Weekend Project: Holiday String Lights

So I haven't crocheted in awhile, ever since the craft fair. I've kind of been burnt out a bit and was taking a break since I have tons of inventory at the moment.  I took out my crochet hook on Friday and was thinking of just making a holiday hat for a water molecule:

So as i was working the hat, it kind of reminded me of those old style Christmas lights. So I just went with it:

These guys aren't for sale right now but I'm kind of happy about how they turned out. I think I'll use them as Christmas decorations in my lab.

Weekend Project: Custom Murloc

Here's a custom murloc I made for a good friend of mine, from WoW:

He's holding a mage staff. Yay for Murlocs! mrrglgrrglgrrgl

Weekend Project - Periodic Table: Hydrogen Coasters

I wanted to crochet element coasters the past few days now. So here's my first attempt, at Hydrogen:

Alternatively, you could flip it upside down and it becomes a Scrabble tile. My lovely husband, being a Scrabble fanatic pointed out the point number is wrong though.

I'll be tweaking the design to fit other elements

RCF2011: Chemistry Tats

We met a lot of chemists at the craft fair and a couple of them showed us their tats (and let us take pictures).

Carbon:

Water + darwin fish:

It got us thinking, do you have any chemistry related tattoos?  Or what would you want your tattoo look like?

I think i'd get a glucose or theobromine..

RCF2011: What we bought

There wasn't much time for us to peruse the other wares, but here's our loot.

A lovely terrarium from alapash, they had the absolute best looking terrariums at the craft show:

Feather hair extension from Belle Epoch:

2011 Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago, Sept 10-11

We had the wonderful opportunity to show at the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago this past weekend. There were over 300 vendors and it seemed like there were more booths and people than all the previous years!

It took a lot of planning and crocheting, but we finally made it to the Fair.  There's almost no end to the booths:

We were at booth #187, geeking it up with some crocheted molecules and science art:

We had lots of new items, like postcards, T-shirts and keychains. The fair favorites were the T-shirts and postcards of our Science Kitty:

 Ideal Gas Law dog T-shirt, PV = nRT:

Our most popular molecule sale was, of course, Ice:

No Prim and Plush craft fair would be complete without Caffeine being the centerpiece:

And finally, he sun setting over Wicker Park in Chicago:

We had a blast selling our crafts in our home town of Chicago.   We'll have more follow-ups on the interesting things we bought and saw at the Fair!  Thank You Chicago!

I'm Busy

Cutest Baby Blanket

I crocheted this really cute blanket from "A Year of Baby Afghans, Book 4"

I love the animals on the border and I used the softest Berroco Comfort Yarn.

The P-Orbital

I have to be honest that I might not know what I'm talking about.

Physical Chemistry was probably my weakest subject, which is why I focused more on Organic Chem and Chemical Biology.

I do, however, know what a p-orbital should look like and it vaguely brings up memories of HOMO and LUMO, and energy diagrams and what not.

So here's my interpretation of a p-orbital:

He's a little smirky, kind of like he knows I have no idea what I'm talking about. But here's to P Chem and the 2 semesters of I have no idea what I'm studying, but I passed with flying colors anyway and 7 years later, remembering nothing...there was a cat in a box at some point. =P

He's available on Etsy!

New Smaller Caffeine Molecule

Ever since my caffeine molecule got sold, I've kinda been pining away for it. So I decided it was time to create another one, but smaller. The smaller version measures 11x10 inches:


While the original measures 15x13:

I think I prefer the smaller one. It's more portable and much easier to put together. It will be our centerpieces at craft fairs this year!

Stitch London Specimens

Stitch London teamed up with London Science Museum and had an open call for science themed knit and crochet work. They will be on display in the London Science Museum on June 25 and 26!

Check out our cataloged items on the Stitch London Archive

Ice, Water and Steam

Ethanol

Weekend Project: Benzene

It's been awhile since I've made something new. So I decided to tackle benzene, using light blue and gray yarn:



It's listed on Etsy.

International Yarn Bombing Day Activities

The Michael's on N. Clark in Chicago was hosting a little yarn bombing and knit-a-thon and here's what greeted us out front:



And here's me trying to sew some crocheted pieces on a railing:



It was such a fun day to crochet and see some pretty yarn bombs!

A Crocheted Basket

I had a cone of double worsted cotton yarn that I couldn't decide what to do with, so I made a basket that would be nice for craft fairs. I love:





Basket full of waters:

Amigurumi Pipetman

Oh the trusty pipetman! No researcher can live without it. I've wanted to try this for awhile, to crochet a pipetman. Here's the one I use every day:

Source

And here's what I came up with last night:

My P20 and P200 pipets have a small yellow circle on top:

It's fun to play with at least!

I Dislike Sales Reps

Source

So I work in a research lab and we have an open lab system, so there are constantly Sales Reps coming in and out and trying to sell us their stuff. It ends up being really annoying because you're trying to dodge sales reps and avoid eye contact. *Look Down! Don't make eye contact or they'll talk to you for an hour!* - kind of attitude.

Unfortunately, a sales rep called me and here's what transpired (I should note that the caller had a British accent and sounded soothing...at first):

Sales Rep: Would you like to buy our *insert name of apparatus,* it will cut down your gel running time to 10 min?

Me: What kind of gels?

Sales Rep: For gel electrophoresis!

Me: Is it for Agarose gels?

Sales Rep: No, but it's very, very fast!

Me: What samples do I run in it?

Sales Rep: It's for gel electrophoresis...

Me: Have you ever run a gel before?

Sales Rep: Not really, but what it says here, is that it's top of the line and cuts down your run time.

Me: Do you understand what I'm asking you?

Sales Rep: Yes, it's for gel electrophoresis!

Me: *sigh* Is it for DNA or Protein?

Sales Rep: DNA

Me: So it's for agarose gels

Sales Rep: No. That's not what it says.

Me: Then it's acrylamide

Sales Rep: No, not that one either.

Me: I guess I'm not interested then, I deal more with proteins anyway...*facepalm*

Sales Rep: Ok well if you are more interested in preparing protein samples we have this other machine called *insert apparatus name here.* It will completely automate your sample preparations.

Me: Ok, what does it do?

Sales Rep: Automates your sample preparations...

Me: But how?

Sales Rep: I can gladly email you more information if you are interested!

Me: I just want to know what it does!

Sales Rep: Automates your sample preparations for proteins!

Me: No, I do not want any more information...oh you hear that, that's my timer going off. I have things to do, like manually prepare my samples....

*click*

Bunsen Burners!

It's Robert Bunsen's 200th birthday and the google icon is aweome! The flames are on in the lab today! Ok well, I had to do a transformation, so it just happened to be on today. So here's my contribution to the bunsen burner, an Etsy Treasury:



Shockingly, not too many bunsen burner themed items, but it's wonderfully geeky!

Japanese Relief Campaign

We made and listed cranes for $5 donations to the Red Cross for the Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami, in crane form and magnets. The magnets work on stainless steel refrigerators! There are 5 different varieties:















Check out the Etsy Shop!