Ellentriek #17: Hack your knitting machine with Knitic!

Ellentriek goes textile: liberating knitting machines Saturday 18th May 2013 10am – 6pm Pianofabriek Exhibition space Rue du Fortstraat 35, 1060 Brussels In the eighties and nineties electronic knitting machines were readily available. But it was never a simple task to knit an image, a drawing, photograph, text you designed yourself with it. You could buy premade images on floppies of punch cards. This is all about to change! With Knitic you can connect your computer directly to the knitting machine. knitic Do you have a Brother KH930 or KH940? Do you finally want to do what you want with it? Are you fascinated by open hardware/free software and are you curious to experience this specific way of working and thinking? Or do you, as a hardcore knitter want to see what’s possible when the technological electronics part of the knitting machine has been changed? Or are you just curious to come and test the old knitting machine with a new brain? Come to our workshop of ’Ellentriek goes knitting’ on Saturday the 18th of May. 10-13h We will replace the proprietary brain of your machine. The old one is not broken, it is just disconnected. Under professional guidance we will assemble a few electronic components. The next step is hooking up your computer to the machine and to show you how to work with Knitic (Knitic is hard-and software which is easy to work with). This part of the workshop is also for beginners and people who know nothing about electronics. 14-18h Come and test the new old machines and knit a photograph, text, image.. Who: with Knitic.com (Varvara Guljajeva & Mar Canet) & knitter Claire Williams Please contact us on beforehand if you have a knitting machine to hack, type Brother machine KH 930 KH 940. wendy attttt constantvzw.org. We contact you on the what and how. Ellentriek is organized by De Pianofabriek kunstenwerkplaats & Constant vzw. This workshop is part of the Ruelles project (http://ruelles.constantvzw.org)

Ellentriek Valies: The making of

We are making the Ellentriek Valies, a travel trunk full of tools, electronic goodies and microcontrollers. You can use the suitcase to start tinkering with interactive electronics wherever you wish.

We had quite some dilemma’s to deal with:
– what kind of trunk do you choose: a real tool case (heavy), a travel trunk?
– what is absolutely necessary if you want to tinker with basic electronics?

Here are a few lists that inspired us:
—> http://www.makershed.com/Ultimate_Microcontroller_Pack_p/msump.htm?Click=37845
—> http://www.makershed.com/Mintronics_Survival_Pack_p/mstin2.htm
—> http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/hands-on/diy-essentials/0

After the trunk was chosen, a light-weight, sturdy 2 wheeled red chunk of plastic, you have to customize it, make it ready for tools.

Here are some images of dressing up the trunk. Rosalie Stevens did the nice design and sewing work, I was part of making (dumb labour :-)).

What tools have to go in there?

In the middle there will be a tool insert, fabric over wood.

A first possible lay-out of tools:

This is the fabric and elastic that will hold the tools:

The one thing which got finished today was putting the Crickx letters on the outside.

I’m afraid that we did mix italic with non-italic, with different sizes.. It looks great! Thanks a lot Uberknackig for sticking the letters on the trunk. I had sticking fear..

Still quite some work ahead of us…

Contact us if you want to use the Valies.

Ellentriek in the parc

What are chips – no – not the ones you eat! How do you make a led burn?
Can you sew with electronics?

Come experiment with Ellentriek. Crocodile clamps don’t bite!
(We will work under 5 Volt – battery powered)

This is a workshop for children between 10 and 12 years old in the Parc of Foret/Vorst, Brussels, the 22nd of May.

Supported by the Municipalities of Sint-Gillis & Vorst

Ellentriek #12 : Ellentriek goes High Voltage – HI VOLTAGE ! (new dates)

Where: De Pianofabriek, Rue du Fortstraat 35, 1060 Brussels
When: From 7 May 13:00 to 8 May 19:00

Ellentriek is a series of workshops where artists can come and work together on their own artistic electronics projects. We work with themes. This Ellentriek has two threads happening simultaneously. You choose which thread you want to follow.

Thread one: Normally Ellentriek stays under 20 Volt – direct current. For once we will explore the dangerous zones of High Voltage. Under the watchful eye of our expert we will look at Kirlian Photography, Van de Graaff generators, anti-gravity lifters… So be sure to wear rubber boots and gloves for this edition, because everything we do will be mighty dangerous.

Thread two: You can come and work on your own artistic projects with basic electronics and a little bit beyond. We have all kinds of tools for electronics, a nice collection of sensors, Arduino’s and collective brainpower.

Practical: If you want to come and have a look – you are welcome. If you already work with high voltage and you want to demonstrate your projects, contact us. Enrolling is advised. Please send an email to Wendy:

wendy [attt] constantvzw.org

If you have specific questions/needs with regard to your project, please let us know so we can collaborate more efficiently. This workshop is free & multilingual.

This workshop is organized in collaboration with De Pianofabriek Kunstenwerkplaats.

To prepare, we (=G, K, C & M) have already built a Jacob’s ladder: