I made a thing

It's about time! When was the last time I sewed anything? I miss it. I'm glad I sat down and did the making today - this thing is pretty awesome if I do say so myself.

 

What is this thing that I made?

 Let's unzip it and see...

Keep on opening it...

 Tada! It's a grocery tote (a bacon grocery tote) - YAY!

 I made it following this handy tutorial here. Very pleased with the results. The canvas is a bit tricky to stuff in there, but it'll be sturdy I'm sure. I think the next one should be a combo of canvas on the bottom and handles, and maybe a lighter cotton for the sides.

Update: Thelma's Cottage

Well, due to the poor economy & housing market in Utah at the moment, I bit the bullet and bought a tiny little house. It's barely over 800 sq. ft. but is cute as a button. I'm still working on storage solutions for organization with only 2 closets and only one tiny wall of kitchen cabinets, but it's coming along and certainly feels like home.

Left side top (L-R): kitchen looking into bedroom & bathroom, kitchen.
Left side middle (L-R): apple trees in tiny backyard, chickens under their coop.
Left side bottom (L-R): apocalypse water supply etc. in crawl space that I'm working on getting rid of each recycling week, front door.
Right side (clockwise from bottom left): side of house (incl. drive and back door), laundry cubby, kitchen as seen from living room, living room "library", living room/office.

Hello Utah

A new chapter begins: I resigned, accepted a fellowship at Utah State University, and moved to Logan, Utah. So in 2 weeks I'll be a student again, now trying to earn a PhD, but not before maximizing my time on numerous unnecessary projects.

The solar oven was the first one. With some insulation added and mirror extenders, a max temperature of 290 Fahrenheit was achieved. I cooked some pretty random concoctions with that, but then the picture frame glass cracked. I'm guessing that it wasn't exactly meant to be dealing with that sort of temperature range...


So rather than fix the solar oven, I naturally moved on to unnecessary project number 2: chickens.

There was already a coop in the backyard, so it just needed some repairs, cleaning, bedding and fencing. Several hot and sweaty days later:


Then all it needed was chickens:

They are mighty impressive composters!!! This is a FAR better place for my veggie scraps to go than a) in a pile, b) in the garbage disposal system, or c) just flat out in the garbage. I got older, less productive, hens - so not so many eggs. But I really didn't want to deal with baby chicks until I had some idea of how chickens would work out.

Then I needed to fly back to Canada and get my student visa to re-enter the US as a student. I got an awesome view of the Grand Canyon on the flight there.


Then I met up with some long-time friends and their new offspring for the only part of my summer that's truly resembled a vacation. Lots of good times catching up and hanging out!


First stop: the refrigerated Canadian beer section.


Greatest cut bank ever. I'm convinced these are a flood deposit that has since been cut into by this river channel.


Beautiful Kananaskis country - and the sign even held true to its promise.



Finally, I wrapped up another knitting project between flights, layovers and buses - so here's the Charvet pullover.

Solar Oven Saturday

Technically it started on Friday evening, but most of the serious and meticulous building occurred on Saturday. We went to a thrift store and browsed around for stuff we could re-purpose as the box-base, reflectors, swing-stand, etc. This is what we came up with:

Base: filing cabinet drawer (filing cabinet also came in handy as a work bench - a really loud and tinny-sounding work bench, but functional none-the-less)

Reflectors: mirrors from medicine cabinet thingies (medicine cabinet particle board also doubled as odds and ends to use as support frame, handles, hinge bases...)

Swing stand: random heavy duty springs plus corner hinge bits from medicine cabinets plus some sort of stand (possibly for a printer) that we ripped apart

Cook pot: got a great ceramic pot that was the inside of a crock pot, the crock pot was a house fire waiting to happen, so it was easy to rip the ceramic inside out and remove the wires

Glass cover: gaudy picture frame - no matter how gaudy the picture and the frame was, it was a pretty-near perfect size of glass!

Then we had to buy some new components such as mylar tape (aka foil tape), flame duck tape (ok, we didn't need it, but I really wanted to use it), hinges of the non-corner variety (of all the pieces on the 2 medicine cabinets we destroyed you'd think there would be useable hinges, but NO), epoxy, and a glass cutter.

