Busy hands | Disquiet mind

Mobile Broadband Dongle and Linux

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:30:30 GMT

I got a Huawei E173 internet dongle today, and was surprised to find that only Windows and MacOS were supported (I'm not sure why, maybe I just haven't bought any new tech in a long time). But I persevered.

Fedora 16;
Plug in device, and NetworkManager will (after a while) automatically pick it up. Turn on 'Mobile Broadband', click on the clickable option below it and you'll be brought through the wizard (insert PIN, select provider, plan type (i.e. contract or prepay), etc). Done.

Fedora 14;
Not so easy. Plug in device and it's only getting picked up as removable storage.
You need two packages from the official repos; libusb-devel and usb_modeswitch
Once installed the device gets picked up properly by NetworkManager. Select it from the 'Mobile Broadband' section and go through the wizard. Done.

All in all, not too bad. And actually faster than installing the .exe under Windows 7. (Note, the Ubuntu package names seem to be libusb-dev and usb-modeswitch.)

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The Plan

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:46:45 GMT

For the laptop, so far; things haven't changed that much, and most of what has is a clear improvement.

- For one, you can resize Windows partitions inside of Windows now. I did run into a problem where it would only shrink it by less-than half the total space. Turned out that that was where the system restore points were saved, and defragmenters couldn't move them. So instead, I turned off system restore and Windows deleted them for me. Resize, then re-enable if you wish. This problem didn't become clear until I used Auslogics Disk Defrag which has a nice block-level visualisation that you can query. (However, you download it through CNet, and my machine started doing funny things, until I uninstalled it. You've heard about CNets antics?)

- Then, as usual, reboot into System Rescue CD, and with gparted create a new partition, formatted NTFS, and label it 'storage'. However, the laptop came with three primary partitions, and this made four (which is the maximum allowed). So I had to make the rest an extended partition.

- Boot into your linux install disc, use all the empty space (of the extended partition), and install. It must have been a common bugbear, because now there is a nice little checkbox during the Fedora install asking whether or not you want to use LVM! (It's easy to make me happy.) It asked where to put the bootloader, and I pointed it at the extended partition as well. (So that's; /, /home, swap, and /boot in total.)

- Reboot back into System Rescue CD, use gparted again to get the name of the boot partition path (e.g. /dev/sda6), then as usual, copy the first 512-bytes using dd. I must have been using an old System Rescue CD because it was loading the NTFS partitions read-only, but having a FAT32 usb-key around is always handy. I saved the bytes of the boot partition there, then rebooted into Windows.

- This for me was the newest bit. boot.ini has been replaced with bcdedit. Found a couple helpful walkthroughs though, and it's simple enough. Edit the boot file through cmd-line instead of directly in text file. When done, reboot, and choose whichever OS you want :)

Excellent tutorial/walkthroughs I found very helpful;

http://lifehacker.com/5403100/dual+boot-windows-7-and-ubuntu-in-perfect-harmony

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/working-around-windows-vistas-shrink-volume-inadequacy-problems/

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Windows_and_Arch_Dual_Boot

http://www.iceflatline.com/2009/09/how-to-dual-boot-windows-7-and-linux-using-bcdedit/

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Shiny stuff

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:44:03 GMT

There have been a fair few really cool things crossing my path lately that I wish I had time to play with. Here are some of my favourites;

Conductive paint that's safe for use on skin. I mean, how cool?! Check it out henna'd here. Also works on paper, fabric, walls, anything you can paint; some tutorials.

Man builds wearable tv, then has trouble getting through an airport (he didn't make it as far as the metal detector). That's 14,400 RGB LEDs. He's a legend to me. Story here.

Have I mentioned conductive fibres before? Makes me want to start making my own fabrics!

How about electric cotton? That's with gold nanoparticles and conductive polymers at the strand level, instead of plating with silver. Ever get the feeling you're living in the future?

*edit* And least you think this is all rather fanciful, Stretchable Circuits is a company that exists to fuse electronics with fashion. Some nice pics, vids, and links to labels selling this stuff :) */edit*

If you do, and it bothers you, how about CV Dazzle? It's a project based on finding ways of obscuring your identity from face-detection technologies using hairstyles, make-up and other seemingly high-fashion techniques. Pretty interesting, and visually striking!

