Want to travel to space?

Virgin Galactic has sold out their initial offering of the first 500 seats on SpaceShipTwo, a sub-orbital craft expected to begin regular service to space in 2016.

“Virgin Galactic Founder Sir Richard Branson revealed that the company has now accepted deposits for suborbital flights on SpaceShipTwo from 529 future astronauts, a number greater than the total count of people who have been to space throughout human history.”

The price for being one of these pioneers was $200K USD. However, reservations for future sub-orbital flights are expected to be $20K. Orbital flights are also being planned.
I’m borrowing today’s gankimage from the Mars Society’s Facebook Page:

 

If you missed out on one of Virgin Galactic’s premiere seats, there’s still time to head out to West Texas and hitch a ride on Blue Origin’s New Shepard crew capsule. Founded by Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin keeps a low profile. After three successful launches in recent years, Blue Origin suffered their first real setback in 2011 with an unsuccessful launch. News of Blue’s current itinerary is sketchy, although they announced successful completion of a System Requirements Review (SRR) in May, 2012. According to the press release:

Blue Origin is maturing the design of the Space Vehicle in partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under the agency’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program. The (SRR) review assessed the Space Vehicle’s ability to meet safety and mission requirements, and evaluated the technical readiness of the design, the concept of operations, the feasibility of project development plans, and planned verification activities. The review also included results from recently completed wind tunnel tests of the biconic shape, validating the vehicle’s aerodynamic design, stability and cross-range.

The New Shepard is a vertical launch assembly, currently using the Atlas V rocket. Think Apollo, Gemini, Galilleo, and the Shuttle. By contrast, it should be noted that Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo uses an in-flight launch system - jetting off from a heavy-lift aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo, propelled by a stage rocket called LauncherOne. If you saw the June launch of NuSTAR ¹ from the carrier aircraft, Stargazer, you’ll have an idea of how WhiteKnightTwo operates.

Apropos of nothing, NuSTAR was launched from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Which incidentally happens to be where I grew up.

Both Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are now hiring.

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1. NuSTAR is the first focusing telescope to image the sky in the high energy X-ray (6 - 79 keV) region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Its initial mission is to take a census of collapsed stars and black holes and map material in young supernovae, among other objectives.
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Happy 54th Birthday, NASA!

It's birthday time!  Not mine.  NASA's! 

Driven by the competition of the Cold War, on July 29, 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, providing for research into the problems of flight within Earth’s atmosphere and in space. The act inaugurated a new civilian agency designated the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The agency began operations on Oct. 1, 1958.

If you get a few moments, check out this amazing animated timeline of the history of NASA.  Set aside a bit of time to go through it all.  Not only has NASA done an amazing amount of exploration, both terrestial and in space, but the music on the animation is groovy!

And, I've mentioned it before, NasaTV is terrific!  Something happening all the time over at NASA.  This week, tune in for the launch of the SpaceX Dragon (scheduled for October 7th at 8:34 pm EDT). NASA and SpaceX have invited the social media to participate with the same rights and access as the regular media. Apparently, tweets and blogs have replaced (or at least tremendously augmented) corporate journalism in terms of getting the word out about the amazing things happening in the space program.  More at SpaceX and NMR.

While I'm thinking about it, let me put a plug in for the streaming internet radio, Third Rock Radio (America's Space Station!). I listen to them occasionally, and they have some interesting interviews.

Happy Birthday, NASA!

Yarn give-away!

Woohoo!  A L C I D I N A is featured in this week's HotPinkSock's give-away!  Win a free skein of Alcidina sock yarn!  Check out Stephanie's blog  for more details or join the Hot Pink Socks forum on Ravelry.

 

In other news, I've been in a metallic mood lately.  I had some silk mill ends that I wanted to dye up.  So I challenged myself to make a copper, gold, and silver. 

 All are now listed in the shop, along with the rest of the lot of 100% silk laces:

 

Atmosphere

I think I'm getting the hang of this yarn thing.  Each base, each blend, each fiber - creates its own comfortable atmosphere.  Silk is thirsty - you add color and it drinks it up and pants for more.  Superwash is vibrant, ready for the nighclub.  Cashmere softens, mutes, subdues - a gentle evening breeze.  Starfield is all glittery elegance. Round twists make smooth transitions.  High twists make intriguing shadows.  Each colorway adapts and shifts depending on the qualities of its base.

Today I'm adding a new base: Momentum.  It's a plump, round twist sock yarn, mostly Merino with quarter dash of nylon for drape and strength.  Colors are vibrant, and at a whopping 460 yards per skein, you can make accessories for your accessories!

"Moon Shadows" on Momentum

This image, from NASA's hubblesite.org website, shows a rare alignment of three of Jupiter's largest moons – Io, Ganymede, and Callisto – across the planet's face. Seeing three shadows on Jupiter happens only about once or twice a decade.  Jupiter appears in pastel colors in this photo because the observation was taken in near-infrared light. Stop by and say hello to this and the other new Momentum colorways at Alcidina on etsy!

Finding a rhythym

Using a knitting machine is rather like trying to memorize a new lace pattern.  You have to get the "rhythym" of the stitching...Two rows knit, 6 rows lace, 2 rows knit, 4 rows lace, 2 rows knit... Slowly building the pattern repeats over and over.  It's easy to get mesmerized.  Kind of like driving to Dallas.  By the time you get to Waxahachie, you have totally zoned out and can't remember the last 50 miles lol!

It's relaxing, in the same way that ironing or strolling around the pond is relaxing... two rows knit, 6 rows lace, 2 rows knit...

