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2022-03-04 - War in Ukraine

The past days and week have been devastating. The spectre of war has risen to heights not seen in decades.

I am the children of refugees. As the war continues let us support the people of Ukraine, as well as remember the world is full of conflict and refugees. Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Central America, Palestine and many other conflicts making refugee resettlement a global problem.

Our empathy should grow to include all refugees, from anywhere. We have the housing, the economy, and a Statue of Liberty that implores welcoming all to our shores.

Wish I could write more about this, but the combination of depression, helplessness, and sorrow is too much right now.

2022-01-14 - Changes

Things have been really busy since the holidays. Here's some updates on what I've been up to and why posts have been infrequent the past couple months.

Someone has been sending me notes every month. Namely the bank regarding the status of my mortgage. With this in mind, I have started another full time position in technology. And as luck would have it, I also have some other side work that has been a great time to do as well. In addition, I have a family and hobbies to keep up with. So my time has been in demand from multiple directions.

So I'm taking a breather. I'm not gone. My dreams inhabit this space. My aspirations are still closely aligned with my goals. I'm just finding it hard to give my projects the time and attention they deserve.

The past years have been challenging for all of us. It's hard to put down something one cares about so deeply. But for the good of my family and our finances, this is the best way to continue. The motor spinner is still in the works. Plans for other related projects are in a holding pattern.

Thanks for reading and your understanding.

2021-12-08 - Open Source Ideals for Makers

I've been using Linux for a long time. Windows and mac work fine for some people, but linux has been my daily driver of choice for a good 25 years. Linus Torvalds authored the linux kernel and distributed his software under the terms of the General Public License. Many think of this as 'giving away.' But it is the wrong attitude. By sharing he eliminated any chance that his code could be gobbled up by a commercial enterprise. By sharing he allowed other collaborators to contribute to an improving code base. By sharing he protected his project. By sharing he grew his project from 'a hobby thing not big and professional like gnu' to one of the most active gnu projects. Linus' decision to share was not an idealistic one, it was a pragmatic one.

Don't we see this across industries and technologies? When ideas are allowed to be freely shared we see dramatic exponential growth. From the Manhattan Project to Xerox PARC - technology thrives upon a healthy collaboration across a wide range of disciplines. In the past guilds functioned as these breeding grounds of ideas. But many of the insights and knowledge that was gained by the guilds became lost because it was held secret. Our history is an incomplete picture. For historic items we create and recreate based on fuzzy imperfections. Just like we can get a recipe for a hundred year old loaf of bread, we can't really know how it tasted because of the variables in the preparation and environment. The best way to preserve our knowledge is to make sure it's widely shared and available. Like wikipedia.

Which brings me to an interesting point. There are many specialty wikis for hobbyists and nerds of all stripes. I think one that includes fiber and pre-industrial age technologies would be just an amazing resource for everything from english long bows to andean drop spindles to viking ship sail construction. Like a library of knowledge for things that were lost to time. If anyone is interested in a collaboration in these lines, email me.

2021-10-25 - Keeping Healthy on the Internet

William Osman is a engineer, maker and youtuber. Recently he uploaded a brutally frank video which was a bit different from his usual videos. William makes videos about engineering, building, and the process of building things. I am a huge fan of his. Not all of us are aerospace engineers like Destin of Smarter Every Day or Mark Rober. Those channels are amazing, but their expertise and polished editing mitigate one of the most challenging parts of engineering: things going wrong. Osman greets this adversity with humor and a tireless work ethic.

Which was why it was really hard to watch the latest string of controversy. Osman made a homebrew x-ray imager, and the youtube comments exploded. Many comments drifted from unhelpful to just plain mean. It was hard to endure, because the whole idea and execution of the x-ray video was really well done. Osman is highlighting a societal problem (expensive health care) through the lens of a humourous build. The fallout from the video made me think and has stuck with me.

The toxic disinhibition of the comment section is akin to nuclear fallout. Industrial complexes (military, banking, insurance, big tech all have their own) run their platforms like the Soviets ran Chernobyl. Acting with concern for their own international image than the good of it's citizens; change enacted only after the disaster has unfolded; party members go unpunished and beyond reproach.

The industrial complexes measure the effectiveness of their systems to maximize "engagement" -- your time and attention. Whistleblowers like Frances Haugen have insights to how the corporations measure the toxic effects of their platforms.

These are hard problems. Osman in a later video asks other makers how they reckon with these issues. When faced with a problem, it is critically important to get the help of the most capable people you know. Our families, our friends, our elders, our support network.

