Today was a good day, I think, for finishing a little guy that I’ve been carrying around incomplete for a couple of weeks.
Today was a good day, I think, for finishing a little guy that I’ve been carrying around incomplete for a couple of weeks.
I’m traveling but that doesn’t mean I’m not machine knitting!
I am so grateful to Cristina Talpa for her make-a-scarf workshop. Amy found it via the Makery and we thought it seemed too good to pass up.
And it was! While the workshop is geared for total beginners to machine knitting, Cristina smoothly adjusted to work around things I already knew. She taught me some great new techniques and helped me improve some less-than-optimal techniques I came to the workshop with.
Plus, this scarf! I love it! Amy enjoyed posing me on an outing in Berlin today to snap a few photos.
I’m so grateful for the opportunity to meet an expert (and experimental!) machine knitter, work on a garment together, and chat about the state of the craft.
Thanks so much, Cristina!
After many years away, I have returned to in-person IndieWeb events, for IndieWebCamp Berlin 2025!
In past years, I have tried to capture my experience for each day and session in a long-form blog post, with thoughts on sessions, project ideas, progress made, ideas for the future, etc.
I’m pretty tired, though, so instead here is a collection of photos from my phone. It is both too-few and yet too-many!
We had a good turnout, and I was impressed with how many folks demo’d their personal sites, in whatever state they were in, and shared their plans and hopes to improve them! ❤️
You can find a recap of the Intros session on the IndieWeb wiki.
After intros we took a short break for coffee and the restroom, then inscribed the runes and constructed the grid for summoning our schedule for Saturday.
With our futures committed to ink and paper, we had our first short sessions. Then it was time to break for lunch.
Fed and caffeinated, we returned to our sessions.
You can find a list of sessions, each with links to notes (and, eventually, videos) for each, on the IWC Berlin 2025 schedule page.
Before 5pm (1700) we cleaned up and moved out. I was beat, so I headed back to where I’m staying for food, before meeting up with Amy and our friend Jessica, who showed us KPop Demon Hunters. I loved it. 🥹
Once caffeinated, we returned to the scene of Saturday’s summoning. We each inscribed small prayers for the day on small paper squares and arranged them next to the scheduling grid as a blessing.
Then everyone hacked on their websites! Until lunch time!
A short couple of hours of hacking later, it was time for Demos. Everyone shared the projects they had tackled, showed their progress, and talked about future work.
After demos it was time to wind it down, clean up, photograph and take down the schedule board, pack up our pins and stickers, and say our goodbyes and see-you-laters.
It was weird to be back, and it was good to be back. To catch up after a long time away, to continue conversations as if no time had passed at all, and to meet new friends in meatspace.
Thanks to everyone who made this possible! An incomplete list would include:
I had an idea of a couple of “easy” projects, but ended up spending most of my time fixing up some posts with images I broke when I deleted a bucked from Amazon S3, thinking I had already updated those posts. I hadn’t! So, I dug into my backups, re-uploaded, and updated 50-something images across 30 or so posts, mostly from my February 2011 thing-a-day posts.
My first easy project was to fix up some bad markup and styles where YouTube embeds were breaking out of my layout at small screen sizes. This was largely due to my awful old templates and styles, and I ended up manually fixing about a half-dozen posts by hand.
The second “““easy””” project was to try and figure out why I couldn’t sign in to the IndieWeb wiki, using my own IndieAuth server.
It seems like the indielogin.com service that the IndieWeb wiki uses has drifted from the IndieAuth spec, in anticipation of an update to the spec that has not yet materialized.
It’s too much to recap here, but you can find the chat log where I bother Aaron Parecki about it.
A little while later, he told me to “try again”, and…
Mid afternoon horror film 🎥 😱
IndieWebCamp Berlin Day 2 (Create Day!)
This post will be part of a series, as I join KnitFactoryImpl's knitalong of a set in sleeve crew neck sweater for channel members. KnitFactoryImpl (aka Carson)'s videos have been a huge help and source of inspiration on my short knitting journey so far, so it's really fun to get to join in and participate!
I got serious about learning machine knitting just this year, and only just finished my first sweater (which I need to post about!), so I think I barely qualify to do this project. It uses a combination of techniques that I have used in isolation, like increases, decreases, and short rows, but all together. I recently got an attachment for doing ribbing, which I've barely learned to use, but I want to do ribbed hems.
