{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2025-10-02T21:00:38-07:00",
"url": "https://beesbuzz.biz/blog/4967-Some-updates",
"category": [
"bloggin",
"music",
"disability",
"health"
],
"name": "Some updates",
"content": {
"text": "Just some brief stuff:\nFinally followed through on my intention to remove (most of) my music from Spotify. I hope this doesn\u2019t turn out to be a huge mistake.\nI got an update on my disability process in that it\u2019s moved to final approval\u2026 right before the government shut down.\nPain-wise I\u2019m doing okay, not great, and same for fatigue. I\u2019m still not driving.\nThings are progressing with the game I\u2019m working on, but I\u2019m worried about its financial future due to being NSFW and sex-work-positive.\nI\u2019m pretty worried about the current timbre of American politics right now, what with being both trans and an atheist. Also my passport won\u2019t be eligible for renewal until mid-December and I\u2019m not sure the gender marker thing is going to hold out that long.\nWho cursed me to live in interesting times? They can fuck right off.",
"html": "<p>Just some brief stuff:</p>\n<ul><li>Finally followed through on my intention to <a href=\"https://sockpuppet.band/blog/2156-Where-d-your-music-go\">remove (most of) my music from Spotify</a>. I hope this doesn\u2019t turn out to be a huge mistake.</li>\n<li>I got an update on my disability process in that it\u2019s moved to final approval\u2026 right before the government shut down.</li>\n<li>Pain-wise I\u2019m doing okay, not great, and same for fatigue. I\u2019m still not driving.</li>\n<li>Things are progressing with the game I\u2019m working on, but I\u2019m worried about its financial future due to being NSFW and sex-work-positive.</li>\n<li>I\u2019m pretty worried about the current timbre of American politics right now, what with being both <a href=\"https://www.them.us/story/trump-admin-fbi-trans-nihilistic-violent-extremists-terrorist\">trans</a> <em>and</em> an <a href=\"https://youtu.be/dJ9Zk4qcUUQ\">atheist</a>. Also my passport won\u2019t be eligible for renewal until mid-December and I\u2019m not sure the <a href=\"https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/trump-files-emergency-scotus-motion\">gender marker thing</a> is going to hold out that long.</li>\n<li>Who cursed me to live in interesting times? They can fuck right off.</li>\n</ul>"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "fluffy",
"url": "https://beesbuzz.biz/",
"photo": "https://beesbuzz.biz/static/headshot.jpg"
},
"post-type": "article",
"_id": "46127895",
"_source": "2778"
}
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
{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2025-10-02T10:15:11-0400",
"url": "https://martymcgui.re/2025/10/02/101511/",
"category": [
"Vimeo",
"capitalism",
"video",
"hosting"
],
"syndication": [
"https://news.indieweb.org/en/martymcgui.re/2025/10/02/101511/",
"https://fed.brid.gy/"
],
"content": {
"text": "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.\nI 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.\nFor 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\u2019t love it. I\u2019ve now mirrored that single video to my own site. No big deal: MakerBot #131 printing bike handlebar mount bottom",
"html": "<p>Looks like <a href=\"https://investors.vimeo.com/news-releases/news-release-details/vimeo-enters-definitive-agreement-be-acquired-bending-spoons-138\">Vimeo is being acquired</a>. 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.</p>\n<p>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 <em>all</em> of her 10+ years of YouTube to <a href=\"https://vimeo.com/vihart\">https://vimeo.com/vihart</a> ! I worry for the future of all those works.</p>\n<p>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\u2019t love it. I\u2019ve now mirrored that single video to my own site. No big deal: <a href=\"https://martymcgui.re/2009/10/10/130000/\">MakerBot #131 printing bike handlebar mount bottom</a></p>"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Marty McGuire",
"url": "https://martymcgui.re/",
"photo": "https://martymcgui.re/images/logo.jpg"
},
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "46123856",
"_source": "175"
}
{
"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"
}
