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Alison Hawke

Alison Hawke

Love and chocolate

BBC News: Chocolate 'better than kissing'. When it comes to tongues, melting chocolate is better than a passionate kiss, scientists have found. Couples in their 20s had their heart rates and brains monitored whilst they first melted chocolate in their mouths and then kissed. Chocolate caused a more

Blogger's code of conduct

BBC News: Weblogs 'need content warnings'. Readers should be warned when they are reading blogs that may contain "crude language", a draft blogging code of conduct has suggested. The code was drawn up by web pioneer Tim O'Reilly following published threats and perceived harassment

Spinning FO: Burning Embers Silk

So that's what skein winders are for! This is 2 ply silk, looking suspiciously thin: 2oz hand-dyed tussah silk from Spunky Eclectic in Burning Embers 364 yds, wheel-spun 2 ply, fingering to laceweight. Three hundred and sixty four yards! Skeined this on a niddy noddy and

Spinnable plant fibres

Found a great thread on the Spinning Fiber LJ community, The voice of experience: "Share with us something you know now as an experienced spinner that you wished you knew when you were starting out." Excellent tips, most notably slow down and relax. I've spun wool,

Perception of handmade quality

The trouble with knitting a pair of socks for someone with feet five sizes bigger than your own is that progress is slow, and thus not much blog fodder. She tried on the almost-completed sock Wednesday night. "It fits!" The look of pleased shock on her face

Socks in pockets

Picked up a Circular Solutions port-a-pocket last weekend. It's just big enough to hold yarn and a sock in progress, with a tape measure and Chibi in the outer pockets. It fits in my day bag and keeps the yarn clean, and the fabric is sturdy.

Spam Humour II

A while ago I posted a list of funny spammer names. These are a few more of the gems culled from the spam folders: Prospective B. Soybean Neolithic D. Yachts Geopolitical C. Teletype Heartrending H. Sphinx Mirage S. Depressants Spinning K. Insolently Ruddy M. Immaturity Unparalleled O. Straight Sandals U.

Cheesy whiffs

BBC News: 'World's smelliest cheese' named. Scientists at a Bedfordshire university have found what could be the smelliest cheese in the world. Vieux Boulogne, a soft cheese from northern France, beat 14 other whiffy varieties in tests. Experts at Cranfield University - who led the research - used

Shiny!

Spinning silk is wonderful! I'm hoping this is going to turn out as fingering weight. There's no tension on my brake band and it's pulling in just enough. I'm using the middle ratio on the Louet most of the time. The unspun

Travel bug launch

I had a horrible hunch the Slayer sock wasn't going to work. Too tight on one needle, too loose on on the next size up. Frogged the sock and the yarn's in time out. So I made this instead, Loopy's Red Sock Kit that

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