Unhappy people, misinformation and negativity finds a way into our mind. We choose our level of involvement with it. We can choose to interact with the positive, or the unhinged. The internet is such an amazing tool and will use you if you allow it.

2021-10-10 - Squid Game - Art imitates systemic failure

September of 2021 saw the introduction of Squid Game, the dystopian show available on netflix is worth watching. Netflix has done a really great job bringing the show to the small screen. Some shows do not live up to the hype; that worried me about watching it. After watching it, I am still surprised on how good the show is. The characters, themes, and plot are woven together with such mastery. The imagery and videography are stunning as well. It's a great series and there are no spoilers here. My advice is to watch it without even seeing the trailer.

A few days back a story came to light about the writer Hwang Dong-hyuk having to sell his laptop for cash. The studios rejected the show for 10 years before netflix inked a deal. The studios dismissed the show as "too grotesque and unrealistic."

I have many friends who write. Some professionally full time, some as side projects. One friend shared a really salient thread from twitter about this story from a writer's perspective. The thread highlighted the point of the wsj piece being about 'motivational' and 'never giving up on ones dreams' when the scarier part was how the studios had failed. The whole system had failed.

The whole situation is very much like a Philip K Dick novel. I found many parallel themes between Phil's work and Squid Game. Phil's life was intertwined in his writing. Many of the themes of his characters were the themes of his own personal struggles. Phil's characters were flawed people mirroring his shortcomings. The matroshka like unpacking of A Scanner Darkly is mirrored by Squid Game. Like Hwang Dong-hyuk, Phil spent most of his life in obscurity and since his passing in 1982 his works have increased in popularity. For example, A Scanner Darkly was set to film in 2006 almost 30 years after publication in 1977.

Squid Game is a brilliantly written show that weaves a delicate tapestry of plot, characters, themes, and suspense. The execution is fantastic. So why do these fantastic pieces of writing get overlooked when Hollywood's nostalgia factory can only produce sequels, series, and reboots of those series? I wish I knew. I'd rather watch Parasite or Rashomon again than go out to the plastic craptastic action hero movie du jour. Netflix is capitalizing on the failures of the industry.

So with that in mind, grab a cuppa and have a gander at Squid Game. Suits would of course call it "too grotesque and unrealistic." Similar to Kubrick the graphic scenes are underpinned by questions of morality, ethics, and how we treat other human beings. "Grotesque and unrealistic" is exactly how I would describe most big-budget movies.

Thanks for reading. Keep on treadlin.

2021-10-05 - Hemp - Fiber of the past and future

Had a great time this weekend out at a hemp farm. Western States Hemp was kind to host a workshop put on by Fibershed and the Reno Fiber Guild. It was amazing.

It was a weekend of many firsts for me. Working with hemp, tromping through a field, and feeling the raw material in my hands. Reading and research led me to believe hemp is a tough fiber to work with. It is absolutely true. Hemp is very strong, very gummy, and hard to process. Every part of the plant is usuable and with amazing qualities.

I had a great time. I learned alot. It was a very good reminder of why the fiber arts is so fun: the people. Everyone was so kind, friendly, and shared freely. It was amazing to see a group of people open their heads and share.

All in all, if you have a chance to work with hemp: go for it. It's a tough one to work with but well worth the effort.

Thanks for reading. Keep on treadlin.

2021-09-30 - Learning from the past - AI and the power loom

This blog post has been tough to write. As I started reading the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers series on the Great AI Reckoning it sparked a network of thinking that had already been firing for quite awhile.

This series is really insightful and well written. A short summary for context: "AI is a truly amazing potential to improve our present and future, however right now we are at the infancy stages of implementing AI effectively." The series is definitely worth a squizz.

The series is approachable and not littered with code, math, or stats. It got me thinking about the historical context of the tools we use.

Current AI solutions remind me of a joke about "UNIX airlines": 12 passengers walk onto the tarmac and start assembling the plane. There is an open secret about AI. You need a really good team of people to implement it properly. This is a symptom of the infantile state of the technology.

Another problem is the vast amount of hype related to AI. There is a giant chasm between what people think is possible and what is actually possible with today's AI. The technology is improving. Computers went from room-sized behemoths understood only by nerds to ubiquitous boxes that we carry in our pockets and sit on our desks. That process took time, as it will with AI.

I see a correlation between where we are with AI, and the power loom in it's infancy. When power looms were first rolled out, they could only do plainweave. It took decades before complex patterns could be woven by power looms. Methodically, the technology improved to the point where human weavers were rendered obsolescent.

