Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

My knitting machine clock, Tempus Nectit, is complete! I advanced it to the current time and mounted it on the wall. The white section is waste yarn to cast on, and the red stripe marks Valentine's Day. The shiny metal "tooth" marks the hour hand. Currently it is set to noon. The clock will advance every hour, completing a full circle (and row) every 12 hours, or two rows a day.

Now I have the massive task of the technical write-up for my site.

#knitting #3dprinting #electronics

I really miss writing a column for Linux Journal and would like an outlet for this pent-up writing energy that compensates me for my time. I have many book ideas that topically fall outside the risks tech publishers are willing to take.

For instance, I have a lot of still-relevant LJ articles that I have already curated into a book w/ topical chapters.

Is Amazon really the only game in town for self-publishing w/ print on demand and good distribution? I'd rather avoid self-hosting a store.

The case for my knitting machine clock is complete!

I could hang this on the wall now and start knitting this year's scarf, but I'm going to spend time on the software side. The fact that this has 22 hooks leaves me with imperfect options. Right now I do one stitch per hour, and half stitches at 0,6,12,18 to make one row per day. I *could* simply divide a full day's motion across 24 hrs, or do it in 12 hours (2 rows/day) to mimic a normal clock. Thoughts?

#knitting #3dprinting #electronics

It has been really neat to run into people at SCALE who have been coming for many years. I have had two different people come up to me and reference my SCALE 11x keynote (10 years ago!) and say how it inspired them to take up 3D printing.

#scale20x #3dprinting

Hardware is electric
Software is eclectic
And the firmware is moving
To semi-firm gluing
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

And the man in the back frees firmware in his stack
So he's going to the Ballroom B
And the girl in the corner is learning about firmware
So 3pm at the Ballroom B
Ballroom B

#scale20x

If you are at SCALE 20X today and want to know how firmware is like tofu, come by my talk "Free Software Policy with Semi-Firm Firmware" and say hi. It is at 3pm in Ballroom B.

https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale/20x/presentations/free-software-policy-semi-firm-firmware

#scale20x

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