Adding to the challenge, I didn't quite know what sweater I actually wanted to make! Thankfully, producer Amy saw some promise in our yarn stash and made a request of a 4-color striped sweater made from some cotton yarn in sorta-trans-pride-flag colors.
Following the instructions for the knitalong, and Carson's evergreen advice, I made gauge swatches for the body, with a couple of different striping options, as well as a sample swatch of ribbing. I used a tension that I've been pretty comfortable working with this yarn so far. We plan to machine wash and dry the finished sweater, so we treated the swatches the same way to see how the fabric turned out.
We were both pleased with how the swatches came out! I think the finished sweater will look nice based on these. More importantly, during swatching I learned that I absolutely do not have it in me to do a 4-color striped knit at the point in my knitting journey! 😅 Until I am able to invest in a color changer, I am going to focus on fewer colors, so we agreed on a pattern of black and purple stripes, evenly spaced at 12 rows each.
With gauge swatches in hand, it was time to visit the pattern generator for the set in sleeve crew neck sweater and punch in my gauge measurements, as well as producer Amy's measurements for how she wants the final sweater to fit.
The resulting pattern is a set of written instructions for each part of the sweater: front and back panels that are worked the same from the bottom but differ as you approach the top, sleeves worked up from the cuffs, and the neckline which is worked as you combine the pieces.
Carson recommends starting with a sleeve, for many reasons, and that's the topic of her first video for the knitalong, so that's where I started!
Each sleeve is a journey, starting with a cuff (25 rows of ribbing, in my case), then switching to stockinette ("regular") knitting for the long body of the sleeve, with regular increases as you widen the sleeve from the hand to the arm hole. At the maximum width, we're not quite done. We bind off some stitches for the underarm, then do a few different sequences of gradual decreases, and finally some round shaping with short rows, before finishing the piece to remove it from the bed.
For this sweater, color stripes would add extra complexity. No matter what else was happening in the pattern, I would need to stop every 12 rows to switch out one color for the other. In theory, the mechanics of each is not difficult - my machine has a little notch at the ends to park one yarn while the other works. But I would have to make a color switch every 12 rows while also following the rest of the pattern, such as increasing every 10 rows. In a way, I would be working two sets of instructions at once. Thankfully, I once again followed Carson's advice and printed the pattern on paper. After much fidgeting and scrunching of my face, I was able to scribble out number sequences until I was pretty sure it would work.
With pattern in hand, I set up the machine and got to work. I followed my machine manual instructions for casting on 1x1 ribbing at the required number of stitches and knit the cuff. I transferred all stitches to the main bed for the body of the sleeve and knit my first 10 rows to an increase. Two more and it was time to switch colors. Increase again at the next multiple of 10. Then another color change at 24 rows and oh god-
I believe I improperly set the yarn in the feeder after changing colors. With the incoming yarn failing to feed, the machine promptly dropped switches from their needles. I was most of the way across the bed before I realized this.
In theory, it was possible to save this piece. I used my transfer tools to pick up a few stitches, but between the weights on the work and my clumsy fingers I was going to have to rework a lot of stitches. I decided to cut my losses, unravel everything so far, and call it a day.
The next day I started again, this time taking extra care to check that the yarn was properly ready to feed whenever I changed colors. Keeping track of all the changes was challenging, and at times during the decreases and short rowing I ended up off by a stitch here or there. But I made it through!
At this point I took a break, cast my ballot in early voting, and enjoyed my afternoon.
With one sleeve done, the second was sure to go faster. I felt much more confident in the rhythm of the changes and techniques. I even stopped to take a progress photo!
This photo was taken after the long sequence of increases, which end with binding off some stitches on either end to make a "shelf" for the under arm. Completely by coincidence, I took this photo right before I made a horrible mistake.
After the bind-off for the underarm shelf comes a sequence of decreases, at difference cadences. Starting from this photo, I was meant to knit 12 rows, decreasing a stitch on each side each row, followed by a couple of sequences which involved decreases only every third row.
I got mixed up and did 12 rows at the slower cadence of decreases. 😭
I'm not skilled at it, but I was able to "unknit" a couple of rows, pulling the previous stitches back onto their needles. I suspected this would become confusing or problematic when I got to the rows where I had decreased, requiring complex moves to "un-decrease". However, before I got to that point, the unknitting process was causing stitches to fall off needles entirely, multiple at a time.
