IndieWeb Summit 2019

Jonathan LaCour cleverdevil.io/profile/cleverdevil

Machine knitting: carriage return to work

#machine-knitting #maintenance #hats

September 22, 2025 10:46am -04:00

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2025-09-22T10:46:00-0400",
    "url": "https://martymcgui.re/2025/09/22/machine-knitting-carriage-return-to-work/",
    "category": [
        "machine-knitting",
        "maintenance",
        "hats"
    ],
    "name": "Machine knitting: carriage return to work",
    "content": {
        "text": "As mentioned in my first-hat\u00a0and 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.\nI 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.\nI 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.\nAt 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.\nDisappointed 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.\nThat's when I found the videos that would have saved me all the trouble!\nThis Cleaning Brother Carriages\u00a0from theanswerladyknits on YouTube\u00a0has\u00a0so 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.\nI 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.\nOnce I had all the\u00a0fluids, 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.\n\nBrother KH-930e carriage in a turkey pan. Let's... cook?Metal internals of the carriage with the top handle, tension dial, and plastic cover removed. Yellow-orange grease is visible around the tension dial.\n\nOur 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.\n\nCarriage resting on blue shop towels with white plastic dial and button covers removed. Visible grease has been wiped away.Angled view to better show the cam button assembly. There are 6 metal tangs. Two pairs on either end are side-by-side, while the middle pair are stacked vertically.A finger indicates the space between the cam cartridge and the carriage bottom, where oil will be applied.\n\nI 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!\nI let the kroil work overnight. As\u00a0theanswerlady's husband \"Ask Jack\" tells\u00a0it, kroil a \"creeping oil\" that works its way over and between metal parts, freeing them up, then also works its way\u00a0out. However, he also says that we don't want to leave any hydrocarbon oils inside the machine.\nSo 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.\n\nMe holding the carriage as I mop out some gunk with a blue towel. My turkey-pan work station is on a window sill by an open window. Blue towels soaked in oil and silicone lubricant line the pan. A small brush, roll of blue shop towels, and spray can of LPS 1 are visible.\n\nAfter 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.\nBefore 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.\nAfter a couple of false starts I got things going and everything moved\u00a0much\u00a0more 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.\nFinally, 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...\n\nMe hunched over the machine, transfer tool in hand. A wide rectangle of black and gray knitting hangs from the needle bed.A black and gray beanie with a black brim. The main body of the hat has a clear pattern featuring a diagonal grid.\n\nI think we're in business!!\nReturning to my original \"curriculum\":\n\u2705 Do some swatching\n  \u2705 Make a single-color hat\n  \u2705\u00a0Make a two-color hat with a Fair Isle pattern\n  \ud83d\udd1c AYAB time\nLooks like I have \"no excuses\" left not to disassemble the on-board electronics to replace them with AYAB. \ud83d\ude33\nIn 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.\nMeanwhile, I've started a basic sweater with\u00a0hilarious results. Stay tuned, like and subscribe, etc. etc. etc. \ud83d\ude0e",
        "html": "<p>As mentioned in my <a href=\"https://martymcgui.re/2025/09/08/machine-knitting-whats-up-with-that/\">first-hat</a>\u00a0and <a href=\"https://martymcgui.re/2025/09/18/machine-knitting-forbidden-socks/\">forbidden socks</a> posts my Brother KH-930e knitting machine was unable to knit two-color Fair Isle patterning due to two cam buttons being stuck together.</p>\n<p>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.</p>\n<p>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.</p>\n<p>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.</p>\n<p>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.</p>\n<p>That's when I found the videos that would have saved me all the trouble!</p>\n<p>This <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLezPGIR4gsIeW2j1sifx1xLJkIoPAv2s1\">Cleaning Brother Carriages</a>\u00a0from <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/@theanswerladyknits\">theanswerladyknits on YouTube</a>\u00a0has\u00a0<i>so much </i>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.</p>\n<p>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 <i>go further</i>.</p>\n<p>Once I had all the\u00a0<i>fluids</i>, 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.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/ca/8e/9d/38/c08611f685c888a41398577fe4f437b4cc597634b37ebbe561cc197e.\" alt=\"\" />Brother KH-930e carriage in a turkey pan. Let's... cook?<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/60/bb/a5/16/01b6b4b10b59c7d6565ef5051f759810ce7ebb64a7e308054c99b88a.\" alt=\"\" />Metal internals of the carriage with the top handle, tension dial, and plastic cover removed. Yellow-orange grease is visible around the tension dial.\n\n<p>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.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/07/fe/14/76/adbec1a42ac66a152a691547df7d2307c3f818fd0d14127694c6b625.\" alt=\"\" />Carriage resting on blue shop towels with white plastic dial and button covers removed. Visible grease has been wiped away.<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/e3/1e/8c/54/4e77649ddd3a7f2f68f6888d0513d133c5d826b6234bdf1068b44ab9.\" alt=\"\" />Angled view to better show the cam button assembly. There are 6 metal tangs. Two pairs on either end are side-by-side, while the middle pair are stacked vertically.<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/c0/a2/5c/1b/fe41dbe97a8b9602d4d0b3666e0973c5fd9ce0dc828f947755e35ac4.\" alt=\"\" />A finger indicates the space between the cam cartridge and the carriage bottom, where oil will be applied.\n\n<p>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!</p>\n<p>I let the kroil work overnight. As\u00a0theanswerlady's husband \"Ask Jack\" tells\u00a0it, kroil a \"creeping oil\" that works its way over and between metal parts, freeing them up, then also works its way\u00a0<i>out</i>. However, he also says that we don't want to leave any hydrocarbon oils inside the machine.</p>\n<p>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.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/89/3c/43/c7/e58f9e8d8408b1bded6b0535deb083c9f5661d251cc4ec48e2b59c44.\" alt=\"\" />Me holding the carriage as I mop out some gunk with a blue towel. My turkey-pan work station is on a window sill by an open window. Blue towels soaked in oil and silicone lubricant line the pan. A small brush, roll of blue shop towels, and spray can of LPS 1 are visible.\n\n<p>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.</p>\n<p>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.</p>\n<p>After a couple of false starts I got things going and everything moved\u00a0<i>much</i>\u00a0more 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.</p>\n<p>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...</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/4b/76/7b/55/77c67d0842997a90c251663e9da3bbe34e7d47972995a6d2bdd5d479.\" alt=\"\" />Me hunched over the machine, transfer tool in hand. A wide rectangle of black and gray knitting hangs from the needle bed.<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/31/7a/e9/59/f49b14a709ff906fd63bbae1b2ae1e4106f3159fa803596c092650de.\" alt=\"\" />A black and gray beanie with a black brim. The main body of the hat has a clear pattern featuring a diagonal grid.\n\n<p>I think we're in business!!</p>\n<p>Returning to my original \"curriculum\":</p>\n<ul><li>\u2705 Do some swatching</li>\n  <li>\u2705 Make a single-color hat</li>\n  <li>\u2705\u00a0Make a two-color hat with a Fair Isle pattern</li>\n  <li>\ud83d\udd1c AYAB time</li>\n</ul><p>Looks like I have \"no excuses\" left not to disassemble the on-board electronics to replace them with <a href=\"https://www.ayab-knitting.com/\">AYAB</a>. \ud83d\ude33</p>\n<p>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.</p>\n<p>Meanwhile, I've started a basic sweater with\u00a0<i>hilarious results</i>. Stay tuned, like and subscribe, etc. etc. etc. \ud83d\ude0e</p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Marty McGuire",
        "url": "https://martymcgui.re/",
        "photo": "https://martymcgui.re/images/logo.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "article",
    "_id": "46074638",
    "_source": "175"
}

