Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

Halfway through tying a new warp onto the remnants of the old. Wow this is tedious work, and there is at least 3 more hours to go, but I still think it is faster and less error-prone than re-threading it.

#weaving #Fiberuary

I'm weaving a new set of towels using the same doubleweave overshot pattern as the last set, but this time using yellow and brown unmercerized cotton.

Because the pattern is the same, I can save time by tying my new warp onto the remnants of the old warp that are still threaded in the loom. You simply use a weaver's knot to tie each individual new warp thread to a corresponding old warp thread and then wind it back on. Only about 550 warp threads to go!

#weaving #Fiberuary

Now that the knitting machine is mounted on the board, you can really see how much space it would take up on the wall. We thought it over and decided to replace the large 48-hook version with the smaller 22-hook version.

Fortunately everything I did to the machine is reversible, and I still have the box and all the accessories. I know someone who I think will really like this one as a gift so it won't go to waste.

More progress on my knitting clock. I've mounted all of the main components to the backer board. I also wired two buttons to GPIO pins and wrote a simple script to advance the machine forward and backwards one stitch with the buttons. I'll likely use this when I'm casting on and casting off.

The top of the clock will be where the stepper motor is. Now that I know how the pieces fit, I will cut the top so it is house-shaped, and build the sides and front of the clock.

#knitting #electronics

I wrote a blog post about the dangers of focusing too much on hardware specs to predict performance when choosing hardware. In my experience many other factors (such as the software the hardware will run) have much more of an impact. Focusing on specs alone incentivizes bad practices like planned obsolescence and disposable hardware.

https://puri.sm/posts/the-danger-of-focusing-on-specs/

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

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

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

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

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

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

For the second fancy hand towel, I'm experimenting with inverting the colors for the stripe section. I like the effect but now I'm wondering whether it would be even better to invert the colors for the borders around the stripe as well. The problem is, now that I've committed to this, I can't really try that idea out on the other half of this towel without making it asymmetrical.

#weaving