If this future thing appeals to you how about an electric sheep? It's a gadget that plugs into your Android phone and then acts like an Arduino, letting you build circuits and gadgets to use with your phone.

The complete Narnia series is available free to download as audio books; details here.

Finally if you didn't catch it at 28c3 there is the powerful talk of how anonymising software can save, or cost, lives. "How governments tried to block Tor". You can find the rest of the talks here.

In other news; I tried to get in touch with the winners of my little giveaway, but only one has responded to me. Could mollydot and oh-that-karl [launchpad.net] please get in touch with me? You've won :) I'd like to arrange postage. You can email me chebe at dreamwidth.org. I'll give you a week, but if I can't reach by then I'll have to pick someone else :/ *edit2* Thanks! Will try and get them out soon. */edit2*

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A short aside

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:11:58 GMT

Half the screen on my laptop is broken, and at six years of age the insurance has expired. This means a momentous event is about to occur, the New Laptop. And I'm getting all excited. It's coming with Windows 7 (which I haven't tried yet), so I think I'm going to have to dual-boot it with linux. Probably Fedora, but I'll have to try a Live CD first to see if the USB problems I went through are hardware/driver specific. I have an existing Windows XP VM I'll probably set up under linux too. And I'm thinking of setting up a lamp stack on CentOS to play around with WordPress. Which means I might have use of the IE-testing VMs Microsoft made up. Also a full Eclipse set-up for Android development might be fun. Then there's also the software/IDEs for my music player and xBees that are Windows-only. Can I set-up my VMs in a third partition and have them happily accessed from either OS? That'd be neat. And a media partition too, which I could set up with rsync to external backup. Am I going to need software version control, if for nothing else then Arduino code? If so, which one? ... Maybe this is all just overkill. Then again, I am a computer geek ;) Oh the things I'm going to learn!

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Giveaway!

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 01:08:17 GMT

Something curious has happened, I've reached 100 non-spammy followers on twitter (chebegeek), and well, 'tis the season, so I thought I'd share some of the fun! I've three small kits to help you get started with electro-textiles. Each kit contains two 2016 coin-cell batteries, ~30ft of conductive thread wrapped around a bobbin that doubles as a Lilypad protoboard, and 25 slow auto-changing RGB LEDs.

You mightn't get them until the new year, but it could be something to look forward to. To enter, simply leave a comment below (before Sunday at midnight GMT, comments are screened) and I'll select three at random. Sound like fun?

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Quick hack: Adding LEDs to baubles

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 23:47:42 GMT

My continuing quest to add LEDs to everything is a tough one, dear reader. For example, I'll find myself buying thread on my lunch break, when I stumble across some winter baubles on sale. Cute though they were I couldn't help thinking they'd be cuter if they had LEDs inside them! So I snatched them up and went back to work.

This is also a fine example of how you shouldn't make plans before you actually get to have a look inside. Luckily they were indeed hollow, but also glass which I wasn't expecting, and the foil cap turned out to be conductive foil rather than plastic as I'd assumed. Then someone much more knowledgeable in things like this than I pointed out that they weren't tree decorations, but rather dinner place-name holders. Perfect, I mused, for holding fliers, business cards, or 'free cookies here, please take one!' signs. In the end the modifications turned out much simpler than I had been imagining on my way back from lunch. I hope this trend continues!

( Instructions )

Add battery, and oooh, pretty!

( Short video )

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Short and Sassy square skirt with yoke, made from measurements

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 14:59:49 GMT

Fourth skirt from the 'Sew What! Skirts' book, Short and Sassy (page 73), a simple square (a.k.a. handkerchief) skirt with elasticated waist. ... Well, almost. I added a yoke. I've added yokes before, but this time I was following the 'very simple low-waist skirt block' (page 134) from Winifred Aldrich's 'Metric Pattern Cutting for Women's Wear'. This particular block is good for easy-fits and fabrics with stretch/elastic waists. The only alteration made to the general instructions from 'Sew What! Skirts' (SWS) was that the circle was measured as my hips, and the waistband left out (as the yoke took care of that).

Construction is very straight forward; sew up the side-seams of the yoke, make the elastic casing, insert elastic. Add yoke to skirt (slight gathering may be needed). Hem.