fluffy beesbuzz.biz

Machine knitting: forbidden socks

#machine-knitting #socks #making

September 18, 2025 7:13pm -04:00

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2025-09-18T19:13:00-0400",
    "url": "https://martymcgui.re/2025/09/18/machine-knitting-forbidden-socks/",
    "category": [
        "machine-knitting",
        "socks",
        "making"
    ],
    "name": "Machine knitting: forbidden socks",
    "content": {
        "text": "Before I reveal the story foreshadowed in my post about machine knitting some first hats, a digression.\nOne of my main goals with machine knitting is to be comfortable enough with the machine and techniques required to make custom two-color patterns with AYAB. To that end, I had given myself a very short syllabus:\n\u2705 Do some swatching\n  \u2705 Make a single-color hat\n  \u274c Make a two-color hat with a Fair Isle pattern\n  \ud83d\udd1c AYAB time\nMy attempt at a two-color Fair Isle patterned hat came out as a cool-but-wrong tuck stitch patterned hat. The \"MC\" button that activates multicolor Fair Isle knitting sits right over the \"T\" (tuck stitch) button, and they were well and truly frozen together. I will save that story for another time.\nMeanwhile, the machine could definitely still knit, so I had no excuse not to keep learning and practicing.\nWhich brings me to socks.\nAs knitting project go, socks would appear to be small, fast, and easy. Depending on whose pattern you are following, there are a few techniques to learn. Plus you have to make two of them, so you are tested on your consistency.\nUnfortunately, a lot of sock-knitting content is for circular knitting machines, or double-bed knitting machines with ribbing attachments, or for hand knitters.\nWhich is why I became\u00a0obsessed\u00a0with Diana Sullivan's No-Sew Socks\n<iframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/hiFB5KsnEN0?si=wumuFG8pI8PEd717\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen></iframe>\nThese socks are designed to be made on a single bed standard gauge knitting machine - like mine! They are knit top-to-bottom, back-to-front starting at the rear ankle hem, going down to a rounded heel, across the foot bottom, and around the toe. At that point, you switch techniques, picking up the stitches from previous rows to work your way back up and over the top of the foot, ankle, and hem. When it comes off the machine, it's a whole sock. You just need to hide the end threads, wash it, and block it.\nWhile my machine matched the pattern requirements, Diana's pattern calls for thicker wool-blend sock yarn than what I have on-hand. In my \"practice phase\", I'm using thinner two-ply cotton, which means I have to adjust the row and column counts from Diana's pattern by a conversion factor - a multiplier based on the ratio of Diana's sock yarn gauge measurements with my own.\nWhile some of this is easy multiplication, some of the techniques require adding or removing stitches at some \"rate\". In this case, creating the curved heel and tow areas involves \"short rows\", where more and more end needles are held at their current row while more rows are added to the middle. When the number of rows and stitches changes, you've also got to change instructions like \"add one stitch into hold at the end of each row\". Thankfully, my gauge's stitches-per-inch measured \"close enough\" to Diana's pattern, so I only needed to deal with the difference in rows - my thinner yarn came out to about 1.5x rows-per-inch compared with Diana's.\nI did my best! Here's the pattern I came up with to try and make socks for Producer Amy.\nPink sticky note with calculations and knitting instructions in pencil.My pattern mostly follows Diana's until we get to the short rowing. Here, she calls for putting one needle into hold on each side as you knit each row, down to a certain number of needles, then short row back out at the same rate. The one-to-one ratio really simplifies the technique. Comparatively, I would need to knit 1.5x the number of rows with my thinner yarn. So I came up with a three-step waltz that moves two needles out of (or into) work every 3 rows.\nWith carriage on the right, put the left-most needle in hold position and knit right-to-left.\n  With carriage on the left, put the right-most needle in hold position and knit left-to-right.\n  Leaving needles alone, knit back right-to-left.\n  With carriage on the left, put the right-most needle in hold position and knit left-to-right.\n  With carriage on the right, put the left-most needle in hold position and knit right-to-left.\n  Leaving needles alone, knit back left-to-right.\n  Repeat! (And when short-rowing out, put needles back into work rather than into hold.)\nThe resulting socks have some holes of various sizes in the short row areas. Being new to this technique I can't be sure whether each hole is from a mistake I made in the technique or because my two-stitches-per-three-rows adjustment needed an extra needle wrapped here or there.\nAnyway. Sock photos.\nFirst sock, \"good\" side. It's ankle length in blue yarn. Sew-as-you-go and short-rowing seams are subtle but visible.First sock, \"bad\" side. A large hole is visible where the heel seam meets the sew-as-you-go seam, and there are several small holes in the toe area.Both finished socks. The top sock in the image is the second one I knitted. There are fewer issues with holes, but the front hem is very loose because I forgot to adjust the tension for the hem.Despite some issues, they look like socks! But do they sock??\nA socked foot in the air viewed from the side. The sock seems to fit well in the foot area but is loose around the hem.Two socked feet viewed from the side.Two socked feed viewed from above. Both seem to fit well, but a little loose, in the foot but are loose around the hem. The sock on the right has the overly-loose front hem.Something is... not right with the final seam inside the front hem of the socks. I\u00a0think\u00a0perhaps I am finishing them off the machine too tightly. Or perhaps a different yarn would have more give. Whatever the reason, these were really difficult for Producer Amy to get on her feet, stretching only up to a point and no further. These photos were taken before washing and blocking, which I knew would shrink the final socks further.\nAfter washing, these look a little better! The fibers have pulled together. The too-loose front hem on one sock is more visible.\nNeither of these are wearable now, unfortunately. But I learned a lot and got experience with some important techniques. I look forward to trying again with some actually-meant-for-socks yarn that more closely match the pattern. And some more practice!",
        "html": "<p>Before I reveal the story foreshadowed in <a href=\"https://martymcgui.re/2025/09/08/machine-knitting-whats-up-with-that/\">my post about machine knitting some first hats</a>, a digression.</p>\n<p>One of my main goals with machine knitting is to be comfortable enough with the machine and techniques required to make custom two-color patterns with <a href=\"https://www.ayab-knitting.com/\">AYAB</a>. To that end, I had given myself a very short syllabus:</p>\n<ul><li>\u2705 Do some swatching</li>\n  <li>\u2705 Make a single-color hat</li>\n  <li>\u274c Make a two-color hat with a Fair Isle pattern</li>\n  <li>\ud83d\udd1c AYAB time</li>\n</ul><p>My attempt at a two-color Fair Isle patterned hat came out as a cool-but-wrong tuck stitch patterned hat. The \"MC\" button that activates multicolor Fair Isle knitting sits right over the \"T\" (tuck stitch) button, and they were well and truly frozen together. I will save that story for another time.</p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the machine could definitely still knit, so I had no excuse not to keep learning and practicing.</p>\n<p>Which brings me to socks.</p>\n<p>As knitting project go, socks would appear to be small, fast, and easy. Depending on whose pattern you are following, there are a few techniques to learn. Plus you have to make two of them, so you are tested on your consistency.</p>\n<p>Unfortunately, a lot of sock-knitting content is for circular knitting machines, or double-bed knitting machines with ribbing attachments, or for hand knitters.</p>\n<p>Which is why I became\u00a0<i>obsessed</i>\u00a0with <a href=\"https://www.dianaknits.com/\">Diana Sullivan</a>'s <a href=\"https://dianaknits.square.site/product/No-Sew_Sock/49\">No-Sew Socks</a></p>\n<p>&lt;iframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/hiFB5KsnEN0?si=wumuFG8pI8PEd717\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</p>\n<p>These socks are designed to be made on a single bed standard gauge knitting machine - like mine! They are knit top-to-bottom, back-to-front starting at the rear ankle hem, going down to a rounded heel, across the foot bottom, and around the toe. At that point, you switch techniques, picking up the stitches from previous rows to work your way back up and over the top of the foot, ankle, and hem. When it comes off the machine, it's a whole sock. You just need to hide the end threads, wash it, and block it.</p>\n<p>While my machine matched the pattern requirements, Diana's pattern calls for thicker wool-blend sock yarn than what I have on-hand. In my \"practice phase\", I'm using thinner two-ply cotton, which means I have to adjust the row and column counts from Diana's pattern by a conversion factor - a multiplier based on the ratio of Diana's sock yarn gauge measurements with my own.</p>\n<p>While some of this is easy multiplication, some of the techniques require adding or removing stitches at some \"rate\". In this case, creating the curved heel and tow areas involves \"short rows\", where more and more end needles are held at their current row while more rows are added to the middle. When the number of rows and stitches changes, you've also got to change instructions like \"add one stitch into hold at the end of each row\". Thankfully, my gauge's stitches-per-inch measured \"close enough\" to Diana's pattern, so I only needed to deal with the difference in rows - my thinner yarn came out to about 1.5x rows-per-inch compared with Diana's.</p>\n<p>I did my best! Here's the pattern I came up with to try and make socks for Producer Amy.</p>\n<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/47/5b/07/e3/faa65618106e9dda67b0bcd19f3f20bcef765d6cda3c95b793260911.\" alt=\"\" />Pink sticky note with calculations and knitting instructions in pencil.<p>My pattern mostly follows Diana's until we get to the short rowing. Here, she calls for putting one needle into hold on each side as you knit each row, down to a certain number of needles, then short row back out at the same rate. The one-to-one ratio really simplifies the technique. Comparatively, I would need to knit 1.5x the number of rows with my thinner yarn. So I came up with a three-step waltz that moves two needles out of (or into) work every 3 rows.</p>\n<ul><li>With carriage on the right, put the left-most needle in hold position and knit right-to-left.</li>\n  <li>With carriage on the left, put the right-most needle in hold position and knit left-to-right.</li>\n  <li>Leaving needles alone, knit back right-to-left.</li>\n  <li>With carriage on the left, put the right-most needle in hold position and knit left-to-right.</li>\n  <li>With carriage on the right, put the left-most needle in hold position and knit right-to-left.</li>\n  <li>Leaving needles alone, knit back left-to-right.</li>\n  <li>Repeat! (And when short-rowing out, put needles back into work rather than into hold.)</li>\n</ul><p>The resulting socks have some holes of various sizes in the short row areas. Being new to this technique I can't be sure whether each hole is from a mistake I made in the technique or because my two-stitches-per-three-rows adjustment needed an extra needle wrapped here or there.</p>\n<p><i>Anyway</i>. Sock photos.</p>\n<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/85/2e/a7/b7/f722d4071a8553670d31e2d386faf28b0819a139a97037f473c52af1.\" alt=\"\" />First sock, \"good\" side. It's ankle length in blue yarn. Sew-as-you-go and short-rowing seams are subtle but visible.<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/84/05/df/fe/ec6a4f7fa982d5f1cae9f9e7be6a9e0692ece0b3976144169420484b.\" alt=\"\" />First sock, \"bad\" side. A large hole is visible where the heel seam meets the sew-as-you-go seam, and there are several small holes in the toe area.<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/8b/76/b5/5f/68cd1cd4e8b4d521aadb78d8221e246b57d0b8db2fd67c323fa2c789.\" alt=\"\" />Both finished socks. The top sock in the image is the second one I knitted. There are fewer issues with holes, but the front hem is very loose because I forgot to adjust the tension for the hem.<p>Despite some issues, they look like socks! But do they sock??</p>\n<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/10/6b/7a/3e/6c518a44a0c4b86e01efec506321e75b72d0f69d485214ad1232e07e.\" alt=\"\" />A socked foot in the air viewed from the side. The sock seems to fit well in the foot area but is loose around the hem.<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/dd/65/ed/b5/a7dc939c4ab4751b0019bb3925dca4fb38853bd662614e41a06c886a.\" alt=\"\" />Two socked feet viewed from the side.<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/8a/ec/06/45/52aaaa3c919c3c4cd97f1bdbd5d722253735f6ac758f6582a183ad20.\" alt=\"\" />Two socked feed viewed from above. Both seem to fit well, but a little loose, in the foot but are loose around the hem. The sock on the right has the overly-loose front hem.<p>Something is... not right with the final seam inside the front hem of the socks. I\u00a0<i>think</i>\u00a0perhaps I am finishing them off the machine too tightly. Or perhaps a different yarn would have more give. Whatever the reason, these were really difficult for Producer Amy to get on her feet, stretching only up to a point and no further. These photos were taken before washing and blocking, which I knew would shrink the final socks further.</p>\n<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/cc/3c/85/ab/515e51cd02997f2858ded97a2f5adcfd40948a29f7c8e4cda0145262.\" alt=\"\" /><img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/72/6e/29/20/4ba289202a7d1d7f22fae930e41dc1cb0885bfef92b4e90fd86ba060.\" alt=\"\" /><p>After washing, these look a little better! The fibers have pulled together. The too-loose front hem on one sock is more visible.</p>\n<p>Neither of these are wearable now, unfortunately. But I learned a lot and got experience with some important techniques. I look forward to trying again with some actually-meant-for-socks yarn that more closely match the pattern. And some more practice!</p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Marty McGuire",
        "url": "https://martymcgui.re/",
        "photo": "https://martymcgui.re/images/logo.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "article",
    "_id": "46047838",
    "_source": "175"
}