At this point I needed a new strategy. Thankfully, another of Carson's videos, where she makes this absurdly wonderful wolf sweater, had the answer.
I removed the weights from the piece and carefully removed the piece from the needles. Then, I found the stitches from the row in the photo above, just after completing the bind-off for the underarm shelf. I carefully re-hung that row of stitches across the number of needles from that row of the pattern.
Then I tucked the knitting back in, added weights, and restarted the pattern as if I had not completely goofed it.
And... this worked out totally fine! After finishing the piece I went back and unraveled the "teratoma" from my miscounted piece. The anomalous row is barely visible, and I think the only side-effect is that I'll have a couple of extra ends to work end during assembly. Whew!
With two sleeves completed, I could not resist asking producer Amy to help me complete a familiar shot from Carson's videos.
Neither of these sleeves is perfect, but I think overall they look really nice, and the little imperfections will be hidden in seams as it all comes together. Producer Amy is really loving the look so far, and we're both looking forward to how it shapes up after washing and assembly.
The body panels are expected as the next pieces in the knitalong. However, I'm not going to have much time to knit in the next couple of weeks! 😅
I look forward to checking out other folks' progress and a (careful, controlled, certainly not rushed) busy weekend of catching up when I get a chance.
Thanks to everyone involved in making this knitalong possible! I am grateful to be learning so much and feeling like part of a community of folks doing the same!
The mini-rustoid is among the delightful horrors waiting to be exhumed in Animal Crossing New Leaf.
Great news! my candle dealer bugs rock is back with a new line for spoopy season! Order now and get these monstrous creations:
Plus some bugs rock matches and stickers and maybe some little plastic scaries and a temporary tattoo!
As a bonus you can guess which of these made me sneeze a bunch when I opened the box! (I’m fine, my allergies and I have come to an agreement. Thanks for asking!)
The Level Up is an indie improv showcase. Join us as we watch amazing New York indie improv talents gain XP on the Magnet stage, unlock new achievements, and reach new milestones. Or do comedy.
Come support Michael as he dons his hosting-duties cap for three exciting indie teams!
I’ll be playing in with Michael and the rest of the Level Up!
Looking forward to it! And to seeing you there!! (Yes, you. Come on out!!!)
Saturday October 4th, 2025 @ 10:30pm
Magnet Theater
254 West 29th St (btwn 7th and 8th Ave.)
New York City, NY 10001
Tickets $10: https://magnettheater.com/show/tickets/60022/
Looks like Vimeo is being acquired. To my eyes it appears to be a private equity play by a private equity player with a history of making a mess of their toys.
I know that some folks have seen Vimeo as an alternative to the algorithmic ad-ridden hustle-bustle hell-world that is YouTube. For example, Vi Hart moved all of her 10+ years of YouTube to https://vimeo.com/vihart ! I worry for the future of all those works.
For my part, I uploaded a single video to Vimeo almost 16 years ago to see if it would be a suitable place to post video for sharing to the social networks I was on at the time. I guess I didn’t love it. I’ve now mirrored that single video to my own site. No big deal: MakerBot #131 printing bike handlebar mount bottom
It's not all machine knitting around here!
Last week I took a screen printing class at NYC Resistor, a lovely hackerspace in Brooklyn.
It was their first time teaching this class, and fittingly they taught a screen printing technique that was new to me!
We were asked to bring in a vector art file. I really let myself get in my head about art for previous screen printing classes, so this time I vowed to do the first dumb idea that made me laugh. I was inspired by a recent delightful discovery in my Monday night gaming group and spent a half hour goofing on it in Inkscape.
Enough talk. Here are some process photos! (with more talk as captions)
And here it is after washing! I tried to match the stoic look of the cactus. 🌵
Many thanks to NYC Resistor and our instructors Woody and Mean Gene.
Thanks also to the other folks in the class, who were fun and chill. Their designs game out great, but that's their business.
I look forward to doing some more screen printing at a future NYC Resistor craft night!
106387 bytes. Updated As mentioned in my first-hat and forbidden socks posts my Brother KH-930e knitting machine was unable to knit two-color Fair Isle patterning due to two cam buttons being stuck together.
I didn't really know where to start with figuring this out. I remember doing some semi-fruitless web searching, before finally deciding to learn how to disassemble the carriage enough to look at it and see if I could find something obvious.
I started by hunting down the service manual PDF for my machine and following the instructions there. Those instructions and diagrams helped me get the handle and the cover off, as well as most of the way to removing the cartridge-like structure that mounts the cam control buttons. I was scared off by the "remove these springs" steps, as I did not see a way to remove the small springs without bending them.
At the end of this process I was able to determine that the buttons themselves were not stuck together. It was the plates that each of these buttons controls. If I wanted to get inside to see what was going on, I would definitely have needed to get those springs out, and plan for some messier and more fiddly work.
Disappointed and anxious, I reassembled the carriage. Thankfully, it still worked, though still without Fair Isle support. Between the mess of old oil and grease, and my anxiety about getting the carriage apart and together again, I didn't even take photos of this part of the process.
That's when I found the videos that would have saved me all the trouble!
This Cleaning Brother Carriages from theanswerladyknits on YouTube has so much information about Brother (and other) knitting machines, in-depth disassembly and cleaning videos, lists of what to buy, and even explanations about common issues like the exact button-sticking problem I was facing. I cannot stress enough how relieving and exciting it was to find these videos.
I went a little overboard and bought their whole deep-clean-and-restore shopping list, which ended up being a little over $100 worth of oils and solvents and lubes and oil-soaking rags. I only planned to use 2 or 3 of these, in order to unstick the button cams, but wanted the other stuff on hand in case I needed to go further.
Once I had all the fluids, I picked up an aluminum turkey pan as a portable work tray. This served to keep all the oil and gunk away from the surfaces in our small apartment, let me spray next to a window for better ventilation, and store it out of the way as I let things soak.
Our carriage was pretty clean, overall, but with old yellow-orange grease pretty visible. According to the videos on theanswerladyknits channel, this is old lithium grease, likely from when the carriage was first assembled. That suggests our machine had not seen much use since its early days.
I removed the plastic parts for the buttons and knobs for hand-cleaning and wiped away the visible globs of grease that I could see, then sprayed "aero kroil" into the cam button assembly, especially focusing on the bottom area where the "tuck" "multicolor" cam plates need to slide past one another. Within minutes, the kroil had done its work and I was able to slide the two plates independently, hooray!
I let the kroil work overnight. As theanswerlady's husband "Ask Jack" tells it, kroil a "creeping oil" that works its way over and between metal parts, freeing them up, then also works its way out. However, he also says that we don't want to leave any hydrocarbon oils inside the machine.
So the next day, it was time to chase out all the kroil, and as much of the old lithium grease and any other "crud" it had freed up. I used a can of LPS-1 to spray into and through all the nooks and crannies of the carriage that I could get to, using a stiff brush and blue towels to try and "mop out" all the gunk I could reach.
After the scrubbing I propped up the carriage for an hour or so to let the LPS 1 drip out before flipping it over to let it drip some more. I bagged and tossed the soaked shop towels and used some fresh ones to lightly blot away obvious pools and drips as I re-assembled the carriage.
Before testing things out, I sprayed the underside of the carriage, as well as the machine's needle bed, with "ask Jack"'s recommended "LPS FG" food-grade dry silicone lube, and gave everything a good wipe down.
After a couple of false starts I got things going and everything moved much more smoothly than before. I set up some waste cotton yarn across all 200 needles and knit a long swatch at varying tensions, working the mechanisms and soaking up any excess lube and junk that might come out.
Finally, I pulled out the hat pattern I had worked out for Producer Amy a couple of weeks before, knit the hem, and engaged two-color Fair Isle pattern knitting...
I think we're in business!!
Returning to my original "curriculum":
Looks like I have "no excuses" left not to disassemble the on-board electronics to replace them with AYAB. 😳
In truth, I would like a bit more practice with Fair Isle using the "vanilla" machine. Specifically, the hat above is done with an overall repeating pattern, but there are different techniques if you want to do a "motif" that is constrained to just one part of the knitting. I want to make some swatches with isolated patterns and end-needle selection, practice managing floats, get used to the way pattern knitting row counts feel "off by one", see how Fair Isle affects the finished gauge of the fabric, etc.
Meanwhile, I've started a basic sweater with hilarious results. Stay tuned, like and subscribe, etc. etc. etc. 😎
Today is a good day, I think, to make little guys.
Pattern from Machine Knitting Monthly Oct 2025, which calls for spider legs, but I think the “little guy”-ness is correct without them.