And here is the part where we see the advancements, and draw the logical conclusion. We are approaching a point where no job is safe from becoming a water-carrier for the machines: doctors, lawyers, engineers, stockbrockers, management, and politicians. This is the part that makes people crazy. No job is safe. The machines took our joarbs! So to prevent Skynet and terminator robots hunting humans for sport we must smash the machines now. That escalated quickly, now didn't it?

The central problem with the power loom was with how it was implemented. Sections of society left without a career and forgotten. The power loom symbolized the meat grinder that chewed up and spit out human beings in pursuit of the almighty dollar.

The power loom is just a piece of technology, just like AI. The problem is, and always has been, the meat grinder.

Thanks for reading, keep on treadlin.

2021-09-28 - Hemp Workshop

This weekend in Fallon NV there will be a hemp workshop with Stephenie Gaustad. Western States Hemp has more information on the linked events page if you'd like more information.

Steph has some really fun stuff planned. 2 days is a short time to cover the vast ocean of information on this amazing fiber. The main points of going from field to fiber in addition to the yarn, rope, cordage, and basketry material will be a challenge to cover in those 2 days. I'm excited to learn so much.

Hemp is an amazing material. Cultivated for millenia, hemp is part of human history. Even our relatively recent history of the United States has a rich tradition of hemp cultivation. US Patent Number 1 was granted to Thomas Jefferson; a design for a modified threshing machine for the purposes of processing hemp. Although the final version of the constitution was written on parchment (animal skin) drafts were on hemp paper. So you could say the constitution was written on hemp paper with the final draft inscribed on parchment. During the Korean War the Defense Department designated hemp as a strategic resource. The breadth and depth of hemp in our history extends far and wide.

Hemp is enjoying a resurgence in popularity. With good reason. With new technology and a renewed awareness people are making amazing things with hemp. The future of this amazing plant is as rich as its history.

Hope to see you there. Big thanks to Reno Fiber Guild, Western States Hemp, and the Fibershed micro-grant which makes all this possible. Keep on treadlin.

2021-09-21 - Spinning in time lapse

While looking through menus on my camera, I found a time lapse movie option. Oooo goody, I thought. Here was a chance to get a look at both my spinning and the spinner.

Observing my movements over time was eye opening. Watching my hands helped me think about the ergonomics of how I draft. Hours of doing anything can lead to repetitive stress injuries. I thought my hands stayed static in a single position. On looking at the time lapse, I saw my hands changing position and angle slightly over time. My draft drifted further and closer to the orifice. The bobbin filled unevenly due to not changing hooks. These tiny mistakes might seem like splitting hairs but over time the small adds up larger and larger.

The motor spinner was fascinating to watch as well. The lack of vibration and movement made the spinners spinning parts very crisp and focused images. The drive cord did not wobble; the path of travel was straight and aligned. No part of the spinner appeared fuzzy or moving except the spinning parts. This demonstrates the lack of vibration and the well balanced nature of each one of the components.

Spinning is a rhythmic dance between the fiber, the spinner, and their tools. There is so much to learn from observing techniques over a long time scale. I learned so much from looking at my body positioning and angles with my hands to improve my ergonomics and strain on my back and shoulders. I learned so much about the motor spinner and how it's mechanical systems interact. Human beings have amazing skills in pattern recognition. Applying this over different time scales than our normal perceptions can yield great insights into our tools and ourselves.

Here is the time lapse video:

You can check out all the videos here on youtube.

Keep your stick on the ice and keep on treadlin.

2021-09-20 - Reviewing my own motor spinner

The Phoenix Motor Spinner is my new design. I've been using it for the past few months. So I'll put on my spinner's cap, brew a cuppa, and evaluate this spinning machine as best as I can from the point of view of a spinner.

This machine is a joy to spin on. The double drive is predictable, mild, and easy to work with. I have never oiled the machine once, and it's been great. The compact size means it can easily go anywhere. The tilt tensioning is precise and familiar. The constant speed of the motor supplies the flyer with consistent torque and twist to the yarn. This spinner is capable of a wide range of fibers and techniques for spinning.

So it's perfect, right? Nope. So what's the catch? No catch, just engineering compromises. The large bobbin size limits the flyer design, as well as the size of the eye. The compact size makes the drive cord sensitive; the cross must be on the correct side or it can throw it. These compromises are choices of the engineer. In the best of designs these compromises are elegant and seamless. This is my first design. It's not seamless or perfect. But the compromises I have chosen have resulted in something that is amazingly fun to spin with. It is small and convenient. Its capabilities align with production treadle wheels.