Okay, ready for the maths? Really pretty simple, promise.

( In theory )

Adding yokes or not is simply another variation you can try. There are also other waistband and closure methods that can be used. There are so many possibilities you can make, and all without buying a single pattern!

( In practice )

There we are. A little light twirly skirt perfect for dancing in. And I've learned a lot about how square and circle skirts are made so I'll be able to make the next one perfectly first time. I'm also loving the yoke block based on Aldrich's block and am looking forward to trying the other blocks.

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V-neck camisole, made from measurements

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:26:24 GMT

Went to Craft Night at tog on Tuesday (15th), and actually had a productive evening! I did have to hog a large table, but other than using the floor there isn't any other way to cut out large pattern pieces. In that sew-along news I have all the underlining pieces cut out! Woo! But. I've decided that the fashion fabric, the second one, the purple crepe, is too shiny for this style of dress. *sigh* So I'm again at a standstill until I can find a fabric I'm happy with.

But that's okay, because in the meantime I've wandered off into a short little project; making a camisole.
( Trials and tribulations of construction )

But, for now, Ta-da, done!

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Checking in again, but with nowt but words

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 23:53:50 GMT

I attended the Knitting & Stitching Show in the RDS this weekend. Actually, in the very hall I had my first and second year college exams. *shiver* It was my first time going, and I went with a mission. One that I unfortunately failed to complete. See, I went looking for fabric, a kind of fabric that doesn't seem to be available in the retail sewing shops around here. And while there was lots of lovely fabric, it was mostly quilting weight cotton. I saw one or two stands with dressmaking fabrics, but sadly none had what I was looking for.

The rest of the hall was full of knitters, embroiderers, jewellery suppliers, machine retailers, and small designers showcasing. Now and again I'd stumble across a stand a little bit unusual, like Colourcraft. More of a general craft suppliers I was surprised to find that they stocked many items I had failed to locate anywhere within reasonable shipping rates. Things like standalone wax pots (originally made for beauty salons, sold for batiking purposes, but which I intend to use for candlemaking), foil transfers, fusible thread, and even Angelina fibre (what do you mean you've never heard of it? To google with you!). Needless to say, I shall be keeping myself busy for the next while. Which isn't hard, as I've been brimming with ideas lately. But powerful all-consuming ideas that have to be written down right now. Which tends to get in the way of actually doing any of them. But I hope to strike the right balance soon.

I got the 'WordPress 3 Complete' book earlier this week, and devoured it in a couple of evenings. Looking forward to setting up an environment to play around and write some things I've been meaning to get done. Ahh php, it's been a while.

Also, I don't think I've mentioned it here before but I'm starting up a reading group, book club kinda thing, very casual style, at tog. Primarily we'll be reading speculative fiction. Some classic sci-fi and cyberpunk books with a maker/hacker ethos, or that look at consequences of new tech. But it will be up to suggestions and majority vote of the group. First meeting is Friday 25th, and we'll be talking about “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick. It's my second time reading the book, and I still prefer it to 'Blade Runner' :)

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Crockford on Javascript

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 18:58:41 GMT

I'd like to share with you a series of talks by Yahoo architect Douglas Crockford from last year. There are six in all, and you can either download or watch them online. They're not short, ranging between one hour fifteen minutes to two hours long each, but I'm finding them highly enjoyable. Personal highlights are Volume One: The Early Years which takes a tour of computing from punch-cards, through hardware, software, and language evolution, to JavaScript. And Episode IV: The Metamorphosis of Ajax which looks at the development and evolution of the internet, taking in the browser wars, CSS and HTML5. Some of his views are a bit surprising, but that just makes them all the more entertaining!

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A little indulgence if you will...

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 21:07:55 GMT

I'm going to ask you for a little indulgence here as I talk about something quite outside my normal topics; make-up. It's okay if you tune out now, don't worry, this is most likely a one-time thing.

( Shall we adjorn to the powder-room? )

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Another Halloween come and gone

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 10:24:35 GMT

Hello again my fellow dreamers, and assorted other readers. It's been a busy month. Enjoyable, but tiring. And now it's over, and in this country at least, Winter has begun.

Halloween was yesterday, but the season began last Friday. I went to a friend's party, and brought cupcakes. What's so scary about cupcakes? Well, you should take a look at Lily Vanilli's 'A Zombie Ate My Cupcake' book. Gruesomely delicious.