Marty McGuire martymcgui.re

Machine knitting: taking a stand

#machine-knitting #3DP #3DPrinting #making

September 12, 2025 1:00pm -04:00

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2025-09-12T13:00:00-0400",
    "url": "https://martymcgui.re/2025/09/12/machine-knitting-taking-a-stand/",
    "category": [
        "machine-knitting",
        "3DP",
        "3DPrinting",
        "making"
    ],
    "name": "Machine knitting: taking a stand",
    "content": {
        "text": "In my apartment we are lucky enough to have a big countertop, open on three sides, creating a nice flat project surface for even sprawling projects.\nHowever, we also have a lot of projects that compete for this space! Producer Amy is often working on increasingly complex sewing projects that require the entire surface. Likewise, the knitting machine occupies an entire edge of the space. Both of these are time consuming, with potentially complex setup and teardown procedures. How can we accommodate both fiber arts hobbies?\nYou may not be surprised to find that I found inspiration from Carson (@KnitFactoryImpl) on YouTube. In her videos I noticed a low-profile metal stand that basically amounts to a single horizontal bar and four splayed legs, clamped together by a couple of big screws. She mentioned briefly that they aren't manufactured anymore, but you can find them on eBay \"from time to time\".\nWith the fear of scarcity in my heart, I jumped when I found a similar one on eBay a few days later.\nBlack metal stand parts organized on a background of green carpet tiles.As you can see in the photo, the stand can break down quite small! Pictured here are 5 of the 6 parts required for it to work. The long body bar has circular recesses where the knitting machine can be securely clamped, as well as slots for the legs. Each leg splays out at an angle to withstand the force of moving the machine back and forth. The body bar and legs are held together with a pair of screws and wingnuts, and the screws are at the end of long bent metal bars which do double-duty to provide some stability for the mounted knitting machine, as well as providing a place to rest the top of the knitting machine.\nYou may note that I said \"5 of the 6\" in the previous paragraph. One of the screw/bar pieces was missing. Thankfully the seller had simply misplaced it and, after contacting them, they found it and mailed it to me.\nMeanwhile... If you have a keen eye you may have noticed another missing part. Because each leg splays out at an angle, each also has a rubber foot with a special shape to let it rest flat and provide traction. One of the legs was missing this foot.\nIn this house we 3D print, so I dusted off my calipers, OpenSCAD, and trigonometry skills to make a replacement. I'll attach the OpenSCAD and final STL files to this post for posterity, but I definitely hit a point where the math looked right but the piece looked wrong, so I did some eyeball-based adjustments when tweaking the foot's resting face angle and a fudge factor to help the foot slip onto the machine leg.\nBambu X1C printing a foot in bright red TPU filament.Close-up of the four machine legs lined up against a wall. Three legs have black rubber feet and one has a bright red 3D-printed TPU foot.Now I can machine knit without taking up the countertop space. This reduces my anxiety about having the machine \"out\" for long periods of time as I practice skills or work on more time-consuming project.\nBlack metal stand with Brother knitting machine mounted on top ready to knit. The whole setup is up against the back of a sofa. The red 3D-printed TPU foot is visible on one leg of the stand.Of course, there is floor space to talk about, but that is slightly easier to negotiate at this point.\nFiles\n  \n      machine-stand-foot.scad\n      \n      1145 bytes. Updated September 7, 2025.\n      machine-stand-foot.stl\n      \n      2084 bytes. Updated September 7, 2025.",
        "html": "<p>In my apartment we are lucky enough to have a big countertop, open on three sides, creating a nice flat project surface for even sprawling projects.</p>\n<p>However, we also have a lot of projects that compete for this space! Producer Amy is often working on increasingly complex sewing projects that require the entire surface. Likewise, the knitting machine occupies an entire edge of the space. Both of these are time consuming, with potentially complex setup and teardown procedures. How can we accommodate both fiber arts hobbies?</p>\n<p>You may not be surprised to find that I found inspiration from <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/@KnitFactoryImpl\">Carson (@KnitFactoryImpl) on YouTube</a>. In her videos I noticed a low-profile metal stand that basically amounts to a single horizontal bar and four splayed legs, clamped together by a couple of big screws. She <a href=\"https://youtu.be/-2-l4-icr_c?feature=shared&amp;t=112\">mentioned briefly</a> that they aren't manufactured anymore, but you can find them on eBay \"from time to time\".</p>\n<p>With the fear of scarcity in my heart, I jumped when I found a similar one on eBay a few days later.</p>\n<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/ce/81/6f/53/991dc2b1c1b84e9fa37eb7a624a200224d284d00adecd828506ee114.\" alt=\"\" />Black metal stand parts organized on a background of green carpet tiles.<p>As you can see in the photo, the stand can break down quite small! Pictured here are 5 of the 6 parts required for it to work. The long body bar has circular recesses where the knitting machine can be securely clamped, as well as slots for the legs. Each leg splays out at an angle to withstand the force of moving the machine back and forth. The body bar and legs are held together with a pair of screws and wingnuts, and the screws are at the end of long bent metal bars which do double-duty to provide some stability for the mounted knitting machine, as well as providing a place to rest the top of the knitting machine.</p>\n<p>You may note that I said \"5 of the 6\" in the previous paragraph. One of the screw/bar pieces was missing. Thankfully the seller had simply misplaced it and, after contacting them, they found it and mailed it to me.</p>\n<p>Meanwhile... If you have a keen eye you may have noticed another missing part. Because each leg splays out at an angle, each also has a rubber foot with a special shape to let it rest flat and provide traction. One of the legs was missing this foot.</p>\n<p>In this house we 3D print, so I dusted off my calipers, OpenSCAD, and trigonometry skills to make a replacement. I'll attach the OpenSCAD and final STL files to this post for posterity, but I definitely hit a point where the math looked right but the piece looked wrong, so I did some eyeball-based adjustments when tweaking the foot's resting face angle and a fudge factor to help the foot slip onto the machine leg.</p>\n<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/12/e8/aa/08/8e9d4c4968215c34f3c9c5514c648acf2ce21ee51c1da25f7f68d6d6.\" alt=\"\" />Bambu X1C printing a foot in bright red TPU filament.<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/b6/6d/bc/04/7b67a91aa1584e4e2c28722f204edb10c4694b51c80dd4c8abec5304.\" alt=\"\" />Close-up of the four machine legs lined up against a wall. Three legs have black rubber feet and one has a bright red 3D-printed TPU foot.<p>Now I can machine knit without taking up the countertop space. This reduces my anxiety about having the machine \"out\" for long periods of time as I practice skills or work on more time-consuming project.</p>\n<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/39/8c/4b/44/265d2a0ca94b77163185659d3d809db1b7da8c72cc610e73e9770086.\" alt=\"\" />Black metal stand with Brother knitting machine mounted on top ready to knit. The whole setup is up against the back of a sofa. The red 3D-printed TPU foot is visible on one leg of the stand.<p>Of course, there is <i>floor space</i> to talk about, but that is slightly easier to negotiate at this point.</p>\n<h2>Files</h2>\n  \n      <a href=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/e8/46/3c/b5/5dec059c4c6d591fb5b22efd3e8aef2a5306bc8be46345a785e526d1.scad\" class=\"u-url p-name\">machine-stand-foot.scad</a>\n      \n      <img class=\"u-featured\" src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/4e/ad/2c/4b/9069c783aab8283cd263169f24381395dc04b9a0cd42d4e653af898f.png\" alt=\"9069c783aab8283cd263169f24381395dc04b9a0cd42d4e653af898f.png\" /><span class=\"p-size\">1145</span> bytes. Updated <time class=\"dt-created\" datetime=\"2025-09-07 16:45:00 -0400\">September 7, 2025.\n      </time>\n      \n  \n      <a href=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/fb/bc/83/67/e06be38fb7b2d6fabc7e48aab540cc8b3f0346b61e5f58220a0dadee.stl\" class=\"u-url p-name\">machine-stand-foot.stl</a>\n      \n      <img class=\"u-featured\" src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/4e/ad/2c/4b/9069c783aab8283cd263169f24381395dc04b9a0cd42d4e653af898f.png\" alt=\"9069c783aab8283cd263169f24381395dc04b9a0cd42d4e653af898f.png\" /><span class=\"p-size\">2084</span> bytes. Updated <time class=\"dt-created\" datetime=\"2025-09-07 16:45:00 -0400\">September 7, 2025.\n      </time>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Marty McGuire",
        "url": "https://martymcgui.re/",
        "photo": "https://martymcgui.re/images/logo.jpg"
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    "post-type": "article",
    "_id": "46045421",
    "_source": "175"
}

