Knit and Crochet Coffee Sleeves

March is Craft Month. Or Crafting Month. Or Get Off Your Butt and Do Something Month. Whatever the actual title is, I have jumped back into needlecraft. I used to knit A lot. Mostly beanies, and a spattering of scarves. I have no idea where they are now, but they did keep many a head warm.

I still have quite a large yarn stash and several UFOs that I need to either frog or finish. Most will suffer the frogging fate, but there is at least one that I will try my best to figure out where I left off, and finish. Sentimental reasons… just need to finish it.

There is a basket on one of the windowsills in the living room. In that basket are at least four skeins of yarn, and three projects I started but never finished. There is a hat I promised M a year ago that really just needs to be bound off and it’ll be done. There was the start of something that was on a Knook – I unraveled it because I still don’t know how to use it. And there was the start of what I’m guess was going to be a scarf – I unraveled that as well.

Coffee sleeves are pretty simple and more interesting than a scarf. I found the patterns on the Lion Brand Yarn website. I finished these two while having a marathon watching of The Guild on Netflix. I didn’t watch it before because it looked dorky, but Felicia Day created it and she was on Supernatural, Eureka, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Not to mention Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.

I haven’t tried these out on disposable coffee cups, but they fit my reusable ones just fine… which makes me think they’ll be just a bit too big for the throwaways. And next time I am knitting the sleeve in the round – it will help the color pattern show up. And I think I should have a strap for the thumb and fingers. It would help give a better grip. Easier to do if I were to sew one up, but I’m up for a knitting challenge.

Group Project!

I spotted this at Stewart's and thought "Oh my goodness! How wonderful and horrible!" It's the lazy person's dream come true - instead of slaving away in the kitchen for something to bring to the work party, you just have to whip this sucker out and done.

It just doesn't taste the same. It's got that we tried to make it taste like the stuff you make at home but then there's that whole shelf life thing. Too soft and too much marshmallow. And way too sweet. I can just see the dentists salivating at the carries these snacks can produce.

What if we had a craft-a-long of sorts? Go to your nearest Stewart's or store selling the sheets and make something with it. If you are so technologically inclined, post a picture. Send me an email with said picture and I can do a post with all of your creations.

Screw healthy. I want creativity! Tis the season... however it goes.

Vegetable Garden - Sneak Peek!

Solderless PMT Probe

Diagram show Back of Plugs - Wires Comin' Atcha!

[Open] - No Wire
[Closed] - Wire

[Probe] - Replace Wire with Probe, or add Probe to Wire

[Switch] - Replace Wire with Switch

Back View of Board Plug: (Wires would be coming out of the screen at you)

       | |                 | |

[ 1] [ 3] [ 5] [ 7] [  9] [11]
[ 2] [ 4] [ 6] [ 8] [10] [12]

[ 5]===========| |===========[ 5]       - Probe

                           \/

[ 6]===========/ _==========[ 6]        - Toggle Switch         


Back View of Drive Plug: (Again, wires would be coming out of the screen at you)

       | |                 | |

[ 1] [ 3] [ 5] [ 7] [  9] [11]
[ 2] [ 4] [ 6] [ 8] [10] [12]

Directions:

- Add Probe to 5

- Remove straight wired connection from 6 and replace with toggle switch

Items Needed:

   Stock DVD Drive Power Cable (or buy one here for $2.40 shipped)

   Switch and wires from old computer build; front panel (or buy some wires here for $3.60, without the
           switch. Radioshack should have a decent switch available.)

        Power Switch with attached wires and connectors (removed from plastic housing)

        Wire from front panel peripherals (x2; one side of one wire stripped)

   Leg of infrared LED (or any small, electrically sound, metal object to use as a probe. A pin or needle would
        work as well)

Tools Needed:

   Small flathead screwdriver or thin metal pry bar

   Electrical tape (just in case)

Completely solderless DIY Pogo Mo Thoin Probe.

I made one out of old parts, and it worked a million times better than cutting traces and soldering the PCB (MRA Hack). I'm going to order an extra cable from DealExtreme ($2.40, free shipping takes about a month to arrive) to make a permanent (ie. extra, soldered) version I can use to swap out and update firmware. The switch will be especially handy when updating, letting you power on/off the drive as needed.

