Wellcome Trust Club Social event

We had a lot of fun this week at the Wellcome Trust. We were invited to run a Knit a Neuron event as part of their Club events.




We met some great folk. Lots of fascinating conversations about brains including neuroplasticity, controlling brains with light and free-will - challenging stuff indeed. You can just see Heather behind the neurons. Heather's been knitting mitochondrial DNA - a kindred spirit indeed.

We'd like to say a big thank you to the Wellcome Trust for inviting us along. Big shout out to Martha, Christian, Kate, Kate and Arifa for throwing themselves in at the deep end and being prepared to talk about their work with the Club members.



On a related note - we've received over 400 neurons! This is truly amazing and all down your collective knitting enthusiasm. We're looking forward to showing off a first interpretation of the final piece at the Totterdown Arts Trail in November.

Introducing...

...Catherine Baker. Catherine is our artist friend who is busy working away with some of the neurons to think about how best to join and display them. You can see her latest work here.

Anne and Anne's mum have being getting the needles and thread out working on a display for the Totterdown Arts Trail. You'll be able to find us in the Thunderbolt.

Calling all neurons

We're still getting a lot of interest from folk wanting to knit neurons, but time is running out. We'd like to have all finished neurons with us by mid November which is only about a month away (Crikey - where has the year gone?). Go on - you can knit one more neuron, can't you?

Here is another bunch (is this is the collective noun for neurons?) from Mandy at the Thunderbolt Stitch and Bitch. I'm sure that Mandy must win the prize for most neurons knitted. Thanks, Mandy!

All quiet at Knit a Neuron towers?

No such luck! Since we came back from Green Man we've been washing the mud from our wellies and thinking about the future of Knit a Neuron. We've had some fantastic conversations with our artist friend about creating the final artwork and getting the piece on tour to friendly galleries. We're also going to start testing out a few ideas for joining all your lovely neurons together. Boy, do we have a lot of neurons to play with!

We have another plan afoot too, but that's probably best kept under wraps until we know more.

Green Man - the evidence

Well, well, well. What a great time we had at Green Man! Here we are with a couple of our neighbours. If you're interested, "we" are Amy (University of Bristol), Caroline (University of the West of England), Alison (University College London) and Helen (University of the West of England) from L to R - unfortunately Anne couldn't make it.

We were kept busy from the moment we opened to when we closed each day with knitting, nattering and neuroscience.

We met so many amazing people, young and old, who
talked about consciousness, music and the brain,
encephalitis, altered states, learning, strokes, brain development, dreaming and much, much more. We were certainly kept on our toes!





Harriet was one of our youngest knitters, here she is taking a few tips from Pat.









Noah and the neurons. Just in case you were wondering, we had lots of chaps stop by for a knit and a natter. Noah is a neuroscientist too.






We had an amazing time at Green Man and loved talking to everyone. Thanks very much to all the folk who stopped by our little green gazebo to talk brain science and knit neurons. Thanks also to Ellen who organised Einstein's Garden.

What do you get if you take...

four neuroscientists and their tents, sleeping bags and wellies
one case of yarn
too many needles and hooks to count
one gazebo
some pictures and models of brains
250 pin badges
50 patterns
one risk assessment
one pasting table and table cloth
one packet of paper chains
two pop-up banners
50 wooden pegs
one set of directions
an alarming number of 'pick my brains' t-shirts
one bicycle
3 camping chairs
and lots of enthusiasm?

Knit a Neuron at Green Man Festival!

See you there!

Green Man preparations

We're off to the Green Man Festival next week for four days of knitting neurons in the glorious Brecon Beacons. There will be four of us knitting, chatting about neuroscience and watching great bands. We'll be in Einstein's Garden along with fellow sciencey folk like Make it Molecular the Living Colours of the Ocean. We're also looking forward to hearing the space stories told by Jim and the gang.

In a new venture, we've got badges to give away. If you come and knit a neuron with us you can take away one of these fabulous badges. What more could you need?