I made the graveyard cupcakes, and the red velvet cupcakes which use two bottles of food colouring for a batch of twelve and are possibly more fun to make than eat. It does require two sets of beaters, but quickly begins to look like blood, and be warned it will stain everything! I did find her icings way too rich for my stomach so I've swapped them out for a cocoa-icing that I really like, but the gingerbread is her recipe, and was also a big hit.

Saturday and Sunday then were Gaelcon, and I had more fun than I'd expected. I am not a gamer, but there was still plenty of shiny to grab my attention. I picked up a couple more pieces from Ula (you have to check out her Cthulhus and steampunk-cufflinks), discovered that there was a second version of Deathnote (?!!), and picked up Arkham Horror and Chez Goth (my first games ever).

Then yesterday, Monday, was a Bank Holiday, so I sat home and watched way too many movies. Halloween is still the best holiday all year.

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More updating through the medium of pictures

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 11:55:27 GMT

The Electro-Sewing Workshop was last Friday, and I feel it went very well. Even with starting on Irish-Standard-Time and forcing the class to sit through a slide-deck, there were seven very pretty LED-flowers two-and-a-half hours later. Definitely a success!

Here's a couple of pics from the night.

Aren't they pretty! I am planning to write up a how-to for these, but truth be known, they follow essentially the same method as for the LED-horns from last year. Nonetheless, people seemed rather enthused about the whole experience :)

I've also gotten my hands on the new LilyPad ProtoSnap Development Board. It's very nifty; all the main components of the LilyPad range, pre-connected on one board! So you can practice your programming, or simply getting the components to work together the way you want, without having to worry about any of that sewing malarkey. Then, if you want, you can snap the pieces apart and sew them into an actual project!

I plugged it in just yesterday and was highly amused to find a pre-loaded program that tests most of the components (make sure to play with the switches!). But, looking closely, I've noticed that only the RGB-LED, the five white LEDs, and the momentary push-button are connected to actual sew-holes on the Simple Microcontroller Board. The rest of them are connected through paths that would be available on the full Microcontroller Board, but that aren't exposed on the Simple board. Makes sense, seeing as how the LEDs/button take up all the existing holes! (Still, I imagine the numbers printed on next to the other components could get confusing for someone just starting out. Speaking of, there's a nice tutorial available to get you up and running.)

And all this has inspired me to maybe run a LilyPad course in tog in January. We'll see.

In other news, I don't have any photos from Octocon, but we made the same flowers as shown above, and you can check out the photos from Darklight (where I spent some time teaching people to solder) in the Gallery. (Can you spot me, or rather my Dresden Dolls hoodie?) That's almost it for my busy October. *phew*

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Post Octocon thoughts

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 21:00:28 GMT

This year was Octocons 21st. But it's the first that I have actually managed to attend. It's a Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror convention (with a great representation from the comics world) and I had a really good time. There was a wide range of things that I wanted to attend, even allowing for the inevitable problem of sometimes wanting to be in two places at once. (Why was there another panel on at the same time as the awards ceremony? That was just cruel. ... Can anyone tell me who won?*) And although I did actually run a workshop, for most of the time I got to sit back and enjoy as a regular attendee.

Something that was pointed out to me, was the almost complete lack of any actual science-fiction. I happily lapped up all the horror talks, was glad to see diverse topics like YA fiction, the issue of ebooks and piracy, and the rather meta panel on whether female-focused panels at cons are actually helping. But where was the sci-fi? I suspect this problem is far more wide-spread as I look around local and virtual bookshelves and see endless heaps of paranormal romance, but no new sci-fi. Where is it?

Also, this was a con at which the majority of the panelists were authors. Published, successful authors in a range of fiction, talking about what makes a gripping story, what makes a good character, what elements can be included and what pushes the suspension of belief too far. Yet none of the people I know who aspire to be published authors were there. Not one. Why?

