Random stripe generator.

I've been listening to way back issues of Brenda Dayne's Cast On Podcast. In one of the very early ones she mentions this really cool bit of software from a blog called Biscuits and Jam to help create stripe patterns for knitting. I'm currently planning a striped raglan and I always pictured it with a regular stripe pattern, but maybe I should consider a random design.

Happy Australia Day!

Today I mailed my contribution to Spins & Needles Urban Cozy Project at Winterlude 2010.

Spins and Needles is a knitting group in Ottawa. This year they have designed a large-scale outdoor art installation made up of knit pieces from all across Canada. They have invited many organizations to participate. Bronwen sent me the call for submissions the other day and I decided I'd send something in.

My something is a large garter stitch patch made of three smaller garter stitch patches. I used a lot of balls of wool that I will never use for anything else. Mainly what I could dig out of my packed-away wool collection.

This is it. It will look better when it is cozy-ing a tree in Confederation Park or Majors Hill Park or Parc Jacques-Cartier.





This is an in-progress picture of CP carrying out the kneading stage. This is a very important part of the knitting process ensuring a properly risen final product with a nice even crumb.

Vintage embroidery.

I need to do more of this (as opposed to none).



Those little birds got into the brandy, by the way.

Top 26 of 26.

The past year has been a good one. Awhile ago I was thinking about all the fun things I did and sort of made a list. These are the Top 26 memories of my last year being 26 years old. In a sort of chronological order.

1. Alice in Wonderland Birthday Party to start it all off. We went tea cup shopping, made all sorts of mini food, and everyone dressed in fantastic costumes. I always knew I had really really good friends.

2. The night Emily, Matt, Nat, and I attended the Library Voices show at the eBar. We were 4 of 10 people there including the opening act. We had a great time and Library Voices will always be one of my favourite bands.

3. One crisp cold morning in March. One of my favourite type of days is when the sun is shining so brightly but it's so cold outside you can't feel the heat at all. Once again Matt, Em, Nat and I were standing on a streetside in Kitchener and Matt came up with the line of the year. Then Nat and I went to this Bakery around the corner and had the best breakfast ever.

4. When I saw flew out to Halifax for the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution Conference. This was the first time I saw the east coast. I met a bunch of interesting people and presented my work. Then I had a bit of time to search out the Local Yarn Shop that carries all sorts of Handmaiden and Fleece Artist wools and has a huge selection of all of their seconds and discontinued bits and pieces that you won't find anywhere else.

5. The day that the wall of our house exploded. This wasn't a good thing because it was still winter and there was freezing water entering out livingroom, but Andrew did save the Corner of Uselessness all by himself and I was touched by his efforts.

6. Winterlude 2009. This was my annual visit to Ottawa to stay with Bronwen and Kristen and their crazy ex-housemate. We had strawberry beer at Pub Italia, an amazing key lime pie-off, and the girls almost froze their feet off while I listened to Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo.

7. Teh night that Nat, Pete and I went on an adventure to a new venue in Waterloo. It was called the Grist Mill and actually was just the old mill building on the side of the pond. There weren't any washrooms and nothing to drink. It was a cool building, but not great for shows. Bruce Peninsula and Timber Timbre were amazing.

8. The day Emily returned from Paris and brought me Laduree Macaroons and told me all about her travels. Yum. Such a great treat.

9. Hillside 2009. Bronwen and I did workshops and there was a massive lightening storm. A huge bolt hit the island and Bronwen was electrocuted through her toering because she was standing in a puddle. Scary.

10. The day I defended my thesis. Everyone was really impressed, I passed, and we all had a fun outside party at our house on Emslie St. My family and the pups came. The entire lab came. We had sandwiches and beer before I went home with the family for a break.

11. Em and I traveled down to Wolfe Island near Kingston for the Wolfe Island Music Festival. We took a cool little ferry across, went for a drive through the county, Ching Bee packed us a delicious lunch each day and Ron Sexsmith spilled his beer on my foot.

12. Nat and I went on a roadtrip to Manitoulin Island. We took the Chicheemaun across and drove all the way out to the western point of the island. We camped at two very cool little places - one on an alvar beside a giant quarry and the other on a peninsula out between two lakes. We found Sandhill Cranes and the Manitoulin Island Preserves Store.

13. One of my last nights in Guelph before I left for my trip we all went down to Manhattens for dinner. I can't remember exactly why we decided to go there, but there was a huge storm again that night and we all stood outside to watch the lightening strike.

