Eclectic Ramblings

Fiber Tool Search

2008-09-21T10:37:00.001-04:00

About 12 years ago, I started knitting again, this time it became an obsession. About that time, I wanted to try sock knitting. So, I went to a local yarn store, and purchased a sock kit. The yarn was in a hank, so the store owner wound it into a cake for me using a plastic Royal Ball Winder. This is the first time I had ever seen such a thing. Very cool, very fast.

So, I later purchased both a Royal Ball Winder, and a metal and plastic swift. This combination served me well until this year. My only complaint is that it was plastic, and felt - well - cheep.

This past year, I got into flat bed knitting machines - and started down the slippery slope of ball winders.

I have had and tried the following in addition to the Royal Ball Winder:

A Plastic & Metal Cone Winder - very nice, makes cones that are quite useful for knitting machines. Downside is that it is plastic and feels like a toy, also it can only handle small hanks of yarn (up to 4 oz).

A Large Ball Winder - this was similar to the Jumbo Ball Winder shown on the Halcyon Yarn page linked above - this made beautiful balls of yarn, still felt plastic. Also, when the tension was uneven, the gears felt like they were going to strip. This was also large and difficult to store.

A electric Silver Needles Cone Winder - WOW this was fantastic, made short work of hanks of yarn, winding them onto reusable cardboard cones. Beautiful for use with a knitting machine. The only real downside is the size to store and the fact that you have to plug it in to use. Oh, and the noise - it is a pretty noisy piece of equipment.

A Strauch Jumbo Ball Winder - nice, heavy duty, made of wood. The only issue was that the table I had to attach it to didn't have a deep enough overhang, therefore the ball winder would wobble. If you have a normal table - this winder is hard to beat for both the price and the quality.

A Heavy Duty Ball Winder by Nancys Knit Knacks - this is the one that captured my heart. Since it is made for yarn stores, and to essentially be abused - it is seriously over engineered. Smooth as silk, clamps to the very edge of a table - or in my case the corner of a desk. If you start the ball correctly as shown in the DVD that comes with the winder, the ball comes out as a nice cake. As a bonus they also sell cardboard yarn cores - because of this, I can replace the electric cone winder with this one - as the knitting machine works great using the yarn balls on the cores.

My other adventure was into Yarn swifts.

The first one was the Light Yarn Swift - very good, light, compact, works, smooth. Nothing really negative can be said about this. It is plastic and metal - so a bit cheep looking, but beautifully functional.

The second one I tried was Baby Bear Yarn Swift by the Oregon Woodworker. This is now discontinued, but is nice and smooth, all wood, and came with a nice bag to hold all the parts. The pins to hold a skein of yarn seemed cheap as they are only wooden dowels. But are quite functional.

The third one I tried was Will Taylor Clamp-on Skeinwinder/Swift in solid Cherry. Beautiful, smooth. The only complaint is that it is a bit tedious to take down and store, but if you want to just leave it clamped - its beautiful.

My current favorite is a Yarn Swift with Folding Arms by texasjeans. I purchased this over Etsy and couldn't be happier. Its a bit large in the fold up state, but is so well made and beautiful it becomes a nice piece of art, and does not take up much room (a 6" diameter circle of space) when it is not being used. The best part is the storage of the pins, so clever - they store in the center of the swift when not being used, and are available when putting a hank on the swift. Very smooth, well worth the cost.

CSMSA 2010

2008-07-04T13:13:00.001-04:00

I was elected to host the 2010 CSMSA conference. So, to that end have started a blog to document the process.

Enjoy.

Update

2008-04-27T12:49:00.002-04:00

Ever have a friend that you loose touch with? A little times goes by and you say "I should call them". But then A LOT of time goes by and you figure that it has just been too long?

That is how I feel about this blog - and I have so much that has been going on!

To get you caught up, I sold the NZAK. We were not getting along well - I like to do things a certain way, and it didn't. So off it went to someone that really can care and treat it with all the respect it deserves. While we are on the subject of NZAK, the manufacturer made a great video showing how to caston and knit using the NZAK. Highly recommend it, even if you don't have a NZAK.

