Friday Finds

A round-up of some interesting stuff that has popped up this week:

• Andrew Craig Williams has a free pattern for Flowers for Mam, knitted flowers to adorn the ends of knitting needles to either liven up your knitting or make a wooly bouquet.
• Cake Journal demonstrates how to make a Knitting Basket Cake. Gotta love that fondant!
• Knitting Under the Desk has a pattern for a Sock Monkey Cup Holder, which is a whole lot cuter than the paper sleeves for your paper coffee cups. Plus, you can sneakily knit it at work where you're going to be using it anyway.
• News flash for anyone with migraines (::raises hand::). New work from the Mayo Clinic confirms that these aren't just isolated, episodic headaches, but that migraines are a progressive disorder that tends to get worse over time. Migraine sufferers everywhere may call this a "Well, duh!" moment, but with this thumbs-up recognition from medical science, maybe now we can get some real research going into better treatments or even a cure.
• Nedroid comics gives you the argyle... er... gargoyle sweater.
• Queen Victoria's knitting bag, expected to sell for 1500 pounds, sold for a mere 800 pounds. What's up with the bidders? Obviously no one who was fiercely competing for a slot in Sock Summit was among them.
• Sknitter blogged about pattern companies using YouTube to show knitted items on real people instead of artfully-posed models.
• Speaking of Sock Summit, this article about Sock Summit on Digital City demonstrates why non-knitting reporters should be as careful when writing about knitting as non-scientist reporters should be when writing about science. Sock knitting as a frugal activity? ::snigger::
• Another good excuse to go shopping at your LYS: The 3-50 Project for stimulating the local economy.