Nonetheless, I had a great time. The staff and organisers were helpful, the event was well run, very organised, and only the last couple of time-slots on the last day ran over (because they wanted to squeeze in a couple of extra shorts, and some people have run-away, if entertaining, mouths). Speaking of which, I feel the film shorts (entrants for the Golden Blaster award), the Vault of Terror (commentated sections of a really bad film), and the Fandom Challenge (university challenge style quiz) were refreshing changes of pace that added to the roundness of the whole event. I made it all the way from Opening Ceremony to Closing Ceremony and am currently very tired, but in a happy way. I'm left with a head swimming with ideas, book recommendations, and a renewed interest in the entire range of speculative fiction. I'm even already looking forward to next year. Yep, definitely a good time.

*Oh twitter, you do fill in all the gaps: Blasters and script award winners.

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Lilypad LED Matrix: part 3, with added SparkFun Keypad

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 17:36:07 GMT

Take one Lilypad LED-matrix top (you thought I'd forgotten, hadn't you?), add one SparkFun Wearable Keypad, and voila! You get one fun interactive top!

( The devil's in the details )

It's all controlled by the push-button. Initially all LEDs are off.
- Push once; all LEDs are on.
- Push twice; you get the random LED twinkle pattern.
- Push thrice; you get into keypad controllable mode (denoted by the keypad lighting up). You press the centre SparkFun-logo button to clear the board and pick a random starting LED. Then you can use the four directions to draw in lights.
- If you press the push-button a fourth time, you stay in the keypad mode, but the timing changes and the pattern becomes a chase-sequence.
- Pressing the push-button again brings you back to the beginning, with all LEDs off. (But so long as you don't turn off the battery, your pattern is still kept in memory.) Here, have a look.

If you happen to be at Darklight next weekend, come find the tog guys, and you can have a go yourself :)

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Pictures!

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:56:25 GMT

The Basic Hand-Sewing Workshop was yesterday at tog. I still have to work on my handouts, and really nail down the drawstring bag project, but otherwise it went well and I met some very nice people!

Here's a couple of pics from the night.

Basic hand-sewing is a pre-requisite for the Electro-sewing workshop coming up next week, and I think everyone will be more than able to handle it :)

Speaking of electro-craft, you can check out the pictures from Electric Picnic in the Gallery.

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Just checking in

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 10:25:21 GMT

Okay, I've done it again, I've left it too long without posting! I am working on finishing up two projects (which I won't talk about until they're finished), I've been prelaundering fabric, and getting ready for a series of short workshops. And that's before we get to regular life stuff! I'm a busy chebe.

Tomorrow (Tuesday 11th) I'm running a basic hand-sewing workshop in tog.
This weekend (Saturday 15th) I'm running at least one electro-craft workshop at Octocon. It'll be making the LED-flowers we made at Electric picnic. And it's the first step in a series of projects of ever increasing complexity to get you comfortable with etextiles.
And if you can't make Octocon, don't worry, because we'll be running the same workshop in tog, on Friday 21st!
On Saturday 22nd I'll be helping out the tog guys run some workshops at Darklight (and a couple of my projects might be on display the Friday before).
Then the following weekend I'll be hanging around Gaelcon, just for fun, and desperately trying to finish my Hallowe'en costume! (Ideas, quick, I need ideas! ... and sleep.)

I'll try to post some content as we go along, but it's a busy month!

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SparkFun's Wearable Keypad

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 17:10:18 GMT

I admit I can be a bit of a sucker when it comes to electro-textile stuff. I see the word 'wearable' in front of any traditional electronic component and I have to investigate. Which is how I came to possess the Wearable Keypad from SparkFun. I finally got around to using it recently, so here's the low-down.

It's a thick piece of rubber, glued together and sealed with silicon gel type stuff. It has six wires (about a metre long) coming from it. One wire is not connected (NC), one is ground (GND), one is for setting the brightness of the red LEDs behind the keypad (LEDR), and the other three (p5.1, p5.2, p5.3) are for the button presses. And as mentioned in the comments (of the product page) the order of the wires is backwards to that as shown in the datasheet.

Wait, you say, three wires for five buttons? What's going on? Seems to be a bit of fancy multiplexing, although the details are beyond me. I have however, managed to get it all to work for me, and have edited the Example Code provided by SparkFun to, shall we say, neaten up things a bit? Basically, I found that in the provided code I was getting spurious results; when I'd press 'down' I'd often get a 'left' or 'right' for no apparent reason. So I've added a few extra checks, that while they may slow the code down a bit, ensure clean detection of button presses. All the extra stuff to do with the LEDs I've stripped out. You may not need it, but here it is in case you do. (Also, your millage may vary, and as such you may need to edit this code to work just right for you.)