In the meantime I went through several of Circular Sock Machines before I found the two that I have now.

There was the Verdun - very nice machine, knit like a dream - just wasn't "the one" for me.
Then there was the Creelman - beautiful. The only problem was by the time I got the Creelman I had decided that I didn't like that style of machine.
This was followed by the Project Legare 400 - loved that machine. I took it apart, cleaned and polished every piece knitted on it it was just a really nice machine. But by then I had 3 of them, and one had to go. It was the odd man out because the other two where the same style of Legare, and I wanted a matched set. So off that went to it's new home.
That left me with 2 Legare 400 machines, both with the rounded base. Finally the search was over.

The best part about this machine shuffle is that I learned a HUGE amount about the different styles, how they work, what I liked/disliked. It was an excellent opportunity. But, I am glad to have my garage back though. Cleaning a machine takes me about two weeks - and takes over the garage. Now I can concentrate on socks.

About a month ago - I started thinking about flatbed knitting machines. humm.... I have a LK100 stored that my Mom and I purchased YEARS ago, never have I taken it out of it's box so I don't even know if it works. My guess though is that with a new sponge bar it would work great.

So, the cycle starts again, just trying to find the right machine. Something that does ribbing, color, etc.

So, I started off with a Brother KH830, cleaned it, put a new sponge bar in it - checked out that the punchcard works. Made a swatch. Great machine - but these knitting machines take up so much space, even when put away....

Next I thought I would try out a Singer SK700, I have no opinion about that machine - the quality of the packing done by the seller was, well, non-existent. The machine arrived all dented and damaged - the carriage was wrapped in fiberglass insulation. Ugh. That went back, still waiting on the final resolution.

Then there is the Passap DM80. Now I purchased this through Craigslist, but what the seller forgot to mention (and I forgot to ask) was that the machine had had a tumble. So, this weekend I spent taking the machine apart, removing the frame (which is bent) so that next weekend I can put in a new frame. Other than the fact that I have to rebuild from the ground up - I am completely in love with this machine. It really speaks to my geeky heart.

That means, that the Brother is off to be sold. Only have room for one full sized standard knitting machine - and that Passap is a bit chunky.

What else?

I made a video on YouTube showing how to graft toes when they come off a sock machine...

I have learned a slight modification to the technique shown that gets rid of the "ears".

Socks!!!

2007-06-09T20:16:00.001-04:00

Socks!!!, originally uploaded by eirual.

It took me all day from about 7am until 8pm today.

What are looking at is one completed pair of socks, no dropped stitches, both the same size, toes nicely closed using kitchener stitch.

Best part - they fit great!

Look what followed me home...

2007-05-28T21:55:00.001-04:00

Schacht, originally uploaded by eirual.

Check out the new wheel! The yarn displayed is spun from the roving that came with the machine. I am getting better, still a bit novelty but getting better.

NZAK - Houston we have a tube!

2007-05-28T18:39:00.001-04:00

NZAK - Houston we have a tube!, originally uploaded by eirual.

Whoo hoo!!! I can now knit a tube!

This is my new toy - a 2007 NZAK.

Lessons in spinning

2007-05-20T19:16:00.000-04:00

This weekend I took up spinning again. From this I have learned several valuable lessons:

The WoolLee Winder is the single best invention in the pursuit of spinning. Bar none. This thing is awesome, smooth, even feeding of yarn onto bobbin, worth every penny.

There is no substitute for a Lazy Kate. No, putting wire through a cardboard box is not a viable substitute. So, I am in search of a Lazy Kate - because I am not going to deal with the alternative again - it sucked.

On my PVC Niddy Noddy - shorter arms would have been better (I am thinking that 4.5" would have been much better than the 6" that I made them. It's an easy fix though)

Although my cats loved playing with the wool - they were good enough not to break up the roving too bad.

I DESPISE the plying head that came with my Lendrum - and will sell it and all the original bobbins as soon as I take a picture of them. The WooLee Winder is that good.

Here is my creation - an entire 3 day weekend spinning and this is what I get 250 yards of what can only generously be called Novelty yarn.

