Coffee

Tired.
Liquid gold in my cup,
sweet and warm.
Not enough.
Sleep now.

Links of the week, 14/09/08

Better later than never, I would like to say to all of you a bit THANK YOU for all the lovely comments in my wedding accessories post. They were so nice!

I have been trying to catch up with the internet from the days I was away, as I did not check my email at all while on holidays. This clearly proves that I am not an addict!

ATLAS (LHC) assembly montage

As you are probably aware, the Large Hadron Collider was turned on on the 10th September. The world, of course, didn't end (teeny black hole would have been teeny). Here is a video of the assembly of the ATLAS experiment.

Nanoships in medicine

One of the problems with tumors is that some of them are very difficult to access, and medication cannot be delivered to them directly, arriving in very dilute quantities. This nano-ships, coated in chocolate (well, a compatible lipid) so that the inmune system doesn't notice them, can travel in your blood stream and deliver the drugs straight to where they are needed! For now, this has only been tested in mice. We are, however, one step closer to the nanogenes from The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances. You know the ones I mean.

Road safety, Mars style

Like good drivers, the Mars Rovers can't talk to Earth and drive at the same time!

National Geographic Photography Contest

The images from the contest have been turned into walpapers. Like a lot of "extreme" pictures of the Earth, they look alien and beautiful, and I will totally use one of them when I get tired of my current yarn walpaper.

Bears like chocolate too!

The oldest known polar bear is ill, and has lost lots of weight. At the moment, she is on a diet of chocolate and cupcakes, because it's one of the few things she can eat and is helping her put some fat on for the winter ahead. Mmm, chocolate.

Invisible skyscraper

is invisible!

Italy'08

I am finally back from my holidays in Italy. Well, I have been back for a couple of days now, although I wish I wasn't! I have been trying to write up something coherent about my trip, but I am really not managing, and that is making me a bit sad. It was a great holiday, and nothing I write seems to be able to covey the awesomeness of it. I'm afraid you are just going to have to imagine that. I do have, however, some pictures, and I am hoping they will help pass the message across.

We were in the Tuscany, based in Pisa. We did the obligatory visit to the Piazza dei Miracoli, checking that the tower was, in fact, leaning, and then we went to the two lesser-trodden sights there: the Museo dell'Opera and the Museo della Sinopie. The sinopie are the preliminary drawings/sketches for the frescoes, only discovered after WW2, when everything got bombed and they had to take away the frescoes. They are now housed in their own museum and are amazing, capturing the art of the painters without all the colourful distraction. The Museo dell'Opera is a museum of cool old stuff. I would certainly recommend a visit to both of them (they are also a lot emptier!).

Most of our time of holidays, however, was spent ambling around the little streets, seeing pretty things and looking for small local restaurants. Life in Italy goes slightly slower than here in England, and it was very nice to slow down to that speed and see the sights. In our quest for tasty food to bring back, we found one of the most awesomestest shops evar, run by a little old lady. We bought some saffron from her.

Florence is only a train ride away from Pisa (about 1 hour), so we went there a couple of days. In our tourist mode, we saw Santa Maria del Fiore, Il Duomo. It was very pretty, inside and outside, and it featured a 24 hour counter-clockwise clock. I have one in my living room, but only 12 hours.

We went up to the top, which gave us a beautiful view of the city and of the construction of the cathedral. The top does have, however, some very narrow passages, to the point that several people had to be turned back because they were too fat to fit through (and we are not talking about horribly fat, either). It was a rather narrow passage!

As we ambled through the city (our feet ended the holiday very tired, including blisters), We also saw a football ball, a random street argument and a pedestal held by four turtles! It wasn't quite four elephants atop a turtle, but it was fun nonetheless.

We visited the town of Lucca, surrounded by a full wall. We happened to be there on the day of the 64th anniversary of the liberation of the city by the Americans, so we saw an army parade of the time, and on the day of the Wall Market, so we saw Prize Pumpkins. The Wall Market also had hand-dyed yarn, but it was made of sheep, so I had to let it go.

On our last full day, we decided to go to the beach for a couple of hours, to dip our toesis in the water, so we headed out to the town of Viareggio. We showed off our light tan on the beach (I've haven't had this much colour for a while!), while lots of other people were ugly shades of red. We then found huge park in the middle of town, and we strolled with the locals in the shade, cooling down from our escapade to the beach.

Now, as I said, I am back. It is, of course, pouring down here, and many degrees lower (Italy was soo hot). I do wish I could still be away, but it was nice coming back home and, after all, I still had the rest of the week off.

I like holidays. Is it can be holidayz tiemz again nao, plees?

Absence - Italy

Don't begrudge me the links! I am, at the moment, in Italy, enjoying my first holiday in a very long time. The excitement and the stress prior to the trip is too much!

Wedding accessories (FOs)

You might remember that I had to attend my cousin's wedding, and I decided to knit my accessories (as well as use an old dress, which annoyed my mother no end).
The wedding was this past Saturday and, barring some disagreements about what time to come back, it wasn't so bad, given that it was an affair that involved my family. I came out with a clear thought: I'm not getting married. If I do, I will elope.

Click here for the full picture!

Hair Flower

Ravelry hair flower
Pattern: Main flower (rav) and Small flower (rav)
Yarn: Rowan Cotton Glace in black and maritime (discontinued)
Needles: 2.75 mm for main flower and 3.0 mm hook for small flower
Notes: I like how my hair turned up! I didn't know what do to with it, so I asked Ravelry for help. I loved the Chinese bun tutorial, so that's what I did. 10 minutes, 20 hairpins, 1 dpn and plenty of holding-spray later, I was the proud wearer of that bun, and mocked the people that had spent at least 2 hours that morning at the hairdressers. As the evening wore on, some of the hairs started to uncoil, but still remain in nice curls, so they looked on purpose. If you have long hair, I would certainly recommend this hair style!


Lace evening gloves



Ravelry project page
Pattern: Afternoon tea fingerless gloves (rav)
Yarn: Patons 100% cotton 4 ply, in black
Hook: 2.5 mm
Notes: My brother commented on the gloves, and said he thought they were very elegant.
I had a bit of trouble when I started making them, first having to check many sticthes (tr3tog explanation here), and then getting overconfident and doing it wrong. Worth it, though. They do stretch a lot when you block them, so don't be afraid if they look too small: I certainly thought I was going to have to redo them in a 2.75/3.0 hook (although continued with the first one to practice), and in the end it stretched plenty.

Gloves in action!

Sorry for the poor quality of this picture. There were actually very few pictures of me in my family's digital camera, so that was the best I could get.