August's Crafty Round-Up

Stegosaurus, Snowflake and Stripes

Well, my commitments at the end of July's Crafty Round-Up largely went out of the window when I realised that we had 65 days until the planes came back, and 65 squares of blanket left to knit. I've put the sock on hold for the time being, as I want to knit the pattern as a mirror image to the first sock, but that is proving trickier than anticipated. It is possible that I might just have to accept having two identical socks. I also haven't been back to Mech School, nor ventured into the Chippy Shop again.

Enough about what I haven't done, and more about what I have done! I knitted a dinosaur for a friend on base. His name is Hardy and being a vegetarian dinosaur he went out into the Antarctic forests to see what he could find to eat. He found a lovely patch of Sanionia moss, which is the closest thing we've got to a forest - Chelsea Flower Show eat your heart out!

I reached the half-way point of my blanket (I know we're well past half-way through winter) and stormed ahead. I not only started, but also finished the 6th strip, and have started on the 7th strip. I have 37 squares left to go (I'm working in 13 squares per strip) and approximately 45 days until the planes are due. Some USAian planes transit through Rothera before our own planes arrive, and I am definitely committed to having it finished by the time the BAS planes get here, but am open to negotiation on the other planes. Also, by finished I mean finished knitting all the squares and sewing it together. As I am undecided about the border and the possibility of backing it with fabric, they don't come into the deadline.

I have also been test-knitting a fox pattern for Emily Ivey but as he is still a collection of arms, legs and ears and was feeling camera-shy, he asked me to post a different picture instead. There is a snow flake which fell on the railings on my way to lunch today which looked cool.

So, next month's commitments are to:

• finish kntting the 7th and 8th strips and have them sewn onto the rest of the blanket;
• have made good progress on the 9th strip;
• sew Foxie together;
• finish sewing on the soles of Geek-Boy's slipper-socks. They are tantalisingly close to being finished (and have been for about 6 months), but I need to get him to stand still long enough for me to sew the soles on!

I fear it is largely going to be blanketblanketblanket for the rest of winter, but have high hopes for more varied crafty fun in the summer!

Stork and Orca

Mint Choc Chip Ice-Cream Cookie Sandwiches

The chef has been off base on his second winter training trip this week, so Geek-Boy and I volunteered for a day of canned, dried and frozen food fun. 

Our canned carrots are generally quite mushy and tasteless, so we strained them for several hours, before adding them to a caramelised orange sauce. The frozen sausages are fairly reasonable and the liberal application of butter and dijon mustard turned the Smash into mustard mash. To finish I made choc chip cookies using a recipe sent to me by a friend from home; Geek-Boy loves mint chocolate, so I sandwiched two cookies around mint choc chip ice-cream.

Skiing down Middle Stork Col

Wednesday was dingle, so I took the afternoon off, in lieu of several weekends worked recently, and one of the GAs kindly took me out on a ski mountaineering adventure.

As far as I can tell, ski mountaineering involves about 80% uphill skiing ('skinning'), 10% ice climbing, and 10% of the fun stuff - downhill skiing. One spends a lot of time dripping with sweat either from exertion or fear, and very little time flying gracefully downhill with the sun on your face and the wind beneath your wings. We took skidoos out to Middle Stork and skinned as high up the col as we could. When it became too steep to skin, we took our skis off, strapped them to our rucksacks and climbed the rest of the way up. As we sat on the col eating chocolate, we took our skins off the bottom of our skins and admired the view of Orca Mount and the untracked snow that lay between it and us. For a few short and glorious minutes we skied down the slope, picking lines which avoided the dips and bumps that the wind had formed. At the bottom we put the skins back on our skis, roped ourselves together as we would be travelling over crevassed terrain for the rest of the trip, and spent the next couple of hours making our way uphill around Orca Mount, past North Stork and back to the skidoos.

Orca Mount from Middle Stork Col

A 'Testing Blow'

The Dive Team Hard At Work

Continuing with the sea ice theme from previous posts, on Wednesday I went to help the Dive Team while they were cutting a hole in the ice for a new dive site. Once the blocks had been cut with the chainsaw, we set about attaching ice screws, clipping in ropes, and hauling them out. It is surprising how heavy a half-metre block of ice is, and it is hard to handle when you're on ice, with little grip, and a freshly cut hole to fall into if you slip! With the holes cut, covered with a wooden board, and marked with flags for safety, we decided a little sit down was in order. The Dive Officer is a big fan of Lego (as evidenced by his recent Lego Death Star purchase), so he took charge as we assembled the various blocks into an armchair, using the hand-saw to neaten rough edges as necessary and slushy snow to cement any spaces and sculpt rounded edges. This was shortly followed a predictable fight over who got to sit in the seat while we posed for photographs!