This sort of rhythmic, let-your-mind-wander activity is especially dangerous for me, because before I know it, I'm doing 10 rows lace and oops! Wrong carriage!  I'm not nearly savvy enough to back up 4 rows of machine knitting.  I was successful at backing up one row of plain knitting after I got hypnotized by the knit carriage, but I'm scared to try backing up the lace. 

Anyway, here's the final project, blocking on the floor:

And here's what happens when the hypnosis takes over and you forget to change the settings on the lace carriage:

So those are nice eyelets.  They don't belong there, but it was too scary for me to try to fix them.  I decided I can live with a row of eyelets. 

I have a plan now.  I'm going to use Brother Henry for stash busting.  This scarf was made using commercial, big box store yarn.  I have an overly large stash of yarn like this.  Once I've made a big dent in it, I'll start using my own handpainted yarns.  And zone happily away in a state of hypnotized bliss! 

A day in the life with ADHD

Today is a typical day.  I've got yarn on the stove, the tunic (see earlier posts) on the needles, my first tentative lacework on the knitting machine, a video game, and the blog...all going at once. This is how my days usually go.  It's normal for the attention deficit crowd, of which I'm a lifelong member.  Oh, and my lunch has been in the microwave for an hour, because I've forgotten to eat it.

My new-to-me knitting machine has a name now.  It's Brother Henry.  The manufacturer is Brother.  And Henry just came to me.  Here's what Brother Henry and I are working on today:

This is attempt number five at using the lace carriage.  I keep having stitches hang up on the gate posts.  Not sure why.  I did reduce the weight, a lot, which helped the stitches hop the gate posts.  Now I'm down to one error every other row instead of four per row.  Improvement!

The knitting machine is a good fit for the ADHD, because (at least using the lace carriage) you have to keep switching your attention from the knit carriage, the pattern display, the lace carriage, and the needles.  The pattern display tells you which setting to make on the lace carriage.  You run that for a few rows, checking the needles every time to make sure the stitches made it securely. Then you have to keep an eye on the pattern display, because it will tell you when to run the yarn across with the knit carriage and for how many rows.  It's very satisfying.  Except for the error part. 

Well, I'm off to knit a tunic, or dye some yarn, or make some lace, or shoot some zombies.  Enjoy the cosmos!

Boiling a frog!

I had a "boiling a frog" experience.  First, here's the metaphor, in case you haven't heard it before:

If you take a frog, and put it in boiling water, the frog isn't stupid - it will jump right out!  HOT!  However, if you take a frog, and put it in frog-temperature water, and sloooooowly raise the temperature, it won't notice that it's too hot until it's too late. 

 And that is how you boil a frog.  (Don't try this at home, please! - It's a metaphor. I don't actually boil live frogs!)

So, this is how I became a boiled frog: I want to continue growing and expanding as a dyer, so I began investigating how to make different kinds of gradient effects.  One method, that affords the dyer a lot of control over the outcome, is to start with a knitted panel of undyed yarn, then paint that.  When you unravel the knitting, the yarn can have any number of delicious patterns that will unfold as you knit the socks, shawl, or cardigan that you make out of that yarn.

An astute raveler (that's you, Knittingandroid!) pointed this out to me, but I initially resisted the notion because (boiling water! hot!) I would go bonkers knitting plain panels over and over!  But the seed was there and began to grow.  I started looking at knitting machines. (frog-temperature water)  Little, itsy, bitsy knitting machines, made of plastic that are inexpensive and all they do is panels and tubes. (frog-temp plus 2 degrees).  I watched youtube videos on what they can do. (f-t plus 4).  I tentatively joined a machine knitting group on ravelry (add a couple more degrees). Then I started looking at the lovely items people are making from the machines (temp jumped 7 more degrees, it felt so good!). Then I started researching actual, honest-to-goodness, steel-bed knitting machines (big jump here, but I was on a roll...) Eeek! $1,700 to $2,000 for a machine that knits my weight yarns... (way too big a jump.  Frog begins to notice that the water is too hot!)  But what about used machines...(ah, yes, that feels better - temp up another few degrees).  And so it went until I bid on a machine on ebay!  Bitter disappointment when I was outbid in the last few seconds :( 

Now, of course, I'm fully cooked.  I must have one. 

I feel blessed to have found the nicest person about three hours drive from here who was selling a lovely machine, at a very reasonable price.  Her only stipulation was that she was not going to ship it.  Local-area-only, customer pick up.  Well, three hours is no big deal.  (For those of you who aren't familiar with Texas, three hours driving doesn't get you halfway anywhere. We have a saying, "The sun has risen, the sun has set, and I ain't out of Texas yet!")

The seller gave generously of her time and expertise, showing all the features, sharing ideas, encouraging me.  Best of all, she is passionate about her craft, and her passion is contagious.  I came away with far more than a machine; I came away with enthusiasm and spirit.  Thank you, Karen!

So here it is! Ta Da!  My new-to-me, fully programmable, all parts included and working, Brother KH930e!!!!

Here's my first ever swatch:

I anticipate being quite consumed with this for the next few months.  There is a huge amount to learn.  So many features, techniques, and options... Oh, and I suppose I should take some time out to dye some yarn, too lol!

In other news, I gave up on the tunic. I decided to switch patterns after 16 rows. The crochet hook was fighting me and I began to find excuses to not work on it. Shame, since it is such a lovely fiber blend to work with. So, rather than see it lost in the ever-growing wips pile that will never see the light of day, I frogged it and started over with a vest-style tunic, called "Antique Lace" by Ilga Leja. I'm now halfway done with the back! So exciting to see it grow.

Someone opined that this pattern was one that made you say, "just one more row before I go to bed", and ten rows later, you're still saying that! Fact!

I'm off to play with my new toy.  Enjoy the cosmos, y'all!