So the old adage goes "Good, fast, or cheap. Pick two." This iron triangle balancing quality, capability, and time to build is central to engineering and design. My goal was a modicum of grace and elegance in facing these hard problems.

Best of luck with your builds and projects. Keep on treadlin.

2021-09-16 - Why handspin a website?

This post might seem weird or out of place. This is my attempt at an explanation of this website. It's a list of reasons why I chose not to use medium, blogspot, or wordpress. Not that those services are bad or dysfunctional. They are all very nice and work great, just not for me. This has been a tough post to write due to the subject matter sending me on rant after rant. So after several counts to ten and deep breathing, here goes.

The modern web is built for big business. Tracking cookies, tracking pixels, banner advertisements are all commonplace. But these don't help my website. They add complexity and network latency. These features help advertisers. These tracking features get baked into the blogging and website products. These features have infiltrated to the extent that omitting or turning them off is not possible.

I don't want all this trash gunking up my website or the browsers of people who look at it. Aside from the clutter, everyone who has spent time online has had that odd feeling of products following you around the internet. It's creepy.

In conclusion, it's a bit of work to make this site. But I think it's worth it to ditch the surveillance capitalism that has been baked into the modern web experience. So there will be no GDPR cookie warnings. No analytics cookies. No tracking pixels. Just a small simple static site with silly movie references on my error page. I'd be happy to share any other details about the website; my email is on the contact page.

Thanks for reading. Keep on treadlin.

2021-09-14 - Sheep to Shawl

The Lambtown Festival has been going for nearly 40 years. The past 2 have been virtual events. Mom has been involved with teaching and judging at Lambtown for a number of years now. Mom has usually been a judge for the Sheep to Shawl competition. It's great fun to watch Mom judge these events. When in person, a crowd gathers as the activity and hum of the festival grows. It's really fun to be a part of. Well this year Mom was able to participate in her guild's competition instead of judging. Cool!

This year is a virtual event like last year. The team volunteered and our date was set. I offered to help wrangle zoom and the computer. It was a good thing I planned to be there. As it turned out, Mom's guild needed someone to spin. This made me a bit nervous. I had not had a chance to practice for what they were spinning; I saw their spinning sample that morning. But this anxiety was all for naught. My spinning was good enough. The shawl the guild made together is absolulely stunning.

Here's a pic of all of us at the end:

I had a blast. It was really fun to hang out with a great group of people. The directed activity of work for fun's sake is both relaxing and electrifying. At the end of the day I was both hyped up and tired at the same time.

Sheep to Shawl and other spinning competitions were common a hundred years ago. It's great to see Lambtown and other events carry on. I have always thought they were fun events to watch and spectate. I never expected them to be so much fun as a participant. I can't wait for the next one.

In closing, try one if you haven't. Sure I was anxious, but felt supported by a great group of friends who were all doing this together. The isolation of the past year and a half felt far away during those hours.

As always - thanks for reading and keep on treadlin'.

2021-09-12 - Spinning with Intention

A while back I was watching this video with TahNibaa Naataanii. After watching it several times over, I realized something about my own spinning. I had never tried spinning for a goal. I had never spun with the song and intention that wise woman on the screen was exhibiting. My own history of spinning is spinning for demonstration. I had spun at rennaissance faires, at educational booths, and at all sorts of other events. But I had never spun for myself, or my own projects. The video was so inspiring I set out to plan several projects.

Here are a couple that have come along so far.

Project the first: knit scarf with one bobbin of 2-plied yarn.

I knew my first spinning project would be slumpy and have variation in twist. For this reason I chose to do a knitting project as a target for the handspun. After being gifted some lovely corriedale sliver from Mom, I set out to see what a single-bobbin project on the Phoenix could yield. I spun for about 8 hours at a very slow pace to make about 75g or 3oz of 2 ply yarn that worked out to 1280 yds/lb. Knitting took about twice as long as spinning. I will probably hand-dye this to finish. This is a great test piece for any spinner to try, especially as a knitter. You get a great idea of what a single bobbin of yarn will yield.

Project the second: weaving sample for throw blanket

My next project was going to be a weaving project. I have always loved weaving. Thirty years have lapsed since my last attempted weaving project. I was inspired; the opportunity to construct my own yarn was opening another dimension to my weaving. So I set out to spin both warp and weft from wool singles. The first goal was to spin enough for a test swatch of fabric. Mom also lent me a truly sweet table loom:

This seemed to just yell out, "Make a small one before you commit to a large one." Eventually the goal is to make a weaving that would be wide enough for a shawl or a throw blanket. A piece of this size completely out of handspun is a significant investment in time. Remembering some of my past failures as a weaver, I quickly spun up a few hundred yards of test yarn to warp this little loom with. The singles were varying between 2000-3000 yds/lb. Steam was used to set the twist.

