Do you need a gift for a fiber artist in your life but don’t know what they might want? Here are some ideas of tools, supplies, etc. to help level up their crafting.

Book light that wraps around your neck: Any

Extra light always helps you to see your project especially if working with dark yarn or in a dark location where eye strain can take its toll. A handy gadget to toss in a bag for long, holiday trips!

Little snip scissors: Any

You can never have too many pairs of scissors. Stork shaped are classic, but they come in all different shapes and sizes. Some small scissors have caps or sheathes to protect your projects and hands from accidental stabbing.

Scissors Sharpener: Any

This device is basically a knife sharpener for scissors helping keep your cuts precise and clean. You open the scissors, put them through the holes, and then cut down a couple times to resharpen your scissors. Sharpeners can be paired with fresh fabric scissors as an apology for using fabric scissors on wrapping paper.

Reusable Lint Rollers: Any

When working with fiber of any kind you will inevitably end up with strands of it in places you don’t want it. Reusable lint rollers help get fibers from your project or furry friend off your clothes, project, chair, etc.

Nice fabric tape measure: Any

Tape measures are never where you think you set them down last and measuring your project is always important. Looks for one with both inches and centimeters, with high contrast between the background and numbering. Tape measures can warp over time so it is important to check their accuracy every now and then.

Project Bags: Any

Help keep projects and supplies organized and contained. It can be a tote bag with a quote from their favorite book, a zipper or snap pouch with multiple compartments, mesh or vinyl pouch that allows you to see what project is inside, a sewing box, or anything in between. Just consider what size project they generally work on. Project bags are an excellent way to keep your project safe from small, hairy yarn taste testers.

Magnetic Needle Minders: Hand Embroidery, Cross Stitch, Mending

These hold your needle to your work, made up of a decorative top glued to a magnet and a second magnet to go on the back of the piece. You can buy from craft stores or make your own by turning pins into needle minders by taking off the pin back and gluing a magnet to the back.

O-shaped spool keepers: Hand Embroidery and Cross Stitch

These silicone spool keepers look like an O or a spiral and can be used to keep extra fabric neat and out of the way when stitching using an embroidery hoop. Nothing can break a heart like an errant snag on a fiber artist’s project, save them the tears!

Speed Weave Loom: Any

This mini loom can be used to repair or add to pieces. Great for adding visible mending patches as visible mending has become more popular and learning a skill that has been around for decades.

Point protectors: Knitting

These point protectors keep your project on your needles when you must set your project down and come in simple cones and fun shapes. Losing half of your stitches during a 205 stitch cast on can cause any fiber artist to fall into a rage, save your favorite knitting fiber artist some stress.

Safety Eye Tool: Crochet or Knit Stuffed Creatures

This 3D printed tool can make attaching safety eyes much easier. Safety eyes are plastic eyes that are added to stuffed projects by poking the shaft on the back of the eye through the stitches of your project and securing it with a plastic washer that catches on lips on the back. Securing the washer can be hard on your hands and having a tool can help immensely. Note that this is a more specific tool and should only be given if you know the crafter attaches plastic safety eyes to their projects.

Yarn Bowls: Knit and Crochet

Wood, ceramic, or 3D printed, yarn bowls can help keep your yarn contained, keep your tension even, and they look lovely when not in use.

Hemming Clamp: Hand sewing

Hemming clamps are used to hold your work under tension when stitching a hem or seam. This device clamps on a table or solid surface to help speed up hand stitching.

Gift Card to a Local Yarn, Fabric, or Craft Store: Any

Let them choose their own gift! They know what they have and what they want, so support local businesses and let your crafter have free reign to pick out what brings them joy.

Hamvention is fast approaching! Ham radio fans converge upon Dayton to brave the sun, rain, and nerds to broadcast their radio knowledge. A decent portion of our members have ham radio licenses and are annual visitors to Hamvention. We're ready to ham it up, here are some of our members' best tips for optimizing your trip to Greene County Fair and Expo Center!

Come with a list of what you're looking for and be at peace with the fact you will not see all of the outdoor flea market. - Brian

Hamvention has indoor vendors as well as an outdoor flea market. While you can play out your indoor route pretty easily, the flea market has way more vendors and can be overwhelming. Come with a plan AND cash!

Bring a backpack and lots of water. - Ryan A.

Walking the grounds can be exhausting in the May sun and extra storage may be required if you find a great score (which you will). Staying hydrated and unburdened is a huge part of having an enjoyable time.

It's going to rain, bring appropriate footwear and a rain jacket. - Drew K.

