Books I Read in November

Total: 4 books.

To die For (Carol Lee)
Trust me, I'm a (Junior) Doctor (Max Pemberton)
Another Day in the Frontal Lobe (Katrina S. Firlik)
A Wayne in a Manger (Gervase Phinn)

My final health matters book (for now at least) To Die For reminded me of the many books on eating disorders that seemed to be floating around when I was at high school. I'm not quite sure what I made of this book but it probably wasn't all that positive.

All library books this month I think - Trust me, I'm a (Junior) Doctor was another health matters. Enjoyed this book, an amusing easy read. Medicine in itself is really quite interesting... but at the same time I'm glad not to endure the long hours and stressful days!

Another library book, Another Day in the Frontal Lobe (14/11) caught my eye on the 'health matters' selection out on display (I do like the library displays for prompting some new reads). A very interesting (and surprisingly straightforward) read full of curious stories of the operating room and neurosurgery.

Once again starting off my list with a nice, easy read - A Wayne in a Manger (11/11) is a real book but is short and sweet with big writing and an adequate number of pictures. Funny and cute and ever so easy to read. I saw this on the shelf in the library and thought it looked like an ideal way to spend the bus journey home.

Rag Wreath

One of my better results from todays crafting:


Something you don't need any talent for! For anyone who wonders, at the centre is an embroidery ring and the strips are each around 10cm (4") x 2.5c (1"). I think my Christmas tree (centre) is probably a little low hanging but that can be fixed sometime in the future.

Friday Fill-Ins

This week's Friday Fill-In:

1. My stomach is mostly full of rubbish - I must learn to make time to eat properly.

2. Vegetarian chilli with nachos and salsa is what I ate the most of on Thursday.

3. The yard is so cold, like everywhere else, at this time of year.

4. In bed is where I'd rather be at any given time.

5. The smell of the central heating reminds me of Christmas.

6. A good night's sleep is what I need right now!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to going to bed, tomorrow my plans include having a refreshing shower and then spending the day getting some craft ideas and Sunday, I want to do something other than all the work I know I must do!

Film in Four Words (Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging)

Light, funny, good soundtrack.

(Image from IMDB, more film info at IMDB)

Monopoly Board

Hurrah - I now have (or will have) an Edinburgh Monopoly Board!

Knitting Needle OCD

Yesterday I photocopied the knitting needle record from Stitch & Bitch only to get frustrated when some of my sizes weren't there and the UK imperial measures were absent. This afternoon I decided to remedy this by writing my own little card to replace the SnB one with the extra sizes. And here is is...
What a way to waste a Sunday afternoon *sigh*. But at least I won't buy any more 6mm needles - I seem to have inherited 3 pairs :o).

Friday Fill-Ins

This week's Friday Fill-In:

1. The last band I saw live was Scouting for Girls (at the Big Gig - they just happened to be the last to play).

2. What I look forward to most at Christmas is everything.

3. My Christmas/holiday shopping is part way there.

4. Thoughts of grumpy fill my head.

5. I wish I could wear something other than t-shirts and jeans.

6. Bagpipes are played in Scotland... and I'm planning a trip to Edinburgh.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to tidying the world, tomorrow my plans include being less grumpy and Sunday, I want to feel like I've had that nice balance of a weekend - productive and relaxing!

Edinburgh Monopoly Map

This afternoon was a dead loss for work as some stuff I needed was broken so instead I've put together a Google map for my planned Queen's Guide exploration in Edinburgh. It's based on the Edinburgh Monopoly board:


View Larger Map

QG Peoples

Have mailed lots of folk asking if they want to come to Edinburgh - hopefully I'll get some replies!

Monopoly Locations

Hurrah, a nice ebayer tells me the locations for Edinburgh Monopoly are as follows:

Brown streets - The Meadows, West Shore Road.

Blue streets - Lady Stairs Close, Lauriston Castle, Princes St Gardens.

Pink streets - Easter Road, Tynecastle Stadium, Murrayfield.

Orange streets - Thistle Street, St James Centre, George Street.

Red streets - Corstorphine Road, Holyrood, Royal Mile.

Yellow streets - Edinburgh Zoo, Grindlay Street, Greenside Place.

Green streets - Chambers Street, St Andrews Square, The Scottish Parliament.

Purple streets - Princes Street, Edinburgh Castle.

Train spaces - Forth Road Bridge, Edinburgh Airport, Waverley Station, Royal Yacht Britannia.

