Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

The next book on my reading list is Plutarch's Lives (Dreyden). On the inside cover is this dedication to the 15 year old boy who first received this 1908 four-volume set new in 1909.

I assume the gift was intended to train the young man in moral virtues. My understanding is that this was a somewhat common practice in prior eras. The idea was that young men would learn and emulate the virtues of the Greek and Roman heroes described within, presumably without the vices.

#reading #books #history

I should note that this book is also available to check out in digital form at archive.org's library. I reviewed the digital version myself before buying a physical copy:

https://archive.org/details/keepmewarmonenig00haro/

I was reading a book on the history of American coverlets and it referenced (and was clearly inspired by) this book, Keep Me Warm One Night, an exhaustive history of the Canadian coverlet weaving tradition. The book is out of print, and most of the used copies were rather expensive.

I found a copy for a more reasonable price so here it is, part of my weaving library! My mom has hinted she'd like a traditional coverlet, and it will likely be inspired by one from this book.

#weaving

I finished Sense and Sensibility and really enjoyed it. After reading it we watched the famous, star-studded movie adaptation and I have to say while the acting was great I left it disappointed.

While I understand the need to cut characters and plot points to fit a novel into a movie, I felt that the key point of the story--Marianne's maturity into Elinor's retraint and composure as an idealized feminine form for the time--was skipped in favor of a straight-forward romance.

#reading #books

My towels are finished! I handstitched the hems with a felling stitch using matching thread so it would be invisible, and because this is a reversible pattern and has no "right" side, I put one hem on each side of the towel. In this picture you can see what each side looks like. The one on the left (with some treadling mistakes) I will keep and the one on the right will be submitted to a competition.

#weaving

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

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

"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

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

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

Knitting clock update: I discovered the bottom case was a bit too tall so I took advantage of the fact that I needed to print it again to do a few other refinements.

I also took advantage of needing to transfer all of the components from the old case to the new to take a *lot* of pictures documenting the step-by-step process of assembling this.

The next step is to finish refining the lid that will cover the bottom case.

#3dprinting #knitting #electronics

I recently invested in an 128oz mini-keg that fits in my fridge door. This lets me serve my homebrewed beer more conveniently than filling individual bottles. The downside is you can't tell at a glance how many more servings are in the keg.

The solution? I weighed the keg empty (~ 4 pounds) and now I can weigh the keg, subtract 4, and since a pint's a pound the world around, the number of pounds is approximately the number of pints left (in this case 5 pints).

#brewing #beer #homebrew

I'm halfway through the second doubleweave overshot towel, and so far things are going smoothly and mistake-free! I probably won't do another update on this project until they are off the loom and hemmed, unless a fun disaster strikes.

#weaving