January's Crafty Round-Up

At long last, I have some knitted FOs!

• Field Socks - turned out not to be field socks, but more plane, train and general distraction socks. Modelled here by Grandad, but as yet ownerless, as Grandad thought they were a bit too loud for his tastes.
• Arisaig, at long last! The front shaping was a nightmare, and then all of the ribbing turned out too elastic - seriously, you could have bungee-jumped from it. Lots of patient frogging, and we got there in the end.
• A coil pot and two pinch pots, made at my pottery class. I was looking through the Adult Education prospectus for a Spanish course, and decided that playing with clay also looked fun. It really is.

September's Crafty Round-Up

Or, Blanketblanketblanket!

It had always been my intention to knit my blanket* as a winter project, to be started as the ship sailed away and to be completed before the arrival of the planes.

At the start of the month I had 37 squares to go, and was still aiming for completion by the return of our planes, around 16th October; however, I made good progress on our winter trip, and began thinking that I could not only have it done before our own planes came back, but maybe before any of the transiting aircraft came through as well; 'Finishing Fever' quickly set in, and I started wondering I could have it finished by the end of September instead. It was all going promisingly, and then, with a week of Night-watch ahead, I decided that there was nothing quite like imposing additional pressure on myself, and started wondering if I could have it finished by 27th - six months to the day after the ship left us for the winter - and I could.

Vital Stats:

234,000 stitches, knitted

7128 stitches, swiss darned

250 hours

117 squares

116 beads

39 balls of yarn

17 buttons

One pair of very tired hands

There is so much I could say about it, but it is so freshly off the needles that I think I need to just snuggle under it for a while and get to know it as a blanket, rather than a series of strips with knitting and darning needles poking out of it.

Chickens Beware!

Having finished the blanket I needed a 'warm down' project and finally finished Fantastic Mr Fox (Outfoxed on Ravelry), who I was test-knitting for Emily Ivey. I did the pattern-testing and knitting of the parts a while ago, but after few rubbish attempts at sewing him together he took a back seat while I worked on the blanket. In the end I frogged his body and re-knitted it, knitting the legs, tail and arms in as I went along. He is another great pattern from Emily, designer of the previously-starred chickens and other awesome small toys. Her patterns make me wish I had more children in my life - while I'm sure Sister-Girl's babies (a semi-feral cat and Springer Spaniel puppy) would appreciate them, I am not sure I could stand to see my knitting ripped to shreds!

Geek-Boy's 30th Birthday was a good excuse to down knitting and head to the chippy shop for a couple of evenings. I'd like to claim it as all my own work, but in reality one of the other girls made the mount for me and the carpenter did the bits of the frame that involved using restricted machinery - we can call it a team effort! The picture inside was supposed to be replaced by Geek-Boy's photo of choice, but he's decided that he likes my stick-man interpretation of base life and plans to keep it. I just hope he doesn't display it anywhere that visitors will see it!

As all knitters worth their DPNs know, next month is Socktoberfest, and with this in mind my projects are all foot-related:

• finish knitting Pomatomus socks, started back in June;
• sew up holes in favourite tights;
• darn work socks (four pairs!)
• darn soles of Twinkletoes slippers, featured in this photo, and attach soles;
• sew soles onto Geek-Boy's slipper-socks;
• mend old slippers, so I can wear them when the current pair need mending; and
• swatch and knit the toes of a pair of socks which I will take into the field with me in the summer.

It is a fairly boring list really, but the way of life down here is such that stuff has to be mended rather than replaced, as replacements are hard to come by!

*From Debbie Abraham's book Blankets and Throws to Knit (Amazon link). The pattern is Lithograph (Ravelry link).

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!

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

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

July's Crafty Round Up

Or, 'Here's One I Made Earlier'! This is what I have made this month while not working or playing in the snow.

Photos by Miss Adventure/Photoshop magic by Geek Boy 

At the top left is my hip flask and its cosy. Geek-Boy and I went for an overnight trip to the caboose a while back, and while he was packing his Coke cans, I thought a G&T might be nice with dinner. Not wanting to carry the weight of a 1 litre bottle I looked for a smaller receptacle and found a spare water sampling bottle. It looked a bit boring though, so once we'd returned I painted it with silver nail varnish, and used some electrical tape to make flower templates, which were then filled in with pink nail varnish. Even though I had given it a couple of coats of clear lacquer from the mechs' workshop, I was concerned both about the paintwork getting chipped in my rucksack, and the bottle itself being damaged. Out came the knitting needles, and a few attempts later I had a hip flask cosy with drawstring closure - just what every self-respecting girl-about-base needs!