PVC Pipe Niddy Noddy

2007-05-20T10:44:00.001-04:00

I picked up spinning after about 8 years. It's amazing but it all comes back to you - just like riding a bike :) One thing I have needed, but never purchased is a Niddy Noddy. I saw some really nice ones at MD Sheep and Wool this year but could never bring myself to purchase one.

Since I am toying with the idea of dyeing my own fiber/yarn, I liked the concept of a niddy noddy made out of pvc. Cheep and durable.

After using the directions found here for the general concept and arm length information, as well as here for the specific center post lengths. I was able to put together 2 complete niddy noddys from a 10ft piece of PVC pipe (obviously if you only want to make one niddy noddy - you only need a 5 ft piece). Total cost, including pvc cement (for use on the T's, and 3 of the 4 endcaps) was $7.

So, for $3.50 I have a 1m, 1.5m and 2m niddy noddy (obviously not all at the same time).

Not bad - eh?

Pretty new brooch

2007-04-29T17:16:00.000-04:00

I have been working on a shawl - and to commemorate almost finishing it, I got this really pretty brooch from Celtic Swan.

Why I didn't get to sleep last night...

2007-04-23T07:03:00.000-04:00

So here's my story:

I turned on the Red Sox / Yankees game last night and they were in the bottom of the 3rd. The score was 0/3 Yankees.

Then, about 5 min into watching the game, Manny came to the plate.

Homerun!!!!

JD Drew.

Homerun!!!!

(nothing unusual yet)

Next up, Mike Lowell.

Homerun!!!!

(... What the...!)

Then Varitek.

Homerun!!!!

(OMG - 4 in a row?! they got FOUR in a ROW!!!)

Record four straight help Red Sox complete three-game sweep

Dude!!! OK going to school tonight is going to suck, but that was worth it!

Current Shawl progress

2007-04-22T22:23:00.000-04:00

Been a bit quiet here on the blog front. My excuse is that I have been working on this Shetland Hap Shawl. And, well, its a bit boring to look at think of a yarn jellyfish and you might have the correct mental image ... I hope to be done in the next two weeks so that I can wear it to the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival, and will post pre-blocking and post-blocking pictures then.

Right now I am halfway through the cast off lace edging, to get this far it has taken me about 3 weeks, it makes a regular cast off edging almost laughable in it's speed to completion.

The wisdom of Yogi Berra

2007-04-22T22:20:00.000-04:00

The 2008 election, explained by Yogi Berra

I love this one "I wish I had an answer to that, because I'm tired of answering that question."

Finished STR Rockin' Sock Club Inside Out!

2007-03-10T11:01:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I finished the second sock from the Socks that Rock, Rockin' Sock Club's March 2007 shipment. I have been waiting until more people have gotten their package before giving some lessons learned. So here goes:

When doing the provisional cast-on, do the crochet chain onto the needle. I find that MUCH easier than trying to pick up the crochet chain after it has been completed. See Knitting at Knoon for a description and video of this technique.

For some reason I found this weird - but it worked. You will knit 32 stitches, turn and knit 31 stitches and wrap that last stitch. That last stitch will just hang out until you finish the short row toe, it also is the stitch that your tail is attached to. You then knit 30 stitches, wrap that last stitch (do not knit it) and turn. At this point there will be two wrapped stitches. Continue with the pattern. All this time you will be knitting flat, but will be making a little cup.

I personally like to use double pointed needles, so I oriented the stitches so that the sole was on 2 needles, and the instep was on 2 needles. If you do magic loop or use 2 circular needles, do the same thing make one side the sole, the other the instep. The advantage is that when you get into the foot ribbing it is really easy to see if you did the setup correctly as you will start the instep with a purl stitch, and start the sole with a purl stitch. Also this makes the heel easier to orient.

Short row heel. I had to do this twice on the first sock - the first time I just left the instep on the 2 double pointed needles. It just about drove me crazy. Once I started the cuff I realized that the foot was too long, so a frogging I went. The second time, I put the waiting instep stitches on a circular needle and then did the short row heel. MUCH better. You could also put the instep stitches on a piece of yarn so that they don't get in the way.