My plan was to weave a test sample, wash it, full it, and if I liked the results from the test sample, plan a larger piece. I used a straight draw 8 heddle pattern. The pattern was a celtic style band planned for 10 treadles. This loom was easy to adapt a cheat sheet for it:

The loom was dressed. The weaving commenced. Tight weaving produced a fabric that seemed rough and distorted the soft feel of the handspun. So I changed tack and became precise with the comb to make a looser weave that gave the handspun space between it's neighbors. I thought about unweaving the tightly woven section. I decided against it. I wanted to see what washing and fulling would do to each of the sections. I washed and fulled in the bathtub, with very warm water and a natural bar soap. After a few rinses of the same very warm temperature water, I carefully placed the sample flat on a towel. I folded the towel over the sample, and rolled up the towel. I gently press on the towel. The fabric is dried easily, and supported. This is my preferred method for washing and drying delicates. After letting it dry overnight, it crinkled a bit on the edges. I set an iron on the minimum temp for steam and used generous amounts of steam with a soft press to smooth out the 'cooked bacon' edges of the fabric.

So here's what we have now.

I'm really happy with this. I can plan for a larger work. The singles worked great. The weave feels soft and looks nice.

This has been really eye opening. My spinning has improved drastically in the past short weeks. Even now I do a happy dance because filling a bobbin with great yarn takes just over an hour for me. When I started it took over 4. My confidence in my spinning has increased leaps and bounds as well. It's great to put your yarn to the test and see what happens.

In conclusion, it's been incredibly fun to revisit spinning. I feel so much more comfortable spinning now, and comfortable with what I'm producing. I'd like to thank TahNibaa Naataanii and everyone associated with that wonderful video. Her wisdom is straight and true. Her words and song ring clear. The gift of this knowledge is held close to my heart. Thanks to everyone for reading.

2021-09-10 - How I made a website for less than $1/month

How do you make a website? The answer could be go to squarespace and get a 30 day free trial. Or you could go to github pages. Or blogspot. Or hire a contractor. Or. Or. Or. The choices are dizzying. So here's the choices I made. There are no wrong answers, just the ones that are right for you.

Content is written in plain text, in markdown. Markdown is a formatting tool and just allows me to write formatting and text blocks in plain text. This markdown is then used by a set of utilities called mkdocs to generate a static html site. I use an extension called material for mkdocs that gives mkdocs a few more features.

These static pages are then uploaded to AWS's S3, where the entity that stores stuff is called a bucket. The bucket in S3 is configured to serve static html as a web server. AWS's CloudFront contacts this web server to put all the files from the site to a globally available cache. So instead of just one web server serving this content, AWS's global content delivery network can.

Some other details from this setup. Web servers need certificates to securely communicate. Amazon Certificate Manager (ACM) generated this certificate and provides easy renewal. Domain name registration was also through AWS in route53.

The cost for this was $12.00 for the domain name registration (plus $0.50/mo per domain). S3 costs just over $0.02 per Gb (at time of writing). CloudFront is roughly $0.10 per Gb and $0.01 per 10000 https requests.

My expenses for this website was $0.81 last month.

Would I suggest this setup to anyone else? Probably not. It's about as manual of a setup as you can have. There are other products and services (squarespace, blogger, etc) offering good solutions to these problems. My site serves my purposes for now. It might change in the future, but for now I'm getting great mileage from the setup.

2021-09-10 - Launch day antics

The past couple days has been a challenge. All in a good way. I have much to learn about each aspect of this undertaking.

The livestream could have gone better. I had done testing, and had all the green lights from my software and youtube about stream quality and bitrate. All this faceplanted about 10 minutes into the stream. Everything lagged out for the most part. You can hear my voice and that's about it.

We're going to take a different approach for our video. I'll be uploading daily for a bit, while I work through all the videos I had planned for the launch. After that, the plan is to take all the ideas from the livestream and just turn them into regular uploads.

Fiber and microscope time was so much fun. There will be more of that for sure. Spinning was really fun too. Different fibers, some different techniques, show-and-tell, and anything else I can think of that goes along with spinning will be getting screen time as well.

I like live interaction, and was hoping the livestreaming would go better than it did. So I'll just have to shift to more recorded content and time-shifted interaction. I'm learning all this and certainly don't have any right answers.

Thanks for understanding; I'm excited and cannot wait to share more with y'all.