fluffy beesbuzz.biz

Ruby Central is Not Behaving in Good Faith, and I’ve Got Receipts

September 23, 2025 9:43am -07:00

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "Jared White",
        "url": "https://jaredwhite.com/",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://jaredwhite.com/articles/ruby-central-is-not-operating-in-good-faith",
    "published": "2025-09-23T09:43:21-07:00",
    "content": {
        "html": "<img alt=\"\" src=\"https://res.cloudinary.com/mariposta/image/upload/w_1200,c_limit,q_65/raindrops.jpg\" /><h2>The drama never ends, but I am here to take a stand and do something about it.</h2>\n\n<p>Two disclaimers before I continue: <strong>(a)</strong> I normally post on programming-related topics elsewhere and not on my personal blog, but because this is such a personal issue for me and not about the technical aspects, I\u2019ve decided to post here. <strong>(b)</strong> I am the lead maintainer of the <a href=\"https://www.bridgetownrb.com/\">Bridgetown</a> Ruby web framework, but any views expressed here are my own and I don\u2019t claim to represent Bridgetown as a whole in writing this.</p>\n\n<p>Now, time to spill some tea, because <em>I am done</em> being constantly gaslit by <strong>Ruby Central</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>Before I link to the latest <em>incredible</em> reporting by Joel Drapper on what has been going down throughout September 2025, I will offer my own timeline of events which transpired earlier this year.</p>\n\n<ul><li><strong>May 28, 2025:</strong> Ruby Central announces that \u201cDavid Heinemeier Hansson (DHH), the creator of Ruby on Rails, will join us for a special fireside chat\u201d at the upcoming <strong>RailsConf</strong> in July. As many in the Ruby and web technology scene are aware, DHH has become an extremely polarizing figure over the last few years, publicly aligning himself with far-right authoritarian figures in America like Donald Trump and Elon Musk and recently Tommy Robinson in the UK, and espousing views which are hateful towards immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, black people, \u201cfat\u201d people, \u201cwoke\u201d people, <a href=\"https://world.hey.com/dhh/the-faith-of-andrew-tate-a8a4d448\">\u201ccrazy\u201d people who want to \u201cunperson\u201d Andrew Tate</a>, <a href=\"https://world.hey.com/dhh/the-waning-days-of-dei-s-dominance-9a5b656c\">\u201cDEI zealots\u201d</a>, <a href=\"https://world.hey.com/dhh/the-parental-dead-end-of-consent-morality-e4e8a8ee\">couples who don\u2019t want kids</a>, <a href=\"https://world.hey.com/dhh/building-competency-is-better-than-therapy-4622c6b7\">therapists</a>, and the list goes on and on. Naturally, a number of Ruby community members who were planning to attend RailsConf were upset to hear that seemingly at the last minute (6 weeks prior), DHH would be platformed\u2014and ironically at the very conference <a href=\"https://thenewstack.io/railsconf-and-dhh-go-their-separate-ways/\">he was asked not to keynote in 2022</a> seemingly as a result of Basecamp\u2019s politically-charged implosion which led to a third of the entire company resigning in protest. It should also be noted these events in 2022 provided the impetus for DHH to launch the <strong>Rails Foundation</strong> (more on that in a moment) which began to put on its <em>own</em> series of annual Rails conferences called <strong>Rails World</strong> as a clear rebuke to Ruby Central. This is not my speculation: DHH has <a href=\"https://world.hey.com/dhh/rails-world-sold-out-in-less-than-45-minutes-78a0b276\">written about this</a> on numerous occasions (remember, any time you hear DHH use the term \u201cnonsense\u201d, he means people holding him accountable for his abhorrent views).</li>\n  <li><strong>May 30:</strong> A mere two days after the announcement of DHH\u2019s firesite chat at RailsConf, <a href=\"https://xcancel.com/dhh/status/1928380132432994432#m\">DHH posts the following on X</a> regarding an r/rails discussion on Reddit where people are voicing their displeasure at the RailsConf platforming news:\n    <blockquote>\n      <p>@dhh: While the rest of the tech world has mostly moved on from the nonsense of the early 2020s, there are still a few ardent ideologues fighting the last war on Reddit, believing that ridiculous accusations like \u201cnazi\u201d and \u201cfascist\u201d still carry any weight \ud83d\ude44</p>\n    </blockquote>\n\n    <p>I make an effort to bookmark this, because\u2026</p>\n  </li>\n  <li>\n    <p><strong>June 10:</strong> Ruby Central hosts a Zoom meeting with Executive Director Shan Cureton, Marketing Director Rhiannon Payne (who since left Ruby Central on September 1, more on that in a moment), some of the engineers who work on RubyGems, Bundler, etc., as well as folks involved in RailsConf programming, to address concerns from the community. <strong>I attend this Zoom meeting.</strong> I don\u2019t feel at liberty to share who I recall also attended, but you would <em>definitely</em> recognize their name from recent criticism of Ruby Central. At the start of the meeting, Ruby Central asked permission from everyone to record the call. At the time, I took this to mean they wanted to be able to publish it later for folks who were unable to attend.</p>\n\n    <p>Much of the concern expressed in the meeting around DHH returning to RailsConf centered around why this announcement was made so close to the date of the conference, if sponsors were putting pressure on RC to permit his appearance, how they would protect the community from more hateful rhetoric, what steps RC is taking to create safe spaces for minority groups, etc. <strong>Here is a key exchange:</strong> in a conversation regarding DHH\u2019s behavior outside of the conference, someone from Ruby Central (I forget who exactly) said they\u2019d keep an eye on anything DHH might say regarding his return that\u2019s a form of \u201cweaponization\u201d against his perceived political opponents\u2014aka using his RailsConf appearance as a justification for his behavior. At this point, <em>I shared the link</em> to what DHH had already posted two weeks prior which is referenced above (aka \u201cardent ideologues\u201d). Shan Cureton specifically replied that <em>she wasn\u2019t aware of that post</em> and they would have to look into it. Again, this is key information: <strong>Shan Cureton and Ruby Central, as of June 10, knew DHH was already weaponizing his return to RailsConf to attack his enemies, because I was the one who shared this information with them.</strong> The Zoom meeting concluded in a reasonably cordial fashion, but it was obvious this would need to be the first in a series of difficult conversations to come.</p>\n  </li>\n  <li><strong>A few weeks later:</strong> I regret I\u2019m unable to find this exchange now in my archives, but I had been holding off on commenting on what went down during the Zoom meeting because I wanted to wait for Ruby Central to release the video recording, and I finally contacted someone at RC about the video recording, at which time I received a reply back that they would <em>not</em> release the recording due to privacy concerns\u2026but they were working on addressing the community\u2019s feedback in a FAQ they would post on the RailsConf website. <a href=\"https://railsconf.org/faq/#program\">This is the FAQ they released.</a> I want to point out that nowhere in this FAQ do they <em>actually</em> address the community uproar around DHH\u2019s return, instead framing all of the answers they provide in the abstract without mentioning any one person.</li>\n  <li><strong>July 8:</strong> DHH has his fireside chat with Elise Shaffer at RailsConf as planned. As far as I\u2019m aware, no punitive action was ever taken against DHH, nor any mention of his weaponization of his return which I had reported.</li>\n  <li><strong>September 1:</strong> I receive \u201cThe Ruby Central README\u201d marketing email which includes the following:\n    <blockquote>\n      <p>Ruby Central\u2019s leadership will be in Amsterdam this week for Rails World, and we\u2019d love to see you there! Executive Director Shan Cureton and Director of Open Source Marty Haught will both be attending.</p>\n    </blockquote>\n\n    <p>Again, I am beside myself that Ruby Central is blithely heading off to DHH\u2019s pet conference\u2014especially with DHH\u2019s public views as toxic as ever on a <em>regular</em> basis (as you\u2019ll soon see), so on <strong>September 4</strong> (at the start of Rails World) I send the following email to contact@rubycentral.org:</p>\n\n    <blockquote>\n      <p>\u201cRuby Central\u2019s leadership will be in Amsterdam this week for Rails World, and we\u2019d love to see you there!  Executive Director Shan Cureton and Director of Open Source Marty Haught will both be attending.