Lots of dismantling going on...

East LA drills into the file cabinet drawer for our support frame.

The way the swing-stand swings when the solar oven gets tilted for catching the best sun angle - after all, we can't be having our food spill everywhere!

The medicine cabinet mirrors needed to be cut to size, plus we needed corner pieces to make a more funnel-shaped rather than box-shaped sun energy amplifier. All the sharp stabby mirror pieces we then covered with mylar tape for safety while also maintaining high reflectivity. The glass cutter ended up being a great option, but this was only after we called everywhere around to see if a pro could cut the mirror for us. My favourite conversation went like this:

me: hi! I was wondering if I could bring some mirror in and have you cut it down to size
person at glass shop: sorry, we only cut glass
me: it is glass
person at glass shop: I thought you said you had a mirror
me: mirrors are just glass with silver paint on the back
person at glass shop: we can only cut glass, not mirror
me: nevermind

Basically complete at this point, needs a) flame tape decoration, b) a trial run, c) fine tuning. Here you can see the contraption for changing the angle of the oven - a simple giant eye screw and 2 bolts, one above and one below the file cabinet lock loop thingy (which we moved to a more appropriate location)

Complete with flame tape, we gave it a trial run with some pre-made cookie dough. It was a little late in the day to be starting, but we had to do it anyway, and in the corner you can see the meat thermometer that I taped to the glass lid.

Max temp reached was 175 - I'm pretty sure with a couple of minor alterations (seal around the glass lid, starting cooking before evening, possibly expanding the reflector size with more mylar tape) we'll get this baby over 200.

...and I've been making stuff too.

Engineery and I have been working off and on (mostly off) on a totally awesome Pi quilt. Unfortunately, despite meticulous measurements and CAD drawings, we are still having issues. The Pi quilt will become a Pi floor cushion when we finally complete it.



I used a pretty neat tutorial to make these "tea wallets" for the Geology Club to sell at Garden Fest for fundraising. I still have a couple of them left, so if you want one, let me know. You may get lucky!



I FINALLY ground the punties off the remainder of my glass pieces that I made... oh, maybe 3 years ago? They're all so functional now, it's great!

In case you're wondering what the heck that even means, this might help clarify, but then keep in mind that novice glass blowers tend to be a little too generous with the punty, leaving behind a large wad of glass on the bottom that needs to be ground down.

a little self-pimping

Well, my little book is done and available. The history behind it is this:
1. Write curriculum for "Geology of Kern County" class
2. Discover there is no textbook
3. Panic about what to do for reference material for students enrolled in class
4. Write draft of book in 3 months
5. Teach class, get student input on book
6. Procrastinate a lot
7. Receive faculty scholarship award to continue research on project
8. Procrastinate some more
9. Eventually complete manuscript by ceasing to add potential chapter topics and slashing at ever-growing list
10. Find willing local retired geologist to read through geological material just in case of drastically major errors
11. Beg mother to proof read for "lay-mans terms clarity" before sending on to copy editor at publisher
12. Pimp book on blog.

We're going to figure out how/when/where to have a party for it in Bakersfield, where it will (of course) be available. The plan for this is for those wanting books to pre-purchase so that I have a better approximation of the number I need to order. Of course the book is available here and soon will be here too. And if anyone back in Ontario for some reason wants one, I'll be there over xmas and can hand deliver!

UPDATE: Book release party will be in Spring, however, I have a limited number of books available presently, so if you want one, buy it now! I'll deliver it to you. Somehow.

"making" update

Someone recently asked if I was still knitting since they hadn't seen any recent blog posts about stuff I'd made... I guess I'd been posting things on ravelry, but not the blog.

Anyway, for those who are interested... here are a few of the things I've made lately.

This is a notebook cover that I finished today, has a pocket for pens etc., and you can replace the notebook inside whenever you run out of blank pages.

These are freaking awesome socks that I finished early this spring. I love this pattern.

This is a vest that I got a little carried away knitting while listening to Paul Stamets' mushroom talk, consequently it ended up being extremely long...

And finally, this is my soon-to-be finished cardigan made from lambswool from Finland. All that's left is half of the button band, but I am awaiting one more ball of yarn from Finland in order to accomplish this.