But give the SparkFun example code a go too. It's oddly satisfying to play with the LEDs.

( Let's go )

I have to say though, I was a bit surprised that the keypad came with such long wires, and unfinished ones at that. While it works well with an Arduino Uno, it doesn't do so well with the Arduino Lilypad. I'm going to have to come up with a suitable interface to get the two to play well together. (And yes, this is part of a larger project...)

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More Sewing Plans

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:59:20 GMT

Today I got a new book, 'Vintage Lingerie, Historical Patterns & Techniques' by Jill Salen. Despite its name it only contains two full projects with instructions; one a bra, and one a petticoat. But it does contain scaled patterns worked from existing pieces presented in the book, that you are left to assemble by yourself. Still, I enjoyed looking through it and am glad to add it to my growing collection of lingerie and underwear books. And it has inspired me to start a plan-of-action. This isn't targeted for any set time-frame, and I don't expect to get through it all in any reasonable amount of time, but it's the way I want to proceed. However long it takes me.

I'm going to leave out modern books and patterns, as well as chemises and panties (which I'll deal with in a more ad-hoc manner), and just focus on the evolution of the bra. As the years pass designs get more convoluted and complicated, so it makes sense to start at the beginning.

1930's: Black Brassiere and Kestos Brassiere, scaled patterns from 'Vintage Lingerie'
1941: Brassiere, description (make own pattern) from 'Sew and Save'
1947: Set of bra tops (four styles) from Simplicity pattern #2026
1949: Bra top (from a pattern also including shorts and a jacket) from Simplicity #2825
1957: Bras (two styles from a pattern also including elongated versions as blouses) from Simplicity #2118

1971: Bra top of bikini (pattern also includes top/dress) from Simplicity #9378
1976: Bra top of a two-piece swimsuit (pattern also includes shirt and pants) from McCalls #5025
1976: Convertible Body Bra, Leisure Bra, Convertible Bandeau Bra, scaled patterns from 'The Undies Book'

Hmm, I'll have to keep an eye out for something from the 60's. As most of these patterns are vintage and in only one size I will make them up as is, not intending for them to fit anyone. Though hopefully Felicity will still be able to model them. (Indeed, as evidenced by the Crepe catastrophe worrying over fit keeps me stuck for a long time, so if after making it up I like the style, only then will I try to resize it to fit me.) This list may grow as I stumble across more patterns, but for now I think it's a fairly decent list to get started on.

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Simple dangle bead earrings

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 15:01:34 GMT

These are the first earrings I've ever made, that I've actually worn. I realise they are very simple, but everyone has to start somewhere, right? The method (that I made up myself) and materials for both are the same. (I use .925/Sterling Silver because I have very sensitive skin. Using ordinary silver-plated works fine for most people.)

Materials;
- .925 French hook earwires
- .925 head-pins
- pair of elaborate beads (mine from Fire Mountain Gems)
- some small seed beads in coordinating colour
- needle-nose pliers

Method;
- The focus beads hole is probably too big to be strung on the head-pin by itself. Thread a seed-bead or two on the head-pin first, then the focus bead, and add more seed-beads for symmetry.
- Using the needle-nose pliers shape a loop in the head-pin, and twist the extra length to wrap around until it meets/holds the beads securely. (Snip off any excess if you need to.)
- Open the loop on the ear-hooks just a little, just enough to slip the loop you made through it. Close the gap, and you're done!

( Take a peek )

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I've been busy, but not very productive. And I'm okay with that. Honest. Totally okay.

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 19:52:53 GMT

Woah. Don't you hate it when time gets away from you, for weeks on end? After last you heard from me I was at Electric Picnic (running electro-craft workshops with the amazing Cat and tog), after which I found myself in Rome (for what I thought was a holiday but featured more walking than I'd anticipated). I attended my first Freshmeat training session (and then my second just yesterday *ouch*), and have come down with a head-cold/sinus-infection which I am attacking with a vast quantity of medicines. I had been holding off on posting here until I got some photos to add, but I kept forgetting to copy the Rome photos from J and the tog websites are in the process of moving hosts, so alas I have no pictures. (Maybe that's a good thing, I was indoctrinated at a young age in the ways of my parents holiday slides... carousel after carousel of slides...)

