Microwave

On March 6, 2022 By CarynIn Life Hack

My youngest noticed that when the microwave is going, her bluetooth connection from her iPad to her hearing aids gets glitchy. Then my husband mentioned that when ever I start the microwave, the TV connection goes out. Our microwave is in a strange location, tucked into a hole on the end of the kitchen island. Our router and internet connection are on the counter opposite. Options on moving either device so they don’t face each other are low, and all the possibilities involve drilling new holes. So I tried taking my largest cookie sheet and propping it up against the microwave to block the interference. It seems to work. It is an ugly hack, so I might design a decorative door with patterned perforated metal in the future. Conductive metal blocks microwave radiation. As long as the holes are smaller than the electromagnetic waves coming out, it should work and still provide ventilation. Here is an interesting article on microwaves and wireless devices from Wired, which supports my thinking.

Flower Bag

On February 13, 2022February 10, 2022 By CarynIn Craft, Life Hack

Last minute Valentine’s hack! To tie up some goodies in a bag, when you don’t have a pre-made bag, but you do have some fabric and some ribbon. This is like a hobo bag, but fancy, as the resulting tied fabric looks like a flower. I used a square of chiffon fabric and sealed the edges by passing them by the flame of a candle to melt them. If your sewing machine is up and running you could also hem the fabric, but the slightly melted edge works for this flower form. You could also use a pre-hemmed square of fabric. To tie the bag shut, I used about two feet of ribbon. I put the chocolates in the middle, gathered the ends together, then tucked the corners back under. I have made a short video on how to here.

Chiffon fabric tied into a flower shaped goodie bag

Winding a center pull yarn ball

On January 31, 2022January 28, 2022 By CarynIn Craft, Life Hack

When I was learning to knit and crochet, I was taught to roll up extra yarn into a ball. Generally, you started with a small nest of yarn and wrapped more yarn around, changing directions every so often so it came out more or less round. Inevitably, I would drop the ball, it would roll across the floor, the cat might help its progress, and I would have to wind it up again. When I was older, I obtained a “new wool winder” which winds yarn from a hank into a cake-like structure, but was wonderful because the cake sat still and yarn could be pulled from the center. It did not work so well with small amounts of yarn, and I had to go and find the machine and a place to secure it to use it. Fast forward many years (better just skip, because there is quite a lot of time from then to now), and I was learning about spinning on a dealgan (a Scottish type of drop spindle), and the presenter in the video said the newly made yarn was wrapped around the spindle in the same way as for a nostepinne. What? The resulting cop of yarn could come directly off the spindle and the yarn could be pulled from the center. Hm. New rabbit hole. Nostepinne is a word for a fancy stick. I used a 1” dowel, which worked just fine the first time, but you really don’t even need a stick. A rolled up piece of paper will also work (especially if the cat is comfy on your lap and you can’t reach your stick, but there is a handy piece of paper).

Wrapped yarn ball (left) versus center pull ball (right)

Here is a video: https://youtu.be/Fk6PVyzV6BY

I’m sharing because I really found this way of winding to be life changing. And it is so simple.

On a separate note, Adobe Premier now will make captions from my audio automatically. So that saves me a bit of typing. It still needed editing because “nostepinne” is not in its transcription vocabulary. Shocking. The video isn’t fancy because I’m still learning the software.

Overload

On January 7, 2022January 6, 2022 By CarynIn Life Hack

I have reached the max capacity of my media storage for my blog. Oops. As a temporary fix, I upgraded (because that is what they want you to do), but going forward I need to not upload photos directly from my photo album (which saves things in the MB range), but reduce the size first, which is hard to figure out without using a sketchy third-party app from overseas. I retreated to my “poke it until it goes” method of computer programming and was able to put together a shortcut in iPhone to make my photos smaller and put them in a special folder, so I don’t over write my originals. Why is this not easy I do not understand (oh, wait, just addressed that, more money for more storage). Any who, here are the shortcut steps, if any of you need the information. I can’t give you more specific instructions, because I literally just kept trying until something worked. Bah.

Another month

On December 22, 2021 By CarynIn Life Hack

I have to be another month in the dreaded boot to let my achilles tendon heal. I have gone through several garbage bags, using them to protect the boot when I go in the coop, and found that the pine shavings bags are thicker, more durable plastic, and also are the perfect size to wrap around the boot. I just have to thoroughly shake out the leftover shavings and check for holes. The chickens aren’t as afraid of this as well. Bonus.

Critters and Craft

Category: Life Hack