Schrodinger's Kittie

So…I decided I needed some pep.  Some spice.  Some colour and spark to help cheer me up.  To that end, Brat, your socks are still on hold.  I will do something on them before the end of the month.  Promise!! Hah – but even one stitch counts as something, doesn’t it? Neener neener.

Anyway, I needed a pick me up.  The STR colourway I’d been using for a set of RPM socks got frogged.  I just couldn’t make myself enjoy the knitting of the pattern.  And, if I’m not enjoying it, why am I doing it?  Seriously, it’s a hobby, not a job…so, yeah.  Out came the work I’d done on the RPM pattern.  Then I dug around the house and found a pattern I liked in one of my very few sock pattern books (Folk Socks by Nancy Bush).  I chose the Mamluke pattern and am doing it, unlike her natural and blue afair, in black and Firebird.  Mmmmmm tasty.  I love how it’s turning out and it’s just the spark I need to cheer me up.  It’s obvious I love how it’s turning out, or I’d have stopped quite a while back.  I despise the black yarn (Wildfoote).  It splits and…it’s just not my yarn of choice.  But, I had it in my stash from an aborted sock request from a couple of years ago and so it got chosen as the background colour of choice.  None of the other colours would have done the Firebird justice.

As for what’s got me down?  Well – people are rarely what they portray themselves to be.  It’s rare that you find one who truly seems to be 100% genuine.  And, when – after a while – the facade shatters and the real person is let come forth into the true light of day.  Well.  Rarely is it something that one would wish to actually look at too closely.  So, I’m doing some house cleaning, so to speak.

I try very hard to be who I am.  I don’t lie to people – even when it hurts or alienates them.  I try very hard to be forthright and honest and up front.  I actually lost one person I adore because of being honest.  I could probably have strung them along while I tested an opportunity that had presented itself.  Instead, I was honest and forthright – and, I will probably never hear from them again.  While I will miss them, I can still feel good about myself because I honoured my standards and stayed honest and upfront.  I’m sure there are parts of myself I’d rather not have bandied about under a mega-watt bulb.  But, I do my best to be comfortable with all I say and do, so that I am never ashamed of myself.  I have enough baggage from before I learned to be so forthright.  I certainly don’t need to add more to it!

So, cleaning house and getting rid of leeches and slugs and other such things that find themselves hiding in the dark.  It will be a trying and nerve wracking time.  But, I think, at the end of it all – when it’s all said and done – that I will be better for having done it.  But…in the mean time…to see me through…I have colour!  Bright, popping, zapping, in your face colour…and it is good.

So I ordered a new book today. I probably shouldn’t have; but, with my points to redeem, I slashed the price down to a third the normal price and just couldn’t pass that up.

The book? The Thermodynamic Universe.

Sidharth’s new paradigm has been dubbed “fuzzy spacetime.” Its core principle is that the physical laws that govern the Universe were not set a priori at the moment of the Big Bang, but have arisen as a result of fluctuations occurring among particles and fields. For example, both the velocity of light and the value of the gravitational constant are not arbitrary numbers, but can be deduced from thermodynamic and stochastic considerations.

The first two chapters summarize the mainstream approach to physics and posit the viability of emergent laws. Subsequent chapters summarize Sidharth’s “universe of fluctuations,” and show how it can be applied to describe phenomena on both the largest and smallest scales of nature. Several surprising revelations follow. For example, dark energy, which came as a shock when it was discovered by mainstream cosmologists in 1998, is actually a logical consequence of fuzzy spacetime; the theory predicts that the Universe’s expansion will be accelerating via a small cosmological constant. Additionally, a series of so-called “large number coincidences”—links between seemingly unrelated physical values—can be satisfactorily explained by Sidharth’s framework.

I have two other books that I’m looking forward to getting at some point, too. But, with finances how they are, I’m having to wait until I can get killer deals on them as well. The two books? The Eclectic Sole and New Pathways for Sock Knitters.

So it’s been a while since I mentioned the baby blanket that I’m working on. Since I’m creating this pattern on the fly (I am taking notes, and will be begging for test knitters soon) I keep wondering how it’s going to turn out. I’m probably weird in that I write the pattern first, then follow it – making notes and changes as necessary along the way.

So far – I’m really enjoying how it’s turning out.

Here’s a close up of the latest stitch being used in the pattern. I’m not positive it will be the last stitch used. I do have a lot of blanket left to knit still, so things may change. I really like this current stitch I’m doing. It’s a fairly time consuming stitch; but, I love the results. This stitch I actually came across in the Wrap-Me-Up-Shawl and modified it so it would work in the round and decrease appropriately. Now that shawl is definitely a worthy knit. I’ve seen a few of them completed and hope to be able to make one one of these days. I just need to find an affordable way of making it.