Cuff. The cuff pattern is repeated three times. To avoid using markers I just knitted the cuff using 3 double pointed needles. This would be where using double pointed needles is to your advantage.

Fit. I tend to walk out of the foot of my socks, so I knitted VERY tightly using size 0 needles for the foot. On the cuff, you will want it to be knit much looser, this is due to the cabling and it really pulls in and remove a lot of the stretch you get with the ribbing. So I knit this using size 1 (2.5mm) double pointed needles. If this is not knit loosely, you will have MUCH trouble getting your foot through the cuff.

I have a very wide (size D US width) "peasant foot", in size 7. So your mileage may vary.

Socks That Rock - Monsoon

2007-03-04T14:47:00.001-05:00

I joined the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin' Sock Club this year. Not only is it the first time I have *ever* been in a sock club, but it is the first time I have knitted with Socks That Rock.

From this perspective - let me say that this yarn is gorgeous and the pattern interesting. Heck I have never done a toe up sock before this as well.

:)

Lovely!

Laurie

PS - I used size 0 for the foot and size 1 for the cuff, looks like I hit the sweet spot in the cuff as you can see by the really nice striping.

An EZ-Bake Oven in my fridge

2007-03-03T15:28:00.000-05:00

So, over the summer I bought one of those fancy pants "French Door" styled refrigerators, basically because the one I had was more of a cabinet then a cooling device. Once it was installed Tom noticed that they used two 60W appliance bulbs in it. Now this was just after changing out just about every light bulb in my home for Compact Fluorescent bulbs, so we were a bit sensitive to the use of incandescent bulbs.

If you do the math - I had the equivalent of an EZ-Bake Oven in my fridge. Heck an EZ-Bake Oven only used one 100W bulb so - I had an extra 20W MORE heat than that little oven - in my fridge.

Fast forward to last week.

I opened the fridge and the plastic diffuser over the light bulbs had MELTED. I had melted plastic IN MY FRIDGE! This is not right.

Since CF Bulbs really don't do well in cold quick turn-on environments - the other option was LED's. I have now replaced the 60W bulbs with 3W LED bulbs (from Super Bright LEDs very fast shipping, also reasonably priced). The light is much dimmer but who needs the equivalent of the sun in their fridge just to see if you are out of milk?

This is for Terry

2007-02-28T13:19:00.000-05:00

OK, I saw this on YouTube and it is just funny :)

Short Story

2007-01-30T08:26:00.000-05:00

Issac Asimov's The Last Question

Fish Mittens!

2007-01-30T07:48:00.000-05:00

One of the people in my Knitting group is making these ... I think it is going on the list of stuff to make, very very cool!

Issues with Knitting

The little grocery store that might...

2007-01-28T08:26:00.000-05:00

Well if it wasn't for Wal-Mart.

Teen aims to save his Minnesota town

Google Email for your domain

2007-01-15T08:54:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend several things happened:

I discovered that I forgot to pay for my email hosting. The notification was sent to an address I no longer use. For future reference, set up the email to be something that you actually check, or you might find yourself with no email.
So, I was blindly going to pay to get my email working again. But, it costs $128 per year, ouch.

Then an epiphany, I could move my domain to Google email and use that - I wonder... They offer catchall email addresses, they are (currently) not evil and it would not cost me anything...

So, my domain got moved over - we shall see how good gmail is, I have my fingers crossed.

BTW the only really *scary* part was the updating the MX records so that the email went over to Google. I found that rather disconcerting, though it works (so far).

Women scorned...

2006-12-24T11:24:00.000-05:00

Saw this on Digg: Headstone.

:)

Excellent.

Snowman Art - Tribute to Calvin and Hobbes

2006-12-24T08:49:00.000-05:00

This is brilliant: Snowman Art

For the Love of LaTeX

2006-12-23T18:48:00.000-05:00

I have been taking college classes at night in a hope of getting my Master's Degree sometime before I turn 50. The last one was "Networks and Data Communication". Actually it was really interesting. For the class I had to do a report on a chosen subject - I picked BitTorrent.

So I had picked my subject, now had to write the paper. With references. And footnotes.