But, I figured I've been silent too long, so you get some waffle instead. At the moment I'm reading two books that I'm enjoying immensely.

( Books )

In other news, my Colette patterns; Jasmine and Clover have arrived, and so enthused me that I think I've gotten the sewing bug back! But first things first; have to finish that Crepe! I've decided (inspired by the aforementioned two books) that I'm going to go with the last set of darts I'd tried (removing them didn't work out as well as I'd hoped) even though everything in all the sewing books say that darts shouldn't extend above the apex. It simply comes down to the fact that that's the shaping my body needs, so that's what I'm going to do. No more mock-ups, next stop, cutting the real fabric!

[Next steps: (1) Underlining & cutting out fabric, (2) Stabilising neck and arms, (3) Final pre-sew checklist. Check have enough underlining fabric is prewashed, and have fusible interfacing.]

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Felt needle-book

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 18:58:03 GMT

This cute little felt needle-book was a short project in Craft Magazine volume 6, page 58. It's very simple to make, and has turned out to be really useful.

Just two rectangles of felt, sewn together down the middle, with a little latch added as a closure. It's closed with a metal snap, the button is added just for decoration.

The image of the woman sewing is a small piece of fabric taken from a sewing themed fabric I received as part of a random scrap/sample pack I'd bought. I couldn't think of a more suitable piece of fabric. It's simply placed on top and wide zig-zag stitched on.

It's handy to keep odd pins and needles neat and tidy, and also to bring a small selection with you in case you have to leave the house :)

( Look under the cover )

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My First Cross-Stitch!

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:13:52 GMT

I have long admired the fantastic landscapes I've seen in cross-stitch pieces, the subtle gradation in colours, the life-like-ness of the end pieces. And, to be fair, I've envied the multitude of 8-bit character patterns that I keep coming across. But I simply had no idea how to start. Until I came across a really basic start kit; Anchors 1st Kit. When I laid eyes on this cheeky chappy I just couldn't leave him behind.

( Peekaboo )

I have enthused in the past about how portable embroidery is, how you can pick it up for five minutes, put it down again, and not have to do a lot of prep work, or tidy up. As true at that is for embroidery, it's even more so for cross-stitch! This piece was mostly done in a hotel room, around getting ready to attend a wedding. It is a simple, repetitive, calming activity, and I think I may be hooked.

What I admired about this type of work, the colour gradations, is no trick or secret. Quite simply, those pieces use a great many colours. Some patterns may have only one row of each colour, but still need over thirty colours! This is something I will have to get used to, but it can only benefit my thread collection :)

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waves

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 17:34:00 GMT

Em. Hi! So I haven't been around much, and I am terribly sorry, I just lacked the time and energy to make anything new, or write anything up (still have some three or four old projects to mention). But, I'm back now. And with news!

This week is Irish Hackerspaces Week. Check out the list and pop over if something catches your eye. I'll be at the Craft Night tomorrow (Tuesday) working on some project ideas.

September 3rd and 4th a bunch of us from tog will be running drop-in workshops at Electric Picnic! For those not in the know, it's a large outdoor music festival with a strong cultural focus and many non-music activities. We will be running soldering, origami, and electro-craft (yep, that one is me) workshops. Still sorting out the finer details, will let you know when I do.

October 15th and 16th I will hopefully be at Octocon, which is a sci-fi, fantasy, and horror convention! Running more electro-craft workshops, but I reckon this one could be more fun and I am on the look out for sufficiently sci-fi-themed project ideas.

On a more personal note, I've been getting back to skating, and have signed up for roller derby freshmeat training with the DRG. I just hope I don't break anything!

So yeah. Busy, but so much fun :) And simply because it seems all the cool kids have them, I'm getting moo mini-cards printed up; very nice, and good value little cards. I'll be back with the regular project updates soon. Thank you for sticking around.

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Android update

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 18:51:25 GMT

Oooh! My HTC Desire Z just updated itself to Android 2.3.3. And suddenly the missing menus in 'People' have appeared and I've managed to selectively import specific Contacts groups. It also pulled in my Twitter contacts. This integration thing is really nifty.

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