14. The first week and a half of my trip I stopped over on the West Coast. This was the first time I had been out there. I stayed with Crystal and Geoff for a couple nights in Vancouver and then went out to Vancouver Island to stay with Jill and visit Leah. The weather was perfect and we did so many interesting things out there. I love the coast.

15. I spent my first week in Australia at the SERI conference in Perth. I gave a presentation about my work in the biggest conference hall at the meeting. I had never spoken into a mike before and it was scary, but a great experience.

16. The time I spent at Two People's Bay was just what I needed. It was on the coast and felt so far away from everything. The weather was not that great, so we couldn't do much work, but we could hike around the place and the beach was absolutely beautiful.

17. The Rock Tour I took to see Uluru, King's Canyon and the Olgas. The Red Centre is really dry and hot and you just feel so alone even when there is an entire group of people camping out under the stars with you.

18. One of the best days of not just this year, but my entire life: snorkling the Great Barrier Reef. Seeing that place gives you a new perspective on the environment and your surroundings.

19. Seeing some of the most famous places in Australia by ferry in the Sydney Harbour: the Sydney Opera House, the Sydhney Harbour Bridge and the beautiful Toranga Zoo.

20. Visiting the boiling mud holes and hot springs in Rotorua. It was hard to breathe in the town, but every where you turned there was something else interesting to see. I loved that place.

21. Finding Fibre Spectrum in Nelson. One of the coolest wool shops I have ever been to. Handspun raindows of local wool, alpaca, every variety. I visited twice, took pictures, still talk about it. The things I have made from that wool are all completely beautiful. I bought Christmas presents for Bronwen and Nat there too.

22. Hiking on the Fox Glacier. I knew a bit about glaciers, but actually seeing one completely changed all the ideas I had about them. Makes you wonder about how much you actually know.

23. Roadtrip to Milford Sound. It's considered one of the most beautiful places on earth and I really agree with that sentiment. Someday maybe I'll go back and do the great walk.

24. Landing in TO. We flew in over Guelph and I could see the city lights in the middle of the night. Toronto had never looked so beautiful. Sparkly and festive and just like home.

25. The 2 weeks I played the jetlagged card. I was tired and sick and didn't want to do anything and sad that I can't go to Australia or New Zealand every day.

26. New Year's Eve. Usually New Year's isn't really that special of an event to remember for me, but this year was different. I went down to Guelph to see all the friends I had missed for four months. We went to the pub for dinner and watched Team Canada come back to beat the States in a shootout. It was a beautiful game of hockey and we yelled and screamed and ate chicken wings in our fanciest outfits. Then we went over to Em's house for a Glitter Formal Themed party to ring in the new year.

To celebrate my 27th, a few of my best friends came up to visit in Warsaw. We had a wild skating party and hockey game on the Mill Pond. Then we came back to the house for pizza and snacks. Then we went tobagganing at midnight behind the rink. The next morning we had a huge breakfast featuring the eggs I've been collecting up at the house I'm watching.

I got a few cool presents.

A mini MukMuk, he's the mascot of the mascots at the Vancouver Olympic Games. This is why I like him so much. And he's really cute. He's an extremely rare and endangered Vancouver Island Marmot.



Em brought me this fabulous dinner plate to add to my guilded collection. The little pup watches you eat.



Jayme got me a sparkly green ring from a little store in Lakefield. Unfortunately, I dropped it on the tile floor and it shattered the next day. Jayme kindly replaced it with a new blue one and I got a bonus. This little fox ring. It's fantastic, but you can't do anything if it's on your hand because it will be destroyed by movement or water.



To say the least, we all had a great time at the party. I hope everyone comes back to visit again soon. I think Matt has already coined the best phrase of the year, but I can't remember what it is. I'll have to ask Em, she usually remembers. Or thinks about it until it comes back to her.

Some cool tutorials I've found over the past year or so.

First off, a giant list of the best tutorials of the year from The Long Thread.

Secondly, little mini tool boxes from Altoid tins!




Giant blob knit footstool from Pickles. I love these things and have probably posted about them before. Soon I will actually make one. Soon.



A couple men's shirts to other things. Someday I will have a sewing table again and I will sew some of these things. Maybe.

Shirt to skirt from label-free.



Shirtdress from clevergirl.org




Fabric envolopes. Be the sender of the classiest mail in the west. And some mini mail while you're at it.



Always have a toothpick handy. Toothpick pocket how-tos. I really like the one that includes a tiny mini toothpick protective cap.

