I am pretty excited about the upcoming 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon!  Even more jazzed about it after George and I visited the Museum of Flight and saw the Apollo 11 exhibit “Destination Moon” this week.  Oh, it was just SO COOL!  I love science-y space stuff like that — and seeing the actual artifacts up close and personal was thrilling!  The section of NASA’s command center control board with all the switches and buttons, the flight book that Collins used while orbiting the moon, space suits, etc.  And, of course, the command module Columbia itself!  SO COOL!

We spent a leisurely hour at the exhibit — reading all the interpretive signage and studying the models and mock-ups as well as ogling the artifacts.  I learned a lot and gained new perspectives on the events leading up to Apollo 11 and the mission itself.  

I clearly remember watching the first steps on the moon on my Aunt Helen’s color TV — and all the rocket launches I had seen on our black and white TV at home through my early childhood.  Iconic.  

What hit me when visiting the exhibit was that everything that made up the moon launch mission was the result of problem-solving and procedures.  It could have — and would have — been done differently if the numbers had added up that way.  What was — to me —the only logical (and clearly iconic!) way to go the moon, was simply the front-runner of a lot of different options.  In essence, it was a beautifully successful design!

And the procedures!  There were notes on “how to” on artifacts everywhere in the exhibit — in the flight book, on a space suit sleeve, on the inside of the command module door.  It was absolutely endearing to me because that is how I work too, as a knitter and a designer.  It was so human, these hand-written and hand-typed notes.  And while I was properly impressed by all the fire and steel that made up the launching rocket, I was absolutely blown away by the human imagination and labor that had made it happen.

And that is how I finally made the connect between me as knitting designer and me as science-y space buff.  It’s the numbers and notes, the problem-solving and procedures, the trial and error, the taking an idea and making it real.  

This:

To make this: