Craftimism at CalAcademy Nightlife

Craftimism (and friends) will be having a display and some knitting/crocheting/embroidery/charting tutorials at the California Academy of Science's Nightlife on May 4th. I will post photos after the event, so stay tuned.

Website: http://www.calacademy.org/nightlife/how-to-maker-nightlife
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/116034162286953/



This will be a resource for all of the activities at our display, but this will also prove a useful resource for those not in attendance as well.

Activities:

Yarn up close! 

We will have a light microscope at our display so that you can look at various different types of yarn under the microscope. (Blog post with these images coming soon!)

I can't move our fancier microscopes, but I will take some photos of the different types of yarn at higher magnification before the event and bring photos to display. (Blog post with these images coming soon!)

Embroider and felt your own pin/magnet

Unfelted (left) and felted (right) crochet circles

We will provide knit and crochet wool samples for folks to embroider with wool yarn and take home to felt. 

Wool is a yarn with slight barbs along the length of the fiber (see microscope images here (coming soon)). When heated and friction is applied these fibers will relax and fuse into each other making a fabric (see image to the left). 

You can felt your item in a top loading washing machine (simply throw it in with towels or denim and wash with a detergent with hot water). If the machine felting does not work, you can also felt by hand using this tutorial by Rebecca of Chemknits (uncut version here).

Learn to knit/Learn to crochet

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We will have knitting and crochet experts on hand to teach folks to knit and crochet. My favorite learn to knit diagrams are found here and my favorite crochet diagrams are here. 

For those who know how to knit or crochet - make a yarn lab item

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Patterns for knitting Erlenmeyer flask pins are here.

Patterns for crochet labware are here.

Design your own knitting chart

Use graph paper to design your own 2-color colorwork knit chart. Submit the designs to Craftimism and we will pick a winner and Heidi will make you a hat or other item based on your chart.

Want to make your own Resistor Hat or other science hat?

See this post for all of my March for Science knit designs. 

Still want more? 

Join our Facebook group (March for Science Knitting and Crafting group) and follow Craftimism on Facebook and instagram. Please contact me if you have any ideas for other science or knitting outreach opportunities.

If you live in the SF Bay area, the Silicon Valley Craftivists meet every few weeks in Menlo Park or Mountain View as our schedules permit to knit, crochet, and craft together. Follow Craftimism on Facebook to stay up-to-date on upcoming meetings.

Neuron Hat

Meet my friend Beth! She is a super talented high school biology teacher. While she enjoys all aspects of Biology, she especially loves neurobiology. Her previous research experience was in the field of neurobiology, in particular how cell signaling in neurons works. Therefore, to continue in my science-themed hats, I designed a neuron hat, complete with dendrites, a cell body, an axon, and synaptic terminals. I even included some signaling molecules for good measure. 

The pattern can be found here at Ravelry (buy directly here) and here at Craftsy. I have included an easier chart that eliminates most of the long carries in the pattern as well as a chart for the pictured hat.

Photo credit: Matt Menietti

Transparency Film Art

Remember the Petri Dish Art that I made with microbiology lab supplies? Similar results can also be obtained with everyday household objects.


Supplies needed:
Transparency film
Permanent markers
Rubbing alcohol

Directions:
Draw on the transparency film with permanent markers in your color(s) of choice. Drop, splash, splatter, or dab rubbing alcohol on the film and let dry. Tape to white paper and hang on a wall. The film can also be hung on a window. This project is perfect for kids old enough to use permanent markers.

A worthy addition to the art on my boss's door.

Petri Dish Art

I work in a microbiology lab and I decided to make some petri dish art in between experiments last week.

Using permanent markers, I filled the bottom of the petri dish with color as best I could. I then dropped isopropanol (rubbing alcohol) onto the petri dish and waited for the drops to evaporate, making cool patterns.

This could be done at home with empty lids, permanent markers, and rubbing alcohol. You can drop the alcohol in ordered drops or splatter it  to make different patterns.

To put the finishing touches on this art project, I glued the lids on the petri dishes using my hot glue gun. I then glued ribbons on so that I can hang the art up in my window. This was a great way to spend a little downtime in lab. :)

Procrastination at its finest. 

I call this one "Starry Plate"

Finished products.

Sperm Hat

Erica's microscope image of sperm fertilizing an egg.
The first chromosome division is shown in the upper portion of the egg (DNA is stained blue).

Erica posing with our
kickball championship trophy.
We are ballers!

This is the second hat in my thesis-themed hat series.  I made it for my good friend Erica who is an amazing scientist.  She defended her thesis today and I am so proud of her!  I am going to miss her so much when she moves to her post-doctoral position in San Diego.

For her thesis project, Erica studied diabetes and how it affects fertility.  Specifically, she studied how diabetes affects sperm development and function using mouse models of diabetes.  She investigated the role of insulin in sperm and how other hormones were altered in diabetes.  Her work is extremely cool, novel and very fun.

Here are some pictures of me modeling Erica's hat.  Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of her in the hat, but I hope to change that soon.  I topped off the hat with a sperm pom pom.  I am working on typing up the pattern and will post it online if you are dying to make this hat for your sperm loving friends.

My friends Erica (left), Beth (right), and myself (middle)
posing at a friend's wedding

Mouse Pattern Hat

Here is the most recent science-themed hat that I knit for my friend Greg Sibbel. Greg is a fellow PhD student at Washington University in St. Louis and he studies the cellular origins of gastric cancer using mice as a model organism. Greg studies how the loss of a transcription factor (a protein that regulates the expression levels of several other genes in the cell) and autophagy (a fancy word for the cell degrading its membrane and components through a specific cellular compartment called a lysosome). Greg was recently diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma and has bravely faced his treatments and kept plugging with his thesis research. You can follow his story and learn more about the treatments from his first-hand account on his blog here.

Even though it is summer and starting to get hot in Saint Louis, I offered my skills to knit Greg a science-themed hat. Hopefully it will help keep his head warm in the air conditioned lab and in the upcoming winters. He requested a mouse hat since he works with lab mice. You can see what I came up with in the pictures below.

The pattern to this hat can be found here and information for this pattern here. When doing the colorwork for this hat be sure to wrap the non-worked color around the worked color behind the hat every 2-3 stitches to maintain the stretchiness as demonstrated in the Football Patterned Hat post.

Update on 12/3/13: Sadly, Greg lost his battle to cancer today after a long and courageous fight. My thoughts go out to his family and his girlfriend Anna.  In his honor, I will donate all proceeds from sales of this hat pattern to CJ's journey, a charity that helped Greg in his battle. Hopefully these gifts will help others battling childhood cancer. Click here to learn more about CJ's journey and here to donate in Greg's honor.

Click here to buy the hat pattern on Craftsy and here to buy it on Ravelry.

A special thanks goes out to Matt Menietti for taking the pictures of me in the hat.

Prairie Dog Knit Hat

Loren modeling the prairie dog hat I knit for her

This is the second item in my series of thesis themed hats.  I made it for my friend Loren who graduated with her PhD in the Fall. Her thesis investigated evolution in prairie dog colonies and specifically how pathogens such as the plague influence the evolution of black-tailed prairie dogs in Colorado. Pretty cool stuff, Loren!  If you want to learn more about Loren's thesis work, you can check out her website here. You can also help her fund her prairie dog studies here.

Click here to see the first item in my thesis themed hats, Nic's Clover Hat.

Click here for the pattern for this hat and here for information about the pattern. I made it with Vanna's Choice yarn (golden color) and a teal color in a similar weight that I had in my yarn collection.  Other materials needed are a size 5-16" circular needle, and size 5 double pointed needles. Carrying the yarn behind the hat during the color work makes a thick, warm hat.  Not to mention, it has super cute prairie dogs playing on the hat.  :)  Hopefully Loren will like it for years to come.

Nic in his Clover Hat and Loren in her Prairie Dog Hat

Clover Knit Hat

Nic with Kody and Zeppelin 

My friend Nic defended his thesis in January.  For his PhD work, he studied the variation and evolution of traits in white clover.  His research allowed him to travel around in the United States, Canada, and New Zealand to collect clover samples and study how certain traits and gene expression varies in different climates and altitudes.  This description definitely does not do his dissertation work justice and if you want to learn more, check out his website here.

To celebrate all his hard work and wish him good luck in his post-doctoral research position at the University of Virginia, I made him a clover hat.  I designed the hat to have 3-leaf clovers all around and one 4-leaf clover for good luck.  The pattern can be accessed here.

Many thanks to Loren and Nic for taking the awesome pictures in the hats.  Check out Loren's Prairie Dog Hat as well!

Nic and his fiance Loren in the hats I made them.