Community Chest - Albert Quay Leith, National Museums of Scotland, Bank of Scotland.

Tension Square... Attempt Two

Rather more successful than my first, remembered to make it stocking stitch this time and dropped to smaller needles.


Yarn: Phildar Alibi Ob (61% Acrylic, 26% Wool, 13% Viscose)
Colourway: 05 (I think?)
Needles: 4.5mm
Stitch Used: Stocking
Number of Stitches: 25 (+4)
Number of Rows: 34 (+4)
Washed? No (yarn instructions - machine wash, 40^oC)
Intended Pattern: An adaptation of 'Silk Evening Scarf', p66 of I Love Knitting (Rachel Henderson): find this on Ravelry.

QG Exploration Planning

Today Lizzi and I met up in the Venue to plan our exploration. Lizzi suggested going to Edinburgh to visit the locations on the Edinburgh monopoly board which seems fine to me as long as we can find a board! We tried a quick set of Web searches in the library today and didn't find anything. Lizzi says she will take this on as she has no lectures for the rest of the day. Once she's got the locations she'll mail them to me and I'll try and find a hostel (or several if that works better) for us to stay in. We're both going to try and recruit people pretty quickly so we can get our A/A form completed this coming weekend.

My First Tension Square

... is, sadly, a rectangle.


Due to a combination of factors mostly involving not paying attention, my rectangular tension square in garter stitch was 8cm x 12cm rather than the (still too large 12cm x 12cm) that I might have ended up with if I'd used the stocking stitch suggested.

Yarn: Phildar Alibi Ob (61% Acrylic, 26% Wool, 13% Viscose)
Needles: 5mm
Stitch Used: Garter
Number of Stitches: 25 (+0)
Number of Rows: 34 (+0)
Washed? No (yarn instructions - machine wash, 40^oC)
Intended Pattern: An adaptation of 'Silk Evening Scarf', p66 of I Love Knitting (Rachel Henderson)

Better luck next time?

Friday Fill-In

This week's Friday Fill-In:

1. Please feel free to comment on my blog... please!

2. When I get out my Lush Whoosh! tin of temple balm I can't help sniffing it occasionally.

3. My favorite thing to cook is leek and potato bake because it tastes so yummy! Sadly Hobnob can't eat it so I don't cook it any more :o(

4. Sleep is something I can't get enough of.

5. That's the thing I love most about a quiet read.

6. A sexy pair of Jeans always makes me think to myself, what the heck?

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to getting a little bit of work done and getting an early night, tomorrow my plans include seeing my Grandma and Sunday, I want to ... I've not quite decided - Christmas shopping if I'm not too tired, otherwise enjoying a day on the sofa!

Teaser Tuesdays: A Wayne in a Manger (Gervase Phinn)

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

My 2 “Teaser” Sentences for today:

“'Was Baby Jesus induced?'
'No, He wasn't induced.'”

Page 23 of A Wayne in a Manger by Gervase Phinn

Friday Fill-In

This week's Friday Fill-In:

1. My blueprint for success includes music - everything should be done to music.

2. Haribo Starmix was the last candy I ate.

3. The best facial moisturizer I've ever used is water.

4. Music and cleaning can be good therapy.

5. I'd like to tell you about the inadequate supply of comfortable spaces in the Infolab 21 (my department).

6. Forgotten is my strongest characteristic - I'm just too tired at the moment to have strong anythings!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to seeing Verity, tomorrow my plans include watching the Fireworks up at the castle and Sunday, I want to get plenty of sleep!

Under The Bonnet

I have my mock practical driving test today but have just remembered that we've never done the bonnet-based 'show me/tell me' questions as it's always raining in my lessons. Fear not, YouTube knows the answers :)



This driving school has a downloadable list of all the questions as of July 2008.

Beware girl germs!

According to this article, women have a greater number of bacteria types on their hands than men.

I guess that must be our 'girl germs' or cooties :o)

Urban Knitting!

I have spent all of this morning looking at knitted graffiti! Starting out at mentalfloss's morning cup of links (at about 10:30am!) which pointed me to this article on deputy dog, I've followed endless other links, watched a few videos and browsed all sorts of galleries. I've assembled a few of my favourite photos (or at least those that worked well in a collage) into a funky image using pixlr, an online photo editor:
Left-hand side (from top to bottom):

I initially found the cute pink mouse on Yarnbombing, a Canadian knit-graffiti site. They link back to The Baltimore DIY Squad but when you read a bit closer (or maybe if you just actually read it at all) then it actually turns out the mouse is here on a Craftster forum. The post is quite interesting, suggesting that the presence of some graffiti (even as in this case, some harmless knitted stuff) attracts others. Although I'd never thought about this (or broken windows) before, it makes complete sense... except in the case of knitted graffiti attracting other, more regular, painted messages - that's weird.