I tried NeoOffice - very nice - but ungodly slow, though the pdf output was nicely hyperlinked.
I tried Mellel - also very nice - but I just didn't like it, and the pdf output couldn't be hyperlinked (for some bizarre reason this was REALLY important to me).
I tried Nisus Writer Express- again very nice - it just didn't give me the confidence for the footnotes, references and again - no pdf hyperlinked output.
I did not try MS Word, because well I just don't like it on principle.

What was I to do? For a prior class (Analysis of Algorithms) I had crash learned LaTeX, could this do what I want? It is used for thesis papers and reports so it might do the job.

And that is where the love affair blossomed... Did you know you can do bibliography's in LaTeX? Not only that, but properly formatted off from a page of references, with only the ones you use listed?

Did I mention footnotes?

How about consistent look to the document?

Hypertext pdf output?

Did I mention I am in love?

Oh, a plug for Google - their Document collaboration tool is AWESOME!!!

:)

HOWTO display component video from a Mac Mini.

2006-07-29T10:17:00.000-04:00

I got an Intel Mac Mini to use as a media PC but wanted it to fit into my current Home Theater setup. This would mean that I would like to EITHER connect the Mini using s-video to the Television and to my Projector OR try a different option.

I went the road less traveled ...

Here are the players:

Intel Mac Mini
Polaroid FLM-2632 (component, s-video, VGA, DVI)
Infocus 4805 (component, s-video)

Now, since the house wiring is completed - I am not about to get a DVI connection wired from the Mini to the 4805 anyway - have you seen the price of those cables? So my option was either Component Video OR S-Video.

S-Video Sucked.

OK - so my option is now Component Video.

But Key Digital makes a really cool product the ClearColor3 that will transcode the VGA RGB signal to a Component YPbPr signal AND has a VGA pass through. So my Projector will get a Component input and the TV will get the VGA - Coolness.

Since the Mini can get the VGA resolution from the Polaroid TV, I ended up not needing any special software for the Mini (for the Projector resolution) - it just worked.

Note: The 4805 projector can display (per the specs): 854x480, 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768. Since the mini can NOT display (at least I am not able to get this to work using either SwitchResX or DisplayConfigX to work displaying 854x480), then just set the Mini for either 640x480 or 800x600 and that works just fine. The important thing to note is that the display at these two resolutions is noticeably better than connecting the Mini to the 4805 using the DVI->S-Video adapter available from the Apple Store.

Setting up the ClearColor3 input sync - this is where the *real problem started* - you MUST turn Switch 1 OFF (down) (SCART composite sync on H), and switch 2 ON (up) (Composite Sync out on YPrPb).

NOTE: If Switch 1 is ON - you will get a Red display.

Set the Mini to output a 800x600 60Hz signal (640x480 at 60Hz works as well - there is no noticeable difference in the projected display, just the monitor change icon is available at 640x480 and not at 800x600). If you use the 640x480 setting you do lose several pixels off the right hand side of the displayed image.

If you are using 640x480 at 60Hz - the projector should just work, no need to change color space at all. If using 800x600 at 60Hz you have to change color space (image will be Green). This is trivial on the Infocus 4805 - select the Menu->Picture->Advanced->Color Space and change from Auto to either REC709 or REC601 (one is HD Color Space the other is SD Color Space).

This is the connection information:

Intel Mac Mini - DVI-> ClearColor3 -> (VGA)Polaroid FLM-2632
                                ->(Component) Infocus 4805

I don't think this has any relevance, but in the process of getting this to work correctly I flashed the 4805 with the latest version of Firmware.

Summation:

60Hz is your friend
Switch 1 OFF, Switch 2 ON --- VERY IMPORTANT!!!!
800x600 at 60Hz works great.

Change color space on the Infocus 4805 to REC601 or REC709.

If you don't want to mess with color space and don't mind clipping a smidge off your image then:

640x480 at 60Hz also works great.

Sawstop Table Saw

2006-06-23T04:45:00.000-04:00

This looks like the table saw for me - if (when?) I get a house big enough for one. I am fairly attached to my fingers so would appreciate any extra help that I can get.