindness was loosed!
And he, HE HIMSELF! The Grinch's posts got REAL boosts!

He HADN'T stopped Fediverse from coming! It CAME!
Because of good mods, it came just the same!
And the Grinch, with his grinch-face-ice-cold at his screen,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: "What does this mean?"
"It came despite trolling! Despite all of my bots!"
"It came despite politics, and my hateful thoughts!"
And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!

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

And he did see some posts rising from his screen's glow
They started in low. Then they started to grow.
But the posts weren't sad! Why, they all sounded merry!
It couldn't be so! But it WAS merry! VERY!
He stared at his timeline! The Grinch popped his eyes!
Then he shook! What he saw was a shocking surprise!
Every Toot down in Tootville, the tall and the small,
Was posting! Without seeing his posts at all!