Thursday 17 March 2011

Stand Back. I am going to try Science.

When I moved, my best friend helped (i.e. did most of it) while wearing this t-shirt.

Alex (his name is Alex too - but he's male. We shared a flat once and people asked whether it got confusing. I always felt it would have been more confusing if it had been confusing.) is a proper scientist with a PhD which he strangely refuses to use (as in the "Dr" bit) and now works in Science Policy. He may be on linked in. He's met Neil Armstrong and knows Prof Brian Cox off the telly. He occasionally politely humours me when I come out with something vaguely scientific because although we did our Physics degrees together I have forgotten 99.9% of mine whereas his brain just keeps expanding daily. I was reminded of this in my therapy session this week where, for reasons that will become clear, I started talking about one theory to do with the creation of the universe.
bouncing balls
Think of the path a bouncy ball makes as it bounces across the room.The ball hits the floor and *boing* that is the big bang. It springs up into the air and that is where we currently are - the universe is expanding. The ball stops rising and starts to fall again - the universe stops expanding and starts shrinking. Ball nears the floor again and then goes off again - the universe shrinks to nothing in a big unbang and then big bangs again and it *boing* all starts again.

I dare say that since I did Astrophysics someone has disproved this theory.
mad scientist
Alex would know. But it came up in therapy because we were talking about recognising cycles and patterns. The Therapist is naturally very keen on me getting better and not having a recurrence at a future date. So she keeps pointing out that I've gone mad before and got better, so can do the same thing this time. My counter argument, and the reason for the undoubtedly scientifically inaccurate analogy, is that it did get better, then it got worse again. And so far the getting better and the getting worse again have happened in equal numbers which looks to me like a cycle. But then once you have recognised the cycle you have to break it.
Viking
In my science-addled mind I'm going to call this "Going Supernova on your Own Arse" although Alex will explain to me how that is wrong.

Of course it is often said that there is nothing new on heaven or earth, so I find it easy to believe that life is mostly a series of repeating cycles of behaviour. This is often born out in knitting, where I find myself making the same pattern more than once, or at least using the familiar increases and decreases. But with the SunRay Ribbing top I am returning to something I had mostly frogged and cast aside.
sunray ribbing top
Not only am I returning to something that is broken, I have also converted the pattern to knit in the round so as I fix myself my knitting also revolves. As I knit I have been thinking about my next project, which I hope will be something that has been inspired by being down here at my Mums. She has a collection of Spode and other blue and white china. As I have eaten from these plates and bowls during the past few weeks I have grown more aware of the patterns, and the way they might translate into fairisle.
spode china plate rim
There is a free online tool for converting photos to charts for embroidery and knitting here. It needs some work and manipulation, but I think it could work.
spode saucer knitting chart test
It will certainly make it easier to chart a whole jumper's worth.

I leave you with a final thought.

Monday 14 March 2011

6 Years of Lixie

Today is the 6th anniversary of this blog. From that first week when I couldn't get the pictres to work properly, through all the ups and downs, I have arrived here - somewhat bruised and battered but still in pretty good nick.
now
Looking back I see a mention of my stash filling 4 boxes (fairly small ones too from the picture) at the time when Pooch and I first moved in together and wondering whether to try and hide this from Pooch and enter into a life of deceit, or just brazen it out. Considering that after my recent move to a much smaller flat it was 4 bin bags worth, and that was after a massive destash, I am once again struck by how things that seemed so important or tragic or serious just a few years ago become so nonsensical and trivial with hindsight. In a few years am I going to be looking back on my marriage breakup in much the same way as I do on when Matt Andrews didn't really notice me when I was 14? Back then I'd spend hours writing in my diary about how unfair it was. Now I have a blog. Somethings change while others stay the same.

Of course there have been some great times over the last 6 years. I've made brilliant friends through knitting and blogging - Nickerjac especially who I first 'met' through her blog (and blogged about the day we first actually met back in June 2005). It was together that we started SkipNorth and although I'm very sad to have missed out on the recent one I'm really proud of how they have grown from such humble beginnings. It was also Nickerjac who taught me magic loop which enabled me to move from my obsession with socks knitting flat and seamed up the sides to actual proper socks, which are now my default go to item if I want something fairly calming to knit.

My recent rerun with depression has made it harder to think ahead, and certainly when this episode first started I couldn't think 6 minutes ahead, never mind any longer than that. Thanks to my Mum and the meds I am now feeling a lot better and will be back at work again next week. I think looking ahead another 6 years might be a bit ambitious, but let's put some goals in for the next 6 months.
  • Finish the blog header I started, or at least did an M and an I for.
  • Find a knitting group and go at least twice a month.
  • Finish the hexagon patchwork quilt.
  • Book a holiday to replace the one to Seville I've just had to cancel.
Modest ambitions, but all achievable.

To end, I've put together some photos, although these are only for the last four years since I wasn't using Flickr before then.


www.flickr.com
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Littlelixie's 4 years of Lixie photosetLittlelixie's 4 years of Lixie photoset