Been coughing and through (I suspect 2 different flu strains) the past 4 weeks. My mental well-being has taken a beating. In light of grattitude, I believe I have fought off a stomach flu on top of all of that. I believe I picked all this up from the gym, it was spookily empty the last time I went.
Time moves differently when you are sick.
What have I been doing? In short, looking into 3D modeling. The brain is too fogged up for much else.
I got it in my head that with fall, my compulsion draws me towards warm socks and sweaters of all kinds. I have tried several times to knit socks, my resolve fails me. I have not sat down long enough to finish a pair. I looked again to see if there are new developments with knitting machines. Specifically, sock knitting machines. They are delightfully tiny, much more affordable and less maintainance (along with complexity) than full knitting machines. I am picky about the fiber content of my socks being in the Netherlands (cold and wet), I will need authentic socks that are purposeful.
Oh, and I purchased some lovely cashmere and angora wool mittens at an illegal price from a sweet lady in Lithuania this year. Along with an overmitt, in which I am convinced is the perfect solution for Dutch winters. It has been a colder than normal Dutch autumn so far.
My quest led me to the Tru-Knit. It will produce a pair in about an hour, it is only manufactured in the US, it is larger than I like and runs about 3k USD. I am not ready for such a commitment.
I did find Dean and Bean sock knitting machines for 600-800 USD, they are smaller, portable, and appear to be more manageable. They have been open that the machine is #D printed and assembled in the US. I wondered if some tinkerer out there has a rudimentary design I can #D print myself. The key is ribbing, it will need to rib to be a sock that delights the wearer. Most unfortunately for me, I found a perfect one. You have to love DIYers worldwide.
One should 3D print in PETG for strength and durability. I suppose one could 3D print this in metal (leading to a True-Knit machine) but that would be cost prohibitive (2k - 19k was the quote I got). With a 3D printer, one could easily print replacement parts anytime. There is a huge waitlist for the WWII sock machines of the brand, Chambord, and an elderly couple that works tirelessly to fix all existing ones for resale. Oh, the crazy shit I get into!
Talking about 3D modeling, I have been playing with Meshy.ai. I want to see if I can easily come up with a 3D avatar of me, and also a 3D scene of a London bookstore. I envision a 3D website of walking into a library and looking through a dynamic library of books for a book club app that I had.
Three.js is a library I found that is frequently used for 3D web modeling. I downloaded Blender and looked at Framer to see if there is a shortcut to moving from ideation to reality but atlas, art is still a work of art. No combination of AI-assisted tools can really fool the human eye, we need a real artist to model that, with a lot of assets so it can appear dynamic.
I should have picked up AutoCAD way back when, I would be a beast with 3D printers. Infinitely much to learn and tinker with. We will have to pick this up another day!