And now for something completely different

A while ago I sent a square I made out of one of my derby T shirts (the one where my name was spelled wrong) to contribute to the Roller Derby Quilt project. My original submission is here, and you can see it sewn into the quilt (under a cat) here.

What's totally cool, is that this project is actually a collaborative art project for Dreadnaught's thesis somewhere in Boston! Even more awesome that our team is a part of it, and that I got an invite to the thesis exhibition... not that I can make it, but either way, the thought is what counts!

Further - she's going to try and self-publish this quilt project as a book, so if you feel like supporting her, I bet she'd really appreciate it.

anyone need any cotton?

A while back, something like more than 2 years ago, I thought I'd give hand-spinning a try, using a drop spindle. My friend the Extreme Chef, who works for the USDA, acquired for me a substantial amount of fresh and free cotton to give this a try with. I used a small amount, spun successfully, but still had a large clear trash bag full of it up in my upstairs closet. I left it there, safely encased in the clear trash bag... Nearly a year ago I acquired Loki, aka Bitey Whitey, and during that time he's been slowly and steadily destroying the bag in the closet. Finally, this morning, I committed to extracting the cotton explosion from my closet in order to be able to retrieve important things, like my camping gear for example, but I am now faced with an enormous pile and nothing resembling a bag to fit it in...

Say, do you notice anything NOT cottony in that pile?

Homecoming 2009

Some of you may remember past Homecoming accomplishments, but if not, they can be found here and here. This year's theme was "Renegade Pride", which was a little cryptic to say the least. The Geology Club decided to build something geological that represented the establishment of Kern County (oil industry, naturally) and the Engineers Club decided to build a reproduction of a vintage 1950's (aka "rosette style") float that had been done in the early years of the college.

As the weeks went by, the Geology Club students built and built, and slowly but surely, a cross section from Sierra Nevada to Coast Ranges through the San Joaquin Valley was built, complete with the "Bakersfield Arch", oil derrick, and anticline full of oil. Meanwhile, barely a soul showed up to work on the Engineers Club float, and in the end it was scrapped.

the boys painting the "Renegade Pride" slogan on the arch - we went with:

"Reaching New Heights..." "While Hitting Rock Bottom"

(had to sneak a geology pun in there of course)

The end of the float located at the trailer - as we see strewn across mountain ranges far and wide, it's only appropriate to have some white rocks spelling out our group and year...

The "front" (facing north in schematic geological representation) of the completed float - there's adits in the mountain of course.

The back (facing south in our representation), ultimately there was going to be a rear end in that hole, you know, "rock bottom", for the tour around the track a student just sat there facing in, still a butt, but a more appropriate clothed one.

Making good use of the adit! The headlamps worked really well in there come dark and the actual parade of floats.

No trailer is complete without a license plate, note the message is mirroring the message on the mountain on the other side. Aren't we clever?

Finally, since there was only room on the float for 2 miners and a butt, we had to have petroleum engineers walking alongside to monitor their derrick.

It was pretty funny when a woman from the audience yelled out "I love a man in uniform!"

making

I had this idea some time ago to make a modular wine rack out of fabric. This morning I messed around with some felt and constructed a couple drafts of it. One idea is a series of triples like this that can be placed side by side and then stacked. The other idea is rows that stack into a pyramid, a 4 bottle row, 3 bottle row, etc. I like the triple better myself.


And while I'm on here with photos, here's a kitten update: Loki is ridiculously hyper and the rest of his food energy seems to go into growing a giant tail so he's pretty skinny still, but he's catching up to Kiki in length surprisingly quickly.

Return to Canada Part 1: The Wedding

Among many fun and reminiscent visits with friends during my 3 week tour in the north country, the big event was our very own Fly Fisherman marrying his Mexican sweetheart. Everyone was there (most of them even managed to get to the ceremony on time), and the intimate back yard setting of the reception (not to mention the food & beverages - mmm!) was fantastic. More photos can be found here.

The bride & groom - now fully "tartaned"

In the words of Kilometres: a typical Gnat perspective

The reverse side of the quilt I made them

The full-fledged chaotic front of the quilt - so much going on!!!