\u201d</p>\n\n      <p>Meanwhile, DHH is posting this on X:</p>\n\n      <p>\u201cFirst-world problems\u201d shouldn\u2019t be seen as an insult, but a celebration! Hurraaaay, I have ascended from the daily toils and tribulations of a life in the third world, so my worries may now include slow laundry machines and air conditioning, not starvation or failed states \ud83c\udf89</p>\n\n      <p>I regret to say I am unable to support an organization which seems unable to publicly disavow a man who has demonstrated numerous times to be a racist, homophobe, transphobe, fatphobe, ableist white nationalist who is now apparently cheering on death via starvation in third world countries.</p>\n\n      <p>Disassociating with Nazis should be the bare minimum of ethical behavior by anyone in a civilized world. I\u2019m sad I can no longer in good conscience support Ruby Central.</p>\n\n      <p>Regards,</p>\n\n      <p>Jared White</p>\n\n      <p>P.S. I am lead maintainer of the Ruby-based Bridgetown web framework. I have been outspoken on this topic and will continue to speak out. I\u2019ve tried to keep a low profile with regard to speaking about Ruby Central specifically, but given the non-published Zoom conference prior to RailsConf which resulted in a nothing-burger Q&amp;A response which <em>didn\u2019t even mention DHH by name in any way</em> and now this\u2026I am flabbergasted and dumbfounded.</p>\n    </blockquote>\n\n    <p>A week later, I had not received any response to this email, so I replied again with the following:</p>\n\n    <blockquote>\n      <p>I\u2019m disappointed I never received a response back to my message, and furthermore, the exact thing I warned you about in the Zoom conference I attended prior to RailsConf\u2014that DHH would weaponize his inclusion at RailsConf by attacking and silencing his political opponents and gaslighting the public that all is well in the community\u2014is continuing to happen! (<em>see the attached from his HEY World blog</em>*)</p>\n\n      <p>Your silence is now complicity! Can you explain how it\u2019s possible to uphold ethical policies which protect the LGBTQ+ community and other marginalized people, people in \u201cthird world\u201d countries, the disabled, and others who are frequent targets of DHH\u2019s wrath on his public HEY World blog, all while doing nothing to disassociate from him and his abhorrent views and instead sanctioning (!!) the Rails World conferences and the Rails foundation?</p>\n\n      <p>Jared</p>\n    </blockquote>\n\n    <p>* This was what I had attached, a screenshot of <a href=\"https://world.hey.com/dhh/thrice-charmed-at-rails-world-c4ed0006\">DHH\u2019s blog post reflecting on Rails World 2025</a> as stated here:</p>\n\n    <blockquote>\n      <p>Thanks again to all The Rails Foundation members who believed in the vision for a new institution back in 2022. It looks like a no-brainer to join such a venture now, given the success of Rails World and everything else, but it actually took guts to sign on back then.</p>\n\n      <p>I approached quite a few companies at that time who could see the value, but couldn\u2019t find the courage to support our work, as our industry was still held hostage to a band of <a href=\"https://world.hey.com/dhh/proof-of-the-peak-ede4199c\">bad ideas and terrible ideologies</a>.</p>\n\n      <p><a href=\"https://world.hey.com/dhh/no-railsconf-faa7935e\">All that nonsense</a> is thankfully now long gone in the Rails world. We\u2019re enjoying a period of peak unity, excitement, progress, and determination to continue to push for end-to-end problem solving, open source, and freedom.</p>\n    </blockquote>\n\n    <p>Think about it. DHH fully admits that it was hard to gain public support back in 2022 for a new Rails Foundation due to his reputation at the time and companies\u2019 hesitancy to associate with him. But now, everything\u2019s all good! \u201cAll that nonsense\u201d (AGAIN linking back to the news he wouldn\u2019t be at RailsConf 2022) is \u201cthankfully now long gone in the Rails world.\u201d <em>Aaaarrgghh.</em></p>\n\n    <p>Anyway, I <em>finally</em> got a reply back from Shan Cureton, which I will include in a moment.</p>\n  </li>\n  <li><strong>September 1:</strong> Also around this same time, <a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/leaving-ruby-central-rhiannon-payne-f9axc/\">Rhiannon Payne stepped down as Marketing Director of Ruby Central</a>, and only now having read her post, I\u2019m struck by her phrasing here: \u201cMy decision to step down as Ruby Central\u2019s Marketing Director was a challenging one to make and came with a lot of inner conflict for me. Ultimately, a lot of it came down to incompatibility with my bandwidth and the org\u2019s needs as it prepares for significant growth, as well as strategic changes as Ruby Central reinvents itself and looks ahead to what\u2019s next.\u201d <strong>I\u2019m curious:</strong> what significant growth is Ruby Central preparing for? What strategic changes this month of September 2025? Reinventing itself? Why? And for whom? \ud83e\udd14</li>\n  <li><strong>September 16:</strong> I finally hear back from Ruby Central Executive Director Shan Cureton. It largely sounds like a PR script to me, but I will include it anyway:\n    <blockquote>\n      <p>Hi Jared,</p>\n\n      <p>Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and concerns with us. We value hearing different perspectives from across the Ruby community, and your voice has been heard. Ruby Central is a small organization with a small staff, and while we\u2019re not always able to respond quickly or engage in every social conversation, we do take feedback seriously and reflect on it as part of our ongoing work.</p>\n\n      <p>Ruby Central\u2019s mission and work are rooted in supporting the Ruby community, sustaining open source, and creating inclusive, welcoming spaces. We strive to show up in ways that reinforce our values in everything that we do. While we can\u2019t always respond in the moment to everything that happens in external channels, we remain committed to fostering unity, equity, and respect within the ecosystem.</p>\n\n      <p>We know that perspectives within the community may differ on how we prioritize and balance these responsibilities. Our hope is that, over time, the work we do will demonstrate where we stand and may help shift how you view Ruby Central\u2019s role in the community.</p>\n\n      <p>Please know that our door is always open to thoughtful discussion around these topics. Thank you again for your email and for all the ways you\u2019ve contributed to the Ruby community.</p>\n\n      <p>Best Regards,</p>\n\n      <p>Shan</p>\n    </blockquote>\n\n    <p>And here is my final reply back:</p>\n\n    <blockquote>\n      <p>Thanks Shan for the reply back. I am eagerly awaiting something, anything, that seems to push back on the false narrative that all of the \u201cnonsense\u201d DHH is constantly talking about is long in the past and everyone\u2019s totally on board his weird political train and it\u2019s all cool bro. There is no \u201ccreating inclusive, welcoming spaces\u201d in the Ruby on Rails community as long as that man is at the top of the food chain.</p>\n\n      <p>I will continue to monitor the situation.</p>\n\n      <p>All the best,<br />Jared</p>\n    </blockquote>\n  </li>\n  <li><strong>September 19</strong>: and now you are all caught up to where <strong>the latest Ruby Central drama unfolds</strong>, and this is now where <a href=\"https://joel.drapper.me/p/rubygems-takeover/\">I will link to this incredible article by Ruby programmer Joel Drapper</a> that goes in-depth into the latest debacle based in part on his private conversations (Drapper I\u2019ll note worked at Shopify, aka Ruby Central\u2019s principal corporate sponsor, from 2017 and 2022). I\u2019m glad he did this work so I don\u2019t need to keep writing out this already lengthy timeline. \ud83d\ude05</li>\n</ul><p>I will conclude with some brief thoughts, because while I have a <em>lot</em> more to say about Ruby Central in particular and the state of the Ruby programming language ecosystem in general, I will save most of that for future work I do in community building.</p>\n\n<p>I watched the <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyCiE3GjQps\">nearly 10 minute video</a> put out this morning by Shan Cureton of Ruby Central, on the pretense that they realized it is the holiday of Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) and thus not a good time to host a previously-scheduled community Zoom meeting. (Stay tuned for some future rescheduled date, apparently.) I am <em>amazed</em> that in this 10 minutes, none of my concerns were addressed. None. <em>Good job everybody!</em> \ud83d\ude02</p>\n\n<p><strong>I am done. I am done with this drama.