Wednesday 12 August 2009

Yarn and brains

This past Sunday, as it was the last weekend I was going to be in London for a while (Alex has finished his placement and is now back home!), I headed out to I Knit. Frankly, I was a bit disappointed, mainly because I was expecting a much bigger shop. Most of what they had was animal hair, and then a bit of cotton. I was starting to become disheartened, when I found this.

Habu silk & stainless steel

Habu silk and stainless steel yarn (rav link). I about fell over, and in love. So I now have plenty of stainless steel yarn, and plan to make myself some chainmail.
Ok, perhaps just a shawl.

It has stainless steel! *squee!*






Brain!

Oh, noes, the flying brains are attacking!

It is a common joke between Alex and I that, if we found each other's brain lying around, please try not to kick it, just pick it up and dust it off a bit. So I made a brain as a silly surprise for when he got back. Does it even look like a brain?
Brain!       Brain!

The brain is made using hyperbolic knitting, the basis of which is just simply to knit through the front and back of every stitch to make it grow hyperbolically. The spine and bulb are some i-cord with increases (can post exact instructions if there is demand for them). I promise it looks more like a brain when you actually hold it, but I found it very difficult to capture its brain-ness in the pictures!

5 comments:

  1. You know, I just might try knitting that as a fun Christmas gift for a friend, so if you've the time and desire to share the instructions, I'd be interested.

    The joke of the gift would be that my friend always says that she would love her brilliant, quirky, Asperger husband no matter what, even if he was just a brain in a jar. So I was thinking I could ask him if he would like to present her with a knitted version of his brain in a jar! Either that, of if I could knit up small ones fast enough, I could do them as a couple of brains in matching jars. I'm sure that sounds wacky to you!

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  2. wow never saw that yarn! I look forward to seeing what you make with it!

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  3. 1 -- Love that yarn, it is soooo cool!

    2 -- As a neuroscientist I HAVE to have that pattern! :) I love it!

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  4. I'm so excited that there is interest in the pattern! I was worried it wouldn't look like a brain, but I'm glad it does.

    I'll probably post some instructions next week, and soon there will be brains for all! Throw them at the zombies while you make your escape (they are not very bright, you know).

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  5. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with the Habu. I tried to knit Muir with it, alone, and gave up. I'm now knitting Muir with a strand of that Habu stuff, plus a strand of Zephyr. Together it is doable.
    It's really interesting stuff though!

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