Rain at Hamvention is just a given due to it occurring in Ohio in May. The fairgrounds can handle some mud but can you? Make sure to bring stuff you don't mind getting muddy and wet.

Wear tan cargo shorts, a t-shirt with a radio manufacture's logo on it & a baseball cap and you will blend in seamlessly. - Ryan A.

Every subculture has a uniform and ham radio is no exception. Cargo shorts do double duty as part of the uniform and holding your flea market scores. What's in your pocket? A Meshtastic node? Some vintage tech? A kitschy ham sticker?

Our members will be out and about at Hamvention! Will we see you there?

Hive13 is excited to announce that we are expanding our membership structure to include the newest tier of membership, apiary members.

Since our space began in 2009, we felt like our student, standard, and cornerstone memberships were able to cover the populations that would be in the space. It was brought to our attention last night via prophetic dream that we were missing a very small-in-size demographic that we could welcome into our space. After an emergency board meeting, the apiary membership was born!

What is an apiary membership?

An apiary membership is $2,000 a month through Paypal and has all the same rights/responsibilities as other membership tiers but allows for one indoor beehive! Beehives will be evenly spaced throughout Hive13 as to best encourage cross-pollination of wards. Apiary members will be expected to manage their hive accordingly, making sure each bee is certified before using certification-only equipment, that the bees are cleaning up after themselves, and that the bees put the toilet seat down and wash their (many) hands after using the bathroom.

"Y'know, I never thought that leadership would be so excited about apiary memberships but I feel so supported in the space," said newest apiary member, Michael with a B, "Having thousands of bees with me at all times to help carry things, give insight to how to use tools, and to dance with has really improved the community feel."

Many, many members agreed with Michael with a B as we asked him for commentary. Dave Bee chimed in, "Pollinators have a lot of value to our space. They have great horticultural knowledge but also a collaborative mindset."

Adjusting to these thousands of new members in the space has been complex but has built new, hexagonal support structures throughout membership. Barry B. Benson was able to re-run our electrical cables with his buddies and they were simply buzzing with excitement.

"Hive13 really expanded my knowledge, I never thought I would learn electrical skills," Barry remarked as he wiped his proboscis, "My jazz band takes up a lot of my time so it's good to get out of old habits and into some new skills."

If members have questions about this new membership tier and what it entails, we encourage them to reach out via their local meadows and touch some grass.

Just announced! Join us next week for a Tuesday Talk by member Dave Schwinn on the highs, lows, and hisses of caring for Madagascar hissing cockroaches as a maker.

From Dave:

Here are Melania and Stormy. They are Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches, or Hissers. Come meet them and learn some fun factoids about roaches and keeping them as pets. The discussion will also include some of the electronics projects that I am working on in order to give them a comfy place to live.

Next week, join us for our Tuesday talk with member Adam Simoyi! You may know his work from Gun4IR, OpenFIRE, and a deep love for the arcade machines in our space. Get ready and hyped for an unserious approach to the ups, downs and curveballs of creating and contributing for open source spaces.

This Tuesday! Stop putting up blinders to your problems and attack your to do list. Come listen to Lisa's Tiny Tuesday Talk about Trello and parallel work on the things you have been procrastinating. All to-do lists welcome!

Today, join us to hear from acclaimed glass artist Dan Friday!

More about Dan:

Dan Friday is a member of the Lummi Nation and a Seattle based glass artist. He has spent the last twenty seven years creating glass work. The themes and images of Friday’s work are often drawn from his Coast Salish heritage and are solidified in the world of glass art. Dan has taught at the University of Washington, Evergreen State Collage, Pilchuck Glass School, and the Haystack Craft Center. He has had residencies at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA, the Burke Museum in Seattle Wa, the Corning Museum NY, and the Dream Community in Tai Pei, Taiwan. Friday has been awarded the Bill Holm Grant, the People’s choice award from the Bellevue Art Museum, The Jamers Earl Fraser Award from the Prix De West at the National Cowboy Museum, an Artist Trust Fellowship, and the Discovery Fellowship through (SWAIA) the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, an on the Netfilx show Blown Away His work can be seen on Fridayglass.com, Many Museums and in private collections around the world.

Check him out on Instagram as well!

NEXT WEEK! Join us for a very musical Tuesday Talk from member Aaron Tysen.
It bleeps, it bloops, it blinks. And it’s covered in rainbow spaghetti! On a good day, it makes music. On Oct 8, Aaron Tysen is giving a on talk the art and science of musical synthesis, featuring this beast and some of its friends.

TUESDAY TALK TOMORROW! Join us in welcoming our friends from iSpace as we aim for the stars with paper rockets.