</strong></p>\n\n<p>I believe the time to mourn what we could have had is now over and it is time\u2014to quote DHH himself\u2014to \u201croute around the nonsense\u201d by building a new Ruby ecosystem from the ground up, grassroots, that <strong>clearly and unequivocally does not associate with fascists</strong> and is centered around organizations &amp; communities who are accountable to the people and to the principles of good-faith, transparent, and democratic open source governance. <strong>We as Rubyists deserve better.</strong> And I will dedicate every ounce of joy I still feel at programming in Ruby, a language I have loved for nearly 20 years now, towards helping to build this new ecosystem\u2014an ecosystem <em>that is not dependent</em> on Ruby Central, Rails Foundation, and their bedfellows in complicity.</p>\n\n<p>\u2013Jared White<br />September 23, 2025</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>P.S.</strong> <a href=\"https://ruby.social/@adarsh/115254705509816078\">This exchange on Mastodon between previous Ruby Central Director Adarsh Pandit and Mike Perham of Sidekiq</a> is also extremely illuminating. I\u2019ll mention I am on good personal terms with Adarsh and offer my sincere appreciation for everything he accomplished while at Ruby Central.</p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n  <br />",
        "text": "The drama never ends, but I am here to take a stand and do something about it.\n\nTwo disclaimers before I continue: (a) I normally post on programming-related topics elsewhere and not on my personal blog, but because this is such a personal issue for me and not about the technical aspects, I\u2019ve decided to post here. (b) I am the lead maintainer of the Bridgetown Ruby web framework, but any views expressed here are my own and I don\u2019t claim to represent Bridgetown as a whole in writing this.\n\nNow, time to spill some tea, because I am done being constantly gaslit by Ruby Central.\n\nBefore I link to the latest incredible reporting by Joel Drapper on what has been going down throughout September 2025, I will offer my own timeline of events which transpired earlier this year.\n\nMay 28, 2025: Ruby Central announces that \u201cDavid Heinemeier Hansson (DHH), the creator of Ruby on Rails, will join us for a special fireside chat\u201d at the upcoming RailsConf in July. As many in the Ruby and web technology scene are aware, DHH has become an extremely polarizing figure over the last few years, publicly aligning himself with far-right authoritarian figures in America like Donald Trump and Elon Musk and recently Tommy Robinson in the UK, and espousing views which are hateful towards immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, black people, \u201cfat\u201d people, \u201cwoke\u201d people, \u201ccrazy\u201d people who want to \u201cunperson\u201d Andrew Tate, \u201cDEI zealots\u201d, couples who don\u2019t want kids, therapists, and the list goes on and on. Naturally, a number of Ruby community members who were planning to attend RailsConf were upset to hear that seemingly at the last minute (6 weeks prior), DHH would be platformed\u2014and ironically at the very conference he was asked not to keynote in 2022 seemingly as a result of Basecamp\u2019s politically-charged implosion which led to a third of the entire company resigning in protest. It should also be noted these events in 2022 provided the impetus for DHH to launch the Rails Foundation (more on that in a moment) which began to put on its own series of annual Rails conferences called Rails World as a clear rebuke to Ruby Central. This is not my speculation: DHH has written about this on numerous occasions (remember, any time you hear DHH use the term \u201cnonsense\u201d, he means people holding him accountable for his abhorrent views).\n  May 30: A mere two days after the announcement of DHH\u2019s firesite chat at RailsConf, DHH posts the following on X regarding an r/rails discussion on Reddit where people are voicing their displeasure at the RailsConf platforming news:\n    \n      @dhh: While the rest of the tech world has mostly moved on from the nonsense of the early 2020s, there are still a few ardent ideologues fighting the last war on Reddit, believing that ridiculous accusations like \u201cnazi\u201d and \u201cfascist\u201d still carry any weight \ud83d\ude44\n    \n\n    I make an effort to bookmark this, because\u2026\n  \n  \n    June 10: Ruby Central hosts a Zoom meeting with Executive Director Shan Cureton, Marketing Director Rhiannon Payne (who since left Ruby Central on September 1, more on that in a moment), some of the engineers who work on RubyGems, Bundler, etc., as well as folks involved in RailsConf programming, to address concerns from the community. I attend this Zoom meeting. I don\u2019t feel at liberty to share who I recall also attended, but you would definitely recognize their name from recent criticism of Ruby Central. At the start of the meeting, Ruby Central asked permission from everyone to record the call. At the time, I took this to mean they wanted to be able to publish it later for folks who were unable to attend.\n\n    Much of the concern expressed in the meeting around DHH returning to RailsConf centered around why this announcement was made so close to the date of the conference, if sponsors were putting pressure on RC to permit his appearance, how they would protect the community from more hateful rhetoric, what steps RC is taking to create safe spaces for minority groups, etc. Here is a key exchange: in a conversation regarding DHH\u2019s behavior outside of the conference, someone from Ruby Central (I forget who exactly) said they\u2019d keep an eye on anything DHH might say regarding his return that\u2019s a form of \u201cweaponization\u201d against his perceived political opponents\u2014aka using his RailsConf appearance as a justification for his behavior. At this point, I shared the link to what DHH had already posted two weeks prior which is referenced above (aka \u201cardent ideologues\u201d). Shan Cureton specifically replied that she wasn\u2019t aware of that post and they would have to look into it. Again, this is key information: Shan Cureton and Ruby Central, as of June 10, knew DHH was already weaponizing his return to RailsConf to attack his enemies, because I was the one who shared this information with them. The Zoom meeting concluded in a reasonably cordial fashion, but it was obvious this would need to be the first in a series of difficult conversations to come.\n  \n  A few weeks later: I regret I\u2019m unable to find this exchange now in my archives, but I had been holding off on commenting on what went down during the Zoom meeting because I wanted to wait for Ruby Central to release the video recording, and I finally contacted someone at RC about the video recording, at which time I received a reply back that they would not release the recording due to privacy concerns\u2026but they were working on addressing the community\u2019s feedback in a FAQ they would post on the RailsConf website. This is the FAQ they released. I want to point out that nowhere in this FAQ do they actually address the community uproar around DHH\u2019s return, instead framing all of the answers they provide in the abstract without mentioning any one person.\n  July 8: DHH has his fireside chat with Elise Shaffer at RailsConf as planned. As far as I\u2019m aware, no punitive action was ever taken against DHH, nor any mention of his weaponization of his return which I had reported.\n  September 1: I receive \u201cThe Ruby Central README\u201d marketing email which includes the following:\n    \n      Ruby Central\u2019s leadership will be in Amsterdam this week for Rails World, and we\u2019d love to see you there! Executive Director Shan Cureton and Director of Open Source Marty Haught will both be attending.\n    \n\n    Again, I am beside myself that Ruby Central is blithely heading off to DHH\u2019s pet conference\u2014especially with DHH\u2019s public views as toxic as ever on a regular basis (as you\u2019ll soon see), so on September 4 (at the start of Rails World) I send the following email to contact@rubycentral.org:\n\n    \n      \u201cRuby Central\u2019s leadership will be in Amsterdam this week for Rails World, and we\u2019d love to see you there!  Executive Director Shan Cureton and Director of Open Source Marty Haught will both be attending.\u201d\n\n      Meanwhile, DHH is posting this on X:\n\n      \u201cFirst-world problems\u201d shouldn\u2019t be seen as an insult, but a celebration! Hurraaaay, I have ascended from the daily toils and tribulations of a life in the third world, so my worries may now include slow laundry machines and air conditioning, not starvation or failed states \ud83c\udf89\n\n      I regret to say I am unable to support an organization which seems unable to publicly disavow a man who has demonstrated numerous times to be a racist, homophobe, transphobe, fatphobe, ableist white nationalist who is now apparently cheering on death via starvation in third world countries.