The wildlife specimens are: Alanis, an Adelie version of Pasha The Penguin made as a knit-along with the Doc, who is learning the ways of sticks and string; Sage, the white chicken and star of our 48-hour Film Festival entry; and Onion, knitted to stop Sage feeling lonely, now adopted by Geek-Boy.

Inspired by Cornish Blue storage jars in my grandmother's garage, I turned some empty food tins into Antarctic Blue tea storage jars, with the cunning application of electrical tape. I carried on the stripy blue theme to make a Nalgene water bottle cosy using an old camping mat and some fabric tape - portable hot Ribena for all!

In the centre is my wine bottle stopper. The mechanics have been running Mech School on Monday nights for the last few weeks, giving us the opportunity to learn about welding, engines, using the lathe, or anything else mechanical. I have been spending time on the lathe learning lots about how to shape the metal in different ways. My bottle stopper is recessed in the centre with a protruding screw, so the cork is gripped and supported from both sides. Like most things that come out of the garage, it is probably somewhat over-engineered, but I enjoyed making it.

At the bottom centre are my (semi-finished) sock blockers, one of them modelling my Pomatomus sock. I used an image downloaded from the internet, then scaled up on the photocopier and cut out to form a template. At the chippy shop I taped the paper to the wood, attempted to draw neatly around it (and in the process demonstrated why I failed Colouring In at Primary School) and then used the bandsaw. It was much harder than I had anticipated, and necessitated a certain amount of tongue-poking-through-teeth. They are only semi-finished because the paint-brush kept losing bristles in the varnish; I picked them out of the first coat and lightly sanded them again, but I have left them in the second coat. On my return to the land of paint-brush shops I will pick out the hairs, re-sand them, buy a decent brush and give them a final non-hairy coat of varnish. For now though, they are functional, and will be used when I make the second sock.

Lastly in the bottom right is a square of my blanket. Progress has slowed somewhat from my initial start-of-winter enthusiasm, but I am still hoping to finish it by the end of winter.

My aims for August are to:

• finish the 5th strip of my blanket, and have at least started the 6th; 
• knit the second Pomatomus sock and block the pair; 
• knit a dinosaur (pattern as yet undecided) for a certain base member who saw my chickens and said, 'I want a chicken! No, wait, I want a DINOSAUR!' (he did nearly chop off two fingers while making my Mid-winter's present, so I suppose he deserves a dino if he wants one); 
• make another bottle stopper, this time a bit bigger, for an empty whiskey bottle which will probably become a salad dressing dispenser when I get back to the Real World; and 
• start making a swift (whirly knitting contraption).

48-Hour Chicken Contest

This weekend was the 48-hour Antarctic film contest, organised each year by McMurdo Research Station (USA). As the name suggests, it runs for 48 hours, from Friday evening to Sunday evening, and you have to plan, script, act/film and edit the whole film in that time. To prevent people making films in advance, there are five key things which must appear in the film for it to be entered. We met after dinner on Friday and the Base Commander read out the list of requirements:

• Character to appear - a grumpy diesel mechanic
• Line of dialogue - 'Has anybody seen my chicken?'
• Sound effect - a siren
• Prop 1 - a mop
• Prop 2 - a bottle of mouthwash

It occurred to me that there was a problem with the line, 'Has anybody seen my chicken?'. There was no chicken to not be seen. There was however, a knitter who was bored with knitting her blanket and who likes a challenge. A short search of Ravelry revealed a pattern called 'Chicken Chicken Chicken' (so good you say it thrice), and a plan was hatched. I printed the pattern, cast on before the ink was dry, and knitted for the next 5 hours straight while those around me formulated the plot, storyline and characters. I went to bed at 1am with a one-legged wingless chicken looking over me.

We reconvened at 9am, by which time I was halfway up the second leg. I went to the Bonner Lab, where filming was beginning, and knitted on set. By the time the second leg and one wing had been added, the chicken was declared fit for filming; I added the second wing and a tail as and when breaks in filming occurred and by lunch time I had a fully functioning chicken. I kept referring the bag of toy filler as 'chicken stuffing', and since chickens are usually stuffed with sage and onion, my little chicken was named Sage. Sage was lonely though, and if you have sage, you need onions; so to everyone's amusement I cast on Onion as soon as I had finished lunch, with the aim of having him finished by the end of the filming deadline.

We spent the day filming in various locations around base, and started editing footage in the evening. Sunday was mostly spent editing (I contributed by staying out of the way knitting and making tea runs) and doing a couple of reshoots. Onion was completed and I saw a first cut of the film at about midnight - I believe they finished compressing and uploading it at about 4am. 

'From Rothera With Love' by the 2010 wintering team at Rothera Station, Antarctica.