More about iSpace:For over 20 years, iSPACE has provided innovative and engaging STEM educational programs across the Greater Cincinnati area. iSPACE offers field trips, summer camps, robotics competitions, professional development and other programs to students, teachers, families and professionals. These immersive, hands-on, minds-on experiences are designed to stimulate interest in STEM and develop pathways to STEM careers.

https://ispacestem.org/

Join us TOMORROW after our weekly meeting to blast off with your fellow makers!

Greetings Hivemind! We have a super exciting guest next week. Our friend, Maker Fishmeal (Annye) will be joining us for a talk on foamsmithing. We are so excited to have them as our guest and to learn how to be true friends of foam.

Some more about Maker Fishmeal: EVA foam can be a maker's bread and butter: from armor to props, from leather to wigs, from feathers to leaves, you can truly make almost anything with foam! Join Annye / Maker Fishmeal to learn the entire foamsmithing process from choosing foam to detailing and weathering, including tips on the best ways to get started and what supplies you'll need. Includes lots and lots of hands-on examples so you can see for yourself the miraculous material! Annye is an award-winning cosplayer and teacher from Dayton. Their first book, The Ultimate Guide to Glue, released in February and is available from major book retailers.

Join us tonight after our weekly meeting for HIVE13 FIGHT NIGHT! An evening of fighting games and Mario Kart for fun and glory. Can you back up your trash talk or will you button mash your way out of the bracket? Bring your custom fightpads, most annoying mains, and no Johns. See you soon!

We have an exciting, maybe dizzying, Tuesday Talk next week! Members Kate C. and Kostas P. are joining forces to bring us some wooly, warm, comfy goodness in spinning demos and group class. There will be spinning wheel, e-wheel, and drop spindle demos with a group class on 3D printed Turkish drop spindles. All skill levels welcome, just don’t drop your roving!

Greetings Hivemind! Our Tuesday talk this month is from the lovely folks at Queen City Bikes and MoBo Bicycle Co-op! Here's some more info about our guests.

Join us for "All the Buzz about Bike Repairs" to learn about essential roadside repairs and the mechanical principles behind them!
Our presenters are Fraser Cunningham of MoBo Bicycle Co-op, Kathy Cunningham of Queen City Bike, and Vincent Wilson, who donates his knowledge and time to both organizations.
All three are frequent volunteers at the "Pop-up Bike Shop" series—free bike repairs that MoBo and QCB host all over the city (along with support from Tri-State Trails and Cincy RedBike). All three have been riding and tinkering with bikes since their youth, and share a common goal of empowering more people to ride and enjoy the freedom and low-cost/low-impact mobility that bikes make possible!
Fraser is a retired mechanical engineer from GE Aviation, with a passion for understanding how things work—and how to make them better! Kathy is a retired bioscientist and consultant who also applied her knowledge to endurance athlete coaching for several years. And Vincent is a software engineer who deeply values self-education and versatility, with a knack for dreaming up playful inventions and hacks in his workshop.

Check out Queen City Bikes:

Website

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Check out MoBo Bike Co-op:

Website

Facebook

Instagram

This month we have a sweet pretty sweet Tuesday Talk speaker! Paul Picton is a Hive13 member and an expert chocolate maker. His talk this month will be about how to make chocolate on a small scale so make sure to come hungry!

More about Paul:

Paul Picton is a mechanical engineer who changed careers in 2013 to become a chocolate maker.  Along with his wife, Marlene, and their son, Ben, they own and operate the Maverick Chocolate Co. in Cincinnati, Ohio. Maverick Chocolate has two stores: the original in Findlay Market – opened in 2014 and the flagship store in Rookwood Commons – opened in 2018. Their chocolate has received numerous national and international awards including six Good Food Awards. Maverick Chocolate employs 12 people.

Paul previously was the Sales Director for MTU Aero Engines – a division of Mercedes Benz. Paul spent seven years at Delta Airlines and three years in GE Aircraft Engines

Paul mentors numerous food-based entrepreneurs in Cincinnati. He is active in his neighborhood community of Newport, Kentucky. Paul is originally from Canada and immigrated to the USA in 1996.

Check out Maverick Chocolate at their Findlay Market location and Rookwood locations.

Mechanical keyboards are an excellent way to customize your workspace. Do you need a loud key to feel really accomplished with your typing? What about a soft click so you don't bother your neighbor? Mechanical keyboards can be adjusted in many aspects to make typing and gaming more engaging and comfortable. This has spawned a community of fans, including some of our members!

We will be hosting a mechanical keyboard meetup on September 17th from 1-3pm for all enthusiasts to come and share their keyboards and love for the hobby. Guests are welcome.