\n\n      Disassociating with Nazis should be the bare minimum of ethical behavior by anyone in a civilized world. I\u2019m sad I can no longer in good conscience support Ruby Central.\n\n      Regards,\n\n      Jared White\n\n      P.S. I am lead maintainer of the Ruby-based Bridgetown web framework. I have been outspoken on this topic and will continue to speak out. I\u2019ve tried to keep a low profile with regard to speaking about Ruby Central specifically, but given the non-published Zoom conference prior to RailsConf which resulted in a nothing-burger Q&A response which didn\u2019t even mention DHH by name in any way and now this\u2026I am flabbergasted and dumbfounded.\n    \n\n    A week later, I had not received any response to this email, so I replied again with the following:\n\n    \n      I\u2019m disappointed I never received a response back to my message, and furthermore, the exact thing I warned you about in the Zoom conference I attended prior to RailsConf\u2014that DHH would weaponize his inclusion at RailsConf by attacking and silencing his political opponents and gaslighting the public that all is well in the community\u2014is continuing to happen! (see the attached from his HEY World blog*)\n\n      Your silence is now complicity! Can you explain how it\u2019s possible to uphold ethical policies which protect the LGBTQ+ community and other marginalized people, people in \u201cthird world\u201d countries, the disabled, and others who are frequent targets of DHH\u2019s wrath on his public HEY World blog, all while doing nothing to disassociate from him and his abhorrent views and instead sanctioning (!!) the Rails World conferences and the Rails foundation?\n\n      Jared\n    \n\n    * This was what I had attached, a screenshot of DHH\u2019s blog post reflecting on Rails World 2025 as stated here:\n\n    \n      Thanks again to all The Rails Foundation members who believed in the vision for a new institution back in 2022. It looks like a no-brainer to join such a venture now, given the success of Rails World and everything else, but it actually took guts to sign on back then.\n\n      I approached quite a few companies at that time who could see the value, but couldn\u2019t find the courage to support our work, as our industry was still held hostage to a band of bad ideas and terrible ideologies.\n\n      All that nonsense is thankfully now long gone in the Rails world. We\u2019re enjoying a period of peak unity, excitement, progress, and determination to continue to push for end-to-end problem solving, open source, and freedom.\n    \n\n    Think about it. DHH fully admits that it was hard to gain public support back in 2022 for a new Rails Foundation due to his reputation at the time and companies\u2019 hesitancy to associate with him. But now, everything\u2019s all good! \u201cAll that nonsense\u201d (AGAIN linking back to the news he wouldn\u2019t be at RailsConf 2022) is \u201cthankfully now long gone in the Rails world.\u201d Aaaarrgghh.\n\n    Anyway, I finally got a reply back from Shan Cureton, which I will include in a moment.\n  \n  September 1: Also around this same time, Rhiannon Payne stepped down as Marketing Director of Ruby Central, and only now having read her post, I\u2019m struck by her phrasing here: \u201cMy decision to step down as Ruby Central\u2019s Marketing Director was a challenging one to make and came with a lot of inner conflict for me. Ultimately, a lot of it came down to incompatibility with my bandwidth and the org\u2019s needs as it prepares for significant growth, as well as strategic changes as Ruby Central reinvents itself and looks ahead to what\u2019s next.\u201d I\u2019m curious: what significant growth is Ruby Central preparing for? What strategic changes this month of September 2025? Reinventing itself? Why? And for whom? \ud83e\udd14\n  September 16: I finally hear back from Ruby Central Executive Director Shan Cureton. It largely sounds like a PR script to me, but I will include it anyway:\n    \n      Hi Jared,\n\n      Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and concerns with us. We value hearing different perspectives from across the Ruby community, and your voice has been heard. Ruby Central is a small organization with a small staff, and while we\u2019re not always able to respond quickly or engage in every social conversation, we do take feedback seriously and reflect on it as part of our ongoing work.\n\n      Ruby Central\u2019s mission and work are rooted in supporting the Ruby community, sustaining open source, and creating inclusive, welcoming spaces. We strive to show up in ways that reinforce our values in everything that we do. While we can\u2019t always respond in the moment to everything that happens in external channels, we remain committed to fostering unity, equity, and respect within the ecosystem.\n\n      We know that perspectives within the community may differ on how we prioritize and balance these responsibilities. Our hope is that, over time, the work we do will demonstrate where we stand and may help shift how you view Ruby Central\u2019s role in the community.\n\n      Please know that our door is always open to thoughtful discussion around these topics. Thank you again for your email and for all the ways you\u2019ve contributed to the Ruby community.\n\n      Best Regards,\n\n      Shan\n    \n\n    And here is my final reply back:\n\n    \n      Thanks Shan for the reply back. I am eagerly awaiting something, anything, that seems to push back on the false narrative that all of the \u201cnonsense\u201d DHH is constantly talking about is long in the past and everyone\u2019s totally on board his weird political train and it\u2019s all cool bro. There is no \u201ccreating inclusive, welcoming spaces\u201d in the Ruby on Rails community as long as that man is at the top of the food chain.\n\n      I will continue to monitor the situation.\n\n      All the best,\nJared\n    \n  \n  September 19: and now you are all caught up to where the latest Ruby Central drama unfolds, and this is now where I will link to this incredible article by Ruby programmer Joel Drapper that goes in-depth into the latest debacle based in part on his private conversations (Drapper I\u2019ll note worked at Shopify, aka Ruby Central\u2019s principal corporate sponsor, from 2017 and 2022). I\u2019m glad he did this work so I don\u2019t need to keep writing out this already lengthy timeline. \ud83d\ude05\nI will conclude with some brief thoughts, because while I have a lot more to say about Ruby Central in particular and the state of the Ruby programming language ecosystem in general, I will save most of that for future work I do in community building.\n\nI watched the nearly 10 minute video put out this morning by Shan Cureton of Ruby Central, on the pretense that they realized it is the holiday of Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) and thus not a good time to host a previously-scheduled community Zoom meeting. (Stay tuned for some future rescheduled date, apparently.) I am amazed that in this 10 minutes, none of my concerns were addressed. None. Good job everybody! \ud83d\ude02\n\nI am done. I am done with this drama.\n\nI believe the time to mourn what we could have had is now over and it is time\u2014to quote DHH himself\u2014to \u201croute around the nonsense\u201d by building a new Ruby ecosystem from the ground up, grassroots, that clearly and unequivocally does not associate with fascists and is centered around organizations & communities who are accountable to the people and to the principles of good-faith, transparent, and democratic open source governance. We as Rubyists deserve better. And I will dedicate every ounce of joy I still feel at programming in Ruby, a language I have loved for nearly 20 years now, towards helping to build this new ecosystem\u2014an ecosystem that is not dependent on Ruby Central, Rails Foundation, and their bedfellows in complicity.\n\n\u2013Jared White\nSeptember 23, 2025\n\n\n\nP.S. This exchange on Mastodon between previous Ruby Central Director Adarsh Pandit and Mike Perham of Sidekiq is also extremely illuminating. I\u2019ll mention I am on good personal terms with Adarsh and offer my sincere appreciation for everything he accomplished while at Ruby Central."
    },
    "name": "Ruby Central is Not Behaving in Good Faith, and I\u2019ve Got Receipts",
    "post-type": "article",
    "_id": "46036022",
    "_source": "2783"
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Marty McGuire martymcgui.re

