Node rendering

Ok, here is the first of my nodes posts. This is a dissection of an NPR noodles from Blender, by Blenditall.
The original post is out there somewhere, i'm not sure where.

Anyway, this is the node set up and final result:

The node set up uses the first two RGB curves to enhance the shadows and take the highlights out. The blur 10 x10 expands the edges of the lines out, and then the second 'u' shaped RGB curves harden the expanded edge (so its totally black), which is then softened at the edge by the final blur.
This is my version of the noodles, in case the one above is a bit blurry. Its probably wrong, but its pretty close. The lighting is important too, it needs to be above and in front of the object, relative to the camera, and quite powerful as well.