Saturday was too windy to go out to play, although this was no bad thing as it provided the 'testing blow' we needed to prove the strength of the sea ice for more distant travel. I worked on my blanket, reaching the half-way point - 59 squares knitted, 58 squares to go! Of course, there is the small matter of sewing the strips together, knitting on a border, and probably backing it with fabric, but as far as the squares are concerned,  half-way!

Sea Ice Break Out

Sunday was even windier (gusting up to 74 knots!), but we were stirred from knitting and pool-playing by an 'all stations' radio call from a couple of people who had noticed that the sea ice was blowing away. The 'testing blow' had tested one blow too far, and we all got to watch a sea ice break out. Everyone rushed to get dressed up in lots of warm gear and headed up to the Cross to watch the spectacle, and what a spectacle it was! A strong Westerly wind was creating enough sea swell to crack the edge of the ice, and was then blowing the chunks away from the main body. This meant that the crack line gradually worked its way further and further into the ice sheet. We sat there (sitting, because with the wind speed standing wasn't an option!) and watched the crack line move back about 500m in half an hour. Our beautiful armchair broke free and went sailing off; with the direction and speed of the wind, hopefully it will make it all the way to San Martín Base and the Argentinians can make some use of it!

Armchair Traveller

Killingbeck Island

Killingbeck Island

With the recent cold temperatures helping to form and stabilise the sea ice around Rothera, on Saturday we decided to strike out for Killingbeck Island. There is a photo of Rothera Point in a previous blog post, and Killingbeck Island is in the middle far left of the picture, about 2 km out to sea.

We started out from North Cove and made out way around the North end of Rothera Point. As we had drilled this area recently we could move fairly quickly. When we reached new ice which needed testing, two of the GAs struck out ahead so the rest of us could travel along more leisurely, admiring the icebergs and taking photographs. On our arrival at Killingbeck Island we were rewarded with a visit from three Adelie penguins who came running up to us. I am sure they thought we were penguins too as they ran very fast until they were about five meters away, and then stopped, looked at us with a disappointed expression, and then waddled slowly away. We also had a lot of fun getting on and off the island, as there was broken ice around the island caused by the tide lifting the sea ice up and down. It had formed chunks which we had to move across, a bit like lily-pads on a pond.

Killingbeck Island was at the limit of the current stable ice. The photo of the island shows the thicker white ice which was about 30cm thick, and a small amount of newer darker ice, which was only about 10cm thick.

Adelies Saying 'Hello'

Doc On The Ice Lily-Pads

Rothera Point Sea Ice

A Chocolate Cake Tool Kit!

Wednesday was our generator mechanic's 40th birthday. Having seen photos on Facebook of the wonderful cakes his wife at home makes, we felt we ought to try to make his 40th cake something special. A team effort, admittedly mostly lead by the chef, resulted in a spanner, hammer, nut, grub screw and a bottle of WD40, all made from chocolate cake and iced with molten chocolate. We couldn't find 40 candles, and even if we had, we would probably have set the fire alarm off, so we settled for 11 baby pink ones instead! I 'helped' clean up the icing bags and excess icing a few hours earlier, and couldn't face actually eating any cake, but it disappeared suitably quickly!

Testing The Thickness Of The Sea Ice

This afternoon the clouds cleared and the wind dropped, so a few of us set out the test the thickness of the sea ice around base. We set out to go around Rothera Point, but were prepared to get back onto land and come back to base that way if necessary. To test sea ice, one drills a hole all the way through, and then inserts a very technical stick which has a lever on the end. You pull the stick back up until you feel the lever catch on the underside of the ice, and then read the depth off the stick. The ice has to be a minimum of 20cm thick for people to ski on it, 25cm for walking, and so on upwards to 157cm to land a Hercules! We had 30-40cm thickness all the way, so successfully made our way around the point. It was very strange seeing the land from the ice, and to be able to look up at the wharf. The ice feels so substantial, but six months ago I was bobbing about here in a boat doing my crew training.

This evening one of the GAs did a slide show (yes, slides, with a whirring motor, genuine clicky noises and everything!) of a climbing trip he did in his younger days around the USA which was a nice change to the usual knitting, DVD watching or pool playing. On the knitting front, the dinosaur is progressing nicely. I have changed the pattern so that I am knitting in the round with the legs and plates knitted on, as I didn't fancy sewing ten stegosaurus plates down its back!

Biscoe Wharf From The Sea Ice