Improving my VRChat performance audio

#vrchat #music #Windows #audio

September 21, 2025 2:25am -07:00

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Marty McGuire martymcgui.re

Machine knitting: what's up with (t)hat?

#machine-knitting #hats

September 8, 2025 10:10pm -04:00

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2025-09-08T22:10:00-0400",
    "url": "https://martymcgui.re/2025/09/08/machine-knitting-whats-up-with-that/",
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        "machine-knitting",
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    "name": "Machine knitting: what's up with (t)hat?",
    "content": {
        "text": "One of my main goals with learning machine knitting is to replace the electronics on my Brother KH-930e with\u00a0AYAB (All Yarns Are Beautiful)\u00a0to create multi-color patterned knits of whatever sicko stuff comes to mind. But home knitting machines aren't a fire-and-forget type of machine. They require a lot of manual effort - from fine stitch work to good core strength - a lot of which requires practice for technique and feel.\nSo, after taking a machine knitting workshop at Brooklyn's Textile Arts Center, I started absorbing a\u00a0ton\u00a0of how-tos, mostly in the form of videos (and those mostly from Carson at her amazing KnitFactoryImpl channel, but also old websites, shopping guides, and more. I ended up making a sort of \"curriculum\" for myself.\nFirst up: I ordered some pre-coned yarn (I'll cake later, when I know my machine works well), got the ol' machine out of storage and confirmed it all still moved and grooved, made\u00a0some gauge swatches. And then... needed a project!\nI decided to make a hat, following a combination of techniques from these KnitFactoryImpl videos:\nAbsolute beginner's guide to hats\n  Intermediate hat tutorial\n   Absolutely everything you need to know to get started with the lk-150 | Free pattern\nThat last one is for a very different machine from mine, but more clearly shows the steps and techniques.\nAnyway, I made a hat!\nBrother KH-930 knitting machine mounted to a gray countertop and surrounded by accessories. A large piece of knitting takes up almost the entire bed. The piece is in the process of being gathered up onto a long tail to be sewn up.It was fun learning to measure for a pattern, calculate stitches and rows, hang a hem, gather up onto a long tail to make the pinched hat top, and mattress stitch the seam. Practices in patience, eyesight, and fine motor skills.\n\nMe making a face while wearing my new pink hat, after make-up but before washing and blocking.Me with the hat pulled entirely over my face.Post-wash - it fits! Me in the pink hat, giving the camera a \"would you look at that, it works\" look.\n\nI ran it through a load of laundry and it came out much better!\nThe fit seemed a little loose, but I feel like it sits on my head the way the Carson's sits on her head at the end of her video. I'm taking that as a success for process!\nFrom here I thought a good level up would be to make a new hat with some design tweaks and, because I want to rush to get AYAB working some Fair Isle patterning using the Brother's built-in patterns. Consulting with Producer Amy, I decided to double the length of the brim without lengthening the hat overall. Amy picked a pattern, and I decided to try creating a stripe of it between the brim and the top of the hat.\nSomething was\u00a0not quite right\u00a0with the knitting carriage. The \"MC\" button used for two-color Fair Isle knitting was stuck to the \"T\" button below it, which engages tuck stitching. The result is that the pattern came out all wrong and also this whole paragraph is foreshadowing for some later posts.\n\nThe hat rectangle fresh off the machine. It really wants to curl up so I'm using random objects from the kitchen counter to hold it flat.Flipped over part of the rectangle to show the reverse side of the pattern.Me wearing the finished and washed hat. The fit is good!\n\nThe pattern should be gray contrast on black to match the rest of the hat, but instead is mostly-gray with some black peeking through, as well as some interesting texturing from the machine treating the pattern as a tuck stitch.\nDespite the patterning issue, I am pleased with how this came out. It's made of cotton rather than wool, so it stretches out a bit as it is worn, but it's still pretty cozy! Producer Amy requested that the next version have patterning from the brim to the top.\u00a0I look forward to trying that again soon... when I am able! (That's still foreshadowing.)\nOkay, that's it! See you next time!",
        "html": "<p>One of my main goals with learning machine knitting is to replace the electronics on my Brother KH-930e with\u00a0<a href=\"https://www.ayab-knitting.com/\">AYAB (All Yarns Are Beautiful)</a>\u00a0to create multi-color patterned knits of whatever sicko stuff comes to mind. But home knitting machines aren't a fire-and-forget type of machine. They require a lot of manual effort - from fine stitch work to good core strength - a lot of which requires practice for technique and feel.</p>\n<p>So, after <a href=\"https://martymcgui.re/2025/08/03/201439/\">taking a machine knitting workshop at Brooklyn's Textile Arts Center</a>, I started absorbing a\u00a0<i>ton</i>\u00a0of how-tos, mostly in the form of videos (and those mostly from <a href=\"https://www.abstractknitfactoryfactory.com/\">Carson</a> at her <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/@KnitFactoryImpl\">amazing KnitFactoryImpl channel</a>, but also old websites, shopping guides, and more. I ended up making a sort of \"curriculum\" for myself.</p>\n<p>First up: I ordered some pre-coned yarn (I'll cake later, when I know my machine works well), got the ol' machine out of storage and confirmed it all still moved and grooved, made\u00a0<a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tgjd1z0iCzI\">some gauge swatches</a>. And then... needed a project!</p>\n<p>I decided to make a hat, following a combination of techniques from these KnitFactoryImpl videos:</p>\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://youtu.be/FBN7msXjo8E\">Absolute beginner's guide to hats</a></li>\n  <li><a href=\"https://youtu.be/_yr8RGX1Wuc\">Intermediate hat tutorial</a></li>\n  <li><a href=\"https://youtu.be/9yERe7UbMBk\"> Absolutely everything you need to know to get started with the lk-150 | Free pattern</a></li>\n</ul><p>That last one is for a very different machine from mine, but more clearly shows the steps and techniques.</p>\n<p>Anyway, I made a hat!</p>\n<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/c1/12/7b/b1/a9b2caf867612dd1d03f1f2b16920a4ca4d4ab045edaf8379fa46631.\" alt=\"\" />Brother KH-930 knitting machine mounted to a gray countertop and surrounded by accessories. A large piece of knitting takes up almost the entire bed. The piece is in the process of being gathered up onto a long tail to be sewn up.<p>It was fun learning to measure for a pattern, calculate stitches and rows, hang a hem, gather up onto a long tail to make the pinched hat top, and mattress stitch the seam. Practices in patience, eyesight, and fine motor skills.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/b5/58/7a/1d/065fc5f499e4293cc27d826127f365a22fcb53fa08160dd9c2f36161.\" alt=\"\" />Me making a face while wearing my new pink hat, after make-up but before washing and blocking.<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/68/f0/64/46/88376c27f4a4addea934ddcc54c91d2d8aefa8f5a5631140df111c55.\" alt=\"\" />Me with the hat pulled entirely over my face.<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/d6/67/d9/4a/e585c85c19370e6c48f2bc106ae4921ce570c58e769c7f1052c43a67.\" alt=\"\" />Post-wash - it fits! Me in the pink hat, giving the camera a \"would you look at that, it works\" look.\n\n<p>I ran it through a load of laundry and it came out much better!</p>\n<p>The fit seemed a little loose, but I feel like it sits on my head the way the Carson's sits on her head at the end of her video. I'm taking that as a success for process!</p>\n<p>From here I thought a good level up would be to make a new hat with some design tweaks and, because I want to rush to get AYAB working some Fair Isle patterning using the Brother's built-in patterns. Consulting with Producer Amy, I decided to double the length of the brim without lengthening the hat overall. Amy picked a pattern, and I decided to try creating a stripe of it between the brim and the top of the hat.</p>\n<p>Something was\u00a0<i>not quite right</i>\u00a0with the knitting carriage. The \"MC\" button used for two-color Fair Isle knitting was stuck to the \"T\" button below it, which engages tuck stitching. The result is that the pattern came out all wrong and also this whole paragraph is foreshadowing for some later posts.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/ab/63/e7/35/32a432bc227572934ca8538d118e73fdf5f575afc29e64410d137c14.\" alt=\"\" />The hat rectangle fresh off the machine. It really wants to curl up so I'm using random objects from the kitchen counter to hold it flat.<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/2f/a1/e8/72/171f8601218eb002e8307097e4ea0c9af370c51870404d74ac32cb08.\" alt=\"\" />Flipped over part of the rectangle to show the reverse side of the pattern.<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/d1/9b/1b/cf/7d0db7ec967f8e0cc1fcdeeaf156314316ae73405cc112a9a515cc37.\" alt=\"\" />Me wearing the finished and washed hat. The fit is good!\n\n<p>The pattern should be gray contrast on black to match the rest of the hat, but instead is mostly-gray with some black peeking through, as well as some interesting texturing from the machine treating the pattern as a tuck stitch.</p>\n<p>Despite the patterning issue, I am pleased with how this came out. It's made of cotton rather than wool, so it stretches out a bit as it is worn, but it's still pretty cozy! Producer Amy requested that the next version have patterning from the brim to the top.\u00a0I look forward to trying that again soon... <i>when I am able!</i> (That's still foreshadowing.)</p>\n<p>Okay, that's it! See you next time!</p>"
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Marty McGuire martymcgui.re

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.

#machine-knitting #little-guys #making

September 20, 2025 1:45pm -04:00

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Aaron Parecki aaronparecki.com

Inspired by a question from @thisismissem.social, I wrote up a document describing how to apply DPoP (RFC9449) to the OAuth Device Flow (RFC8628).

https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-parecki-oauth-dpop-device-flow/

#oauth #dpop

September 20, 2025 7:18am -07:00

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Jonathan LaCour cleverdevil.io/profile/cleverdevil

September 19, 2025 5:57pm +00:00

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Aaron Parecki aaronparecki.com

PDX Taxi Stand

Lyft is backlogged, falling back to taxi

September 19, 2025 9:56am -07:00

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Aaron Parecki aaronparecki.com

Alaska Lounge

at Alaska Lounge

September 19, 2025 7:05am -07:00

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Aaron Parecki aaronparecki.com

Harvey Milk Terminal 1

That was slow. 23 minutes with CLEAR+Precheck

September 19, 2025 7:01am -07:00

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Aaron Parecki aaronparecki.com

TSA Security Checkpoint

Insanely long line at precheck and clear

September 19, 2025 6:38am -07:00

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Aaron Parecki aaronparecki.com

San Francisco International Airport (SFO)

at San Francisco International Airport (SFO)

September 19, 2025 6:35am -07:00

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Meet Printcess Leia 😍

Machine knitting: carriage return to work

VR hand tracking update

Machine knitting: forbidden socks

Machine knitting: taking a stand

Random updates

Ruby Central is Not Behaving in Good Faith, and I’ve Got Receipts

New shirt alert

Improving my VRChat performance audio

Machine knitting: what's up with (t)hat?

at Alaska Lounge

at San Francisco International Airport (SFO)