"Bad artists copy. Great artists steal." - Pablo Picasso

There is a very interesting project on the internet called We Feel Fine. They have written software that searches through blogs to find the statement "I feel". Their software collects these sentances plus some information about the blogger including their age, gender, location, and weather at the time of the post. All of the sentances come together in different pictures and give us an idea of how the world feels. You can view the applet by clicking on "Interactive Version" on their website and check out the feelings swirling around us on the internet. Apparently, they also have a book out which would be interesting to check out too.

Things I like these days.

Sweet needlepoint belt buckles. The picture says it all. From Needleyou.



PlanetBox lunch boxes. All metal, little leakproof containers available too.



The WhiteEyes. Little stuffies from here.

Know your own strength.

I've been going to the gym a lot lately with my Mom and sister. It's been fun. Sister is a bridezilla and I need to get into shape for her wedding. Actually, since I've been back at it I have so much more energy and just feel better in general.

Jayme knows a lot about working out and takes a very scientific approach to staying in shape. She tells me to think of it all as a big math equation. The Christmas cookies you eat are really just a number of calories in and you need to equal that number out in calories burned to maintain your shape.

As I was swinging along on the elliptical up in the top part of our gym the other day I looked down over the room of cardio equipment and thought about all the calories being burned. All of the machines have their own little TV set so you can watch Restaurant Makeover or CSI as you jog. They are all plugged into the electrical grid of the building. I started thinking about all of the energy we were using to burn the excess food energy we consumed. That was sort of depressing. Wouldn't it be easy enough to design exercise equipment that captures all the food energy our bodies work so hard to convert?

When we're talking about units of food energy we generally think of the number of calories in an item of food. When we talk about energy we generally think in terms of joules. One joule is the amount of energy exerted by the force of one newton moving an object by a distance of one metre (a newton being the unit of force).

One calorie is equal to 4.2 joules.

Therefore, if I burn 300 calories in half an hour I spend about 1260 J of energy. This energy is given off as heat and the forces required to turn the wheels in the elliptical cross training machine.

One joule of energy is required to produce one watt of power for one second. Power being the rate at which energy is converted from one form to another. A watt is a unit of power and we use it describe mechanical energy.

A 60 watt light bulb uses 60 watts of power per second. If we managed to capture this 1260 J of energy we could light a 60 watt light bulb for 21 seconds.

Now, I know this doesn't seem like much, but before we tried to power the light bulb all of my expended energy was just a by-product of this system plus we were taking in, and using, energy that was produced externally. I don't know enough about all of this to explain how energy is captured, but I know that the process is not perfect and we lose a lot of energy in the conversion process. I'm also pretty sure that we have the technology to hook all those ellipticals up to transformers and amp up all of this energy to power the entire place.

I would love to workout at a gym that was off the grid. I bet it could even contribute to the grid. I hope that somewhere someone is already designing this system. I mean, we have all the gear, it's just the good planning that needs to come together.

Silver.

January 5, 2010 was a sad day in Warsaw.

We all knew Canada could come back when they were down by a couple goals to the Americans in the gold medal final of the World Juniors. We even thought they'd win it in regulation time. When they went into OT I had a bad feeling though.

I wonder if Jerome is going to apologize for breaking the mirror at the end of the Force Fate ad? He's going to be in real big trouble if things go wrong (and by 'go wrong' I mean not win the gold on Canadian soil) at the Olympics.

O, and unfortunately, I'm stuck in dial-up land for the next little while. Hopefully I'll at least have time to get things organized so I can load them up all at once.

Back at it.

Been away for awhile. Just needed a bit of a break for the holiday season. I've got a few catch-up posts to make here from my trip and a new project for 2010. Hopefully I'll have decent internet access at the place I will be housesitting for January so I'll be able to load everything up.

Right now I'm deep into the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championships. Canada won a huge game against the States on New Years Eve. I was in my beloved Guelph at the pub for that game and it was a riot. As I type, the Swedes just tied up their semi-final game with the States 1-1. They're really starting to come on. Either team will make an a good attempt to stop the Canadians from winning their 6th gold medal in a row on Tuesday evening.

During the tournament TSN has been playing a really interesting Nike ad. I'm not a huge fan of the company, but I do think they have an incredible marketing department. My only complaint is that they didn't use a Canadian band for the soundtrack because we all know there are a whole lot of really good independent Canadian artists out there. Even a few with wolves in their names or songs about wolves, I'm sure. In case you're wondering, the song is called Wolf Like Me and it's by TV on the Radio.