I started out by disconnecting the [5] and [6] wires from the plug. The easiest way to do this (just like disconnecting the plastic housing on your front panel wires) is to pry up the small flap of plastic above the wire and pull it out. For the [5] wire, I used a long piece of wire for the front panel speaker, with metal connectors still attached. These connectors fit perfectly into the DVD power cord plug. I jammed the 'probe' (the LED leg) into this connector as well as the spliced end of another length of wire (with the connector also attached at the other end), creating a very snug fit with very little wiggle for the probe. Insert the opposite ends of your new probe wire into the [5] slots. The same was done with the [6] wire. It was removed and replaced with the power button switch. I checked all connections and the switch with a multimeter and recommend you do the same.


Update (3/10/12):

After receiving my extra DVD power cable, I went ahead and made an improved, soldered, easier to use, permanent version of this probe. The steps were exactly the same as above, but I soldered on a toggle switch from an old flash bulb, along with a green LED indicator light so I can tell whether the probe is on or off. I used a cardboard spool from some old thermal paper I found at work for the body, and closed everything up with some epoxy putty on either end. Here's my end result..

How to Easily Update Firmware

No-Open Xbox 360 Firmware Updating

 Remove the upper metal sheeting from the top cover. To do this, use a dremel tool and cutting disc to quickly cut away the two melted gobs of plastic holding the sheeting in place. Pull up and remove.

Now all that's needed to do is add a couple SATA wires to the board. Connect a one foot long, 90 degree SATA cable to the board. Attach the Male end of a Male to Female SATA cable to the other end. Connect the Female end to the drive.

 Now all that is needed is a little rerouting of the wires beside the left side of the drive so that the M to F connection is outside the main enclosure, to the front left (where the hard drive will be sitting). Carefully put everything back together and you should have easy access to the Male SATA plug by just popping off the hard drive and the plastic cover.

How to Fix a Jammed DVD Drive Tray

I managed to fix my jammed DVD drive tray by opening the console, removing the drive, as well as the top and bottom metal housing. The drive was sticking and needed to be nudged every time to open properly, which was becoming a pain. A bottle of alcohol and can of WD40 was all that was needed. I cleared out all the dust, lubed up most the moving parts (only avoiding the drive belt, that wouldn't be good if it got greased up). The ejection bar was the problem, I think. Dirt mixed in with the stock grease (which by now is 4 years old) and made it difficult to lift the laser mechanism up to the disc, and release the tray. There are a few access holes that I swabbed with a WD40 soaked Q-tip, letting the excess flow down where it was needed. I manually ejected a few times by pushing the ejection bar horizontally and it seemed to loosen right up.

Work Bench

I like the idea of recycled/reclaimed, well, anything. Be it clothing, furniture, electronics, art, or anything else you might find out there. Case in point, when we moved into the new house there were a few surprises left behind. One of which was an old, assemble-by-number, particle board desk. Not one to want to just throw out good, decent, lumber, stuff, I repurposed some of the material into a work bench to use with my table saw. Sure, it's not the prettiest thing, but it's perfect for what I need it for, and adds some extra storage space for our already cluttered garage.

Update (10/20/11):
The rest of the desk was repurposed into various shelving units. One for an upstairs closet, and one for our utility room. Again, they may not be the prettiest things in the world, but they sure do provide much needed storage space.

Foodbuzz Tastemaker Series: Kodak Photo Book

As part of Foodbuzz’s Tastemaker program, I was selected to create a photo book using Kodak Gallery’s quick start program on their website. It was simple to use, and the hardest part I encountered in using it was deciding which pictures made the cut.

Garden Views

Don't Eat This!

Not a food recipe, but something I'm working on for the holidays! You can find it here.

Wintergreen's Tub Truffles
makes about 48 quarter-ounce truffles

Ingredients:

5.2 oz natural (chocolate-scented) cocoa butter (you can sub 1 oz shea or mango butter for 1 oz of the cocoa butter)

4 oz citric acid, sifted

2.5 oz baking soda, sifted

EO or FO