This bench is the work of Micro-Fiber Militia, the Chicago Crochet Graffiti Artists. I spied a few other benches on the front page of their blog: this nice wintery blue one, this flowery one and this not-quite-so-exciting one; there's also a couple of benches currently displayed on knit sea: granny squares and stripy with flowers. I like the simplicity of the benches, I can see them being a nice easy way to brighten up people's days.

Included as one of the image sets on my starting article, this very funky mooring ring is by the Swedish group Masquerade. I love the colour that's involved in so many of these projects. Masquerade have a little map of Stockholm (pdf) showing the location of their projects which is really nice - I'm very unlikely ever to visit but if I did then I think I'd have to take a look. There's loads of other cool urban knitting projects on Masquerade's site: I like the contrast of the yarns in this one, and there's something about the fit of the design (particularly the colours) to the location in this one that pleases my eye.

Centre:

This statue is one of a selection graffitied on this Swedish guerilla knitting blog. It seems Sweden must be the place to go for knitting. Useful for this blog is a swedish/english translator (with some fantastically bizarre translations), unfortunately the title for this post doesn't translate, fortunately pictures are universal :o) I guess the title might reflect something of the statue's subject/location but I'm not cultured enough to actually know anything.

Right-hand side (from top to bottom):

Beware boobies on the aforementioned Swedish blog (not Masquerade, the one with the statues). You have to see the whole post to really appreciate this one, I love the pink ribbon but am not entirely sure about the knitted breasts.

"Tree Cozy"! By Carol Hummel. Shown beautifully in three images within my original starting article, this one isn't quite so guerilla as some of the others but is in fact the winning sculpture in a 2005 art competition. Visible in the US from 2005-2008 (which I guess maybe means it's been removed?) this is really quite pretty. Possibly a little too much work for your average graffiti artist though :o) There are loads more pictures of this tree on the website and I also found loads of variations on this theme (e.g. GRAKNITTI, the ones mentioned in this US article and the JafaGirls' KnitKnot Tree -- JafaGirls' site also includes free art Friday which sounds kinda cool). Carol's also done four other trees (a cozy in India; a rope-bound tree in India; and two 'cozy' palm trees: one and two) plus a selection of other sculptures, many of which include knitting, crochet or yarn in some way.

---

Whilst these images are perhaps a selection of my favourites, there are a whole host of really pretty things on the all the sites I've visited today.

• Other sites I couldn't link to from my collage that are also full of great urban knitting project include: this great lamppost - imagine a cross between Narnia and knitting - which is actually by Knitta, Please who were mentioned in the starting article but don't appear to be someone I've linked to anywhere in my post so far, Lacey Jane Roberts (you have to visit this site just to see how pink that fence really is), knitted landscape and the ladies fancywork society.
• Not urban knitting, but another great knit-related site I came across in my searching - 'What not to Crochet' - I actually think the balloon dog on this site is quite clever, not terribly useful I'll grant you, but it's no worse than any other crocheted toy animal surely? That said, I could never forgive the person who designed and made this bikini (and in grey as well - what were they thinking?) or this cat-hat (that's right up there with the bonsai kittens, but at least they were cute).
• Not knitting at all, project 365 is a photography project: one picture for each day in 2007. There's a Flikr gallery here and a blog here. I'd almost be tempted to try this one myself (2009 anyone?) but I know I'd forget!
• And finally... today's questionable content is also knittingy :) I wouldn't have known but Foo posted it in LuBBs talk whilst I was browsing all this excitement.

Teaser Tuesdays: Migraine (Oliver Sacks)

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

My 2 “Teaser” Sentences for today:

“The diagnosis of migraine is usually made on the basis of a clinical history, supported where possible by observation of the patient during an attack. It is usually good sense to perform a few basic investigations (skull X-rays, EEG, etc.), although these may be expected to be within normal limits in the vast majority, say 99 per cent, of all cases.”

Page 106 of Migraine by Oliver Sacks

Chocolate

I have taken it out of the fridge to sit in the cupboard for a month. I didn't want any before, but now I've 'given it up' I suddenly quite fancy it after all!