Karen Blogs: Knittin' Crap: Mission Wrap-Up

As I reported earlier, this Starfleet Fiber Arts Corps tour of duty included 4 missions each month, plus 6 missions (3 each for the Tactical and Command divisions) spanning all three months that entail looking into why we spent the previous tour stuck on a rock in the middle of BF nowhere.

I managed to finish all 12 of the month-long missions, plus 5 of the 6 longer term missions.

Division	My report
Command A: Craft something that will make you seem less intimidating to the villagers and thus aid you in your interviews. Craft something to make yourself appear friendlier or perhaps comical (who can be intimidated by someone who looks ridiculous?). Craft something to make it easier for the villagers to communicate with you; a way to leave messages without having to talk to you face to face. Craft a toy for the children so you can make the interview more like a game.	I decided to play on any tradition of hospitality the natives may have by pre-emptively bringing a lovely hostess gift, this floral arrangement:
Command B: Record your observations of the planet by crafting something unusual. It can be an item with an unexpected use of color, texture, or pattern or something that is unusual for your personality. If you normally knit clothing, try a home item. If you usually crochet, give knitting or sewing a try. If you normally craft accessories, try your hand at a larger garment (sweater, skirt, etc).	I decided to utilize a service cat for further exploration and data gathering. I created a hooded garment which would gather readings for telemetry and protect the cat. However, said service cat decided the horizontal stripes on the garment were not slimming, and barely had tried it on long enough for me to snap a holo-photo. ETA: Service cat finally agreed to try on the device again, but only as long as he could sit in my lap (his primary function, other than trying to trip me and break my neck) and I kept scratching his head. Clearly, this situation is not ideal for investigating the anomalies…
Command C: Craft something that will help you overcome their security and free the prisoners. Knit