Better Than Xanax

These tiny knitted happy pills are way better than Xanax.
How could one be depressed with a few of these guys floating around your purse?
(My anxiety meds always end up floating in my purse, like pharmaceutical nomads)

Knitted Gnome Sodomy

This past week has been my birthday week, and full of awesome shenanigans as well as continuing packing and preparing for the move. My apartment is full of boxes, my tummy is full of microbrew and strawberry-rhubarb pie, and my brain is exploding with happiness.
But before I curl up in bed, I can’t resist sharing the wonderful presents I received tonight from my dear friend Margherita, who is a yarn genius and a connoisseur of cute.

Knowing that I am absolutely in love with blood, particularly red blood cells, she knit me a tiny RBC:

 I shall call him Eric the Erythrocyte!

She also made me 10 gnome minions!

I absolutely love gnomes!
They have beards, which I’ve always had a weakness for, and are kind of creepy, but in an cute way.
(Like me!)
When I was a teenager, while all the other girls dreamed of marriage and children, I dreamed of being a part of the Garden Gnome Liberation Front. (aka the Front pour la Libération des Nains de Jardin. The French are weird in an oddly lovable way, and fifteen-year-old me believed that stolen gnomes were essentially catnip for French people).

If you look closely, you’ll see that one of the gnomes (lower left) has a red beard.
Ginger gnome!
And another (lower right) is missing his shirt.
And one of the gnomes (on the very top) is completely nude.

Newton, The Nudist Gnome!
I plan to let him go skinny dipping in my sink.
Fortunately, his beard is long enough to allow for some modesty, though Margherita admitted that she was tempted to make him anatomically correct.

And two gnomes are engaging in what has to be the most adorable depiction of sodomy I’ve ever seen.
Gnome sex has never been so cute.
Which is really saying something, as tiny gnome sex is already pretty damn adorable.

Also, to top things off, she made me an itty bitty narwhal named Natalie:

*squeeee!*

Star Trek Amigurumi

*Sigh*
One day my crochet and knitting skills will be good enough to do uber nerdy awesome stuff like this.
But for now I’ll stick to crocheting scarves and jellyfish.
(via Jana Ford Knits)

Crochet Bactierophage

Made by  Rachael Penzo, and seen on Geek Crafts and Craftster, this adorable bacteriophage amigurumi is a million kinds of awesome. I love it so much. I’m tempted to try it, but I will just stab myself with crochet hooks again.

Electron Microscopy and Crochet Profanity

I got excited this morning when I saw this article on Science Daily, talking about a new advancement in electron microscopy which could produce the highest resolution images ever. I’m not as familiar with electron microscopy as I am with bright field and fluorescent, which are far more common in medical labs. But I do love microscopic images and art, and the concept of higher resolution images excited me.

Tom quickly killed my excitement.
“They didn’t discover a new method. They just rediscovered electron holography.”
“What? Three years and £4.3 million just to rediscover something that’s already been discovered?”
“That’s how science goes sometimes. They are the first to use the CCD in that way though. Dennis Gabor predicted this in the 1940’s, but the adequate technology didn’t exist at the time. It’s not as big of a break through as the headline would lead you to believe. Now let me teach you how to crochet.”

I recently decided I was going to learn how to crochet after Margherita made me the completely awesome Sir Jellyjoy. I have long admired her talent for making adorable amigurumi, and it inspired me to learn how to crochet so that I, too, can fill the world with cuteness. 10 minutes later and I am sitting in the middle of a coffee shop with a comically over-sized crochet needle, shouting colorful profanities at an evil bundle of orange yarn.

The demon yarn, laughing at my failure.

Tom: “You curse like a sailor. Actually, you curse like a scientist.”
Me: “Of course I swear like a scientist. Profanity is the reason why we don’t let little kids into science labs.”
Tom: “Right. It’s totally not because of all the hazardous chemicals and materials. Or the delicate experiments. Or all the fragile glassware.”
Me: “This isn’t working. The yarn is broken. How the hell do little old ladies do this?”
Tom: “The yarn isn’t broken.”
Me: “Of course it is. Look at this! How the hell did this kink happen?!”
Tom: “The yarn loop has different orientations.”
Me: “Like the different orientations of a molecule?”
Tom: “Chirality. Exactly.”
Me: “Oh. That makes more sense. Is there always this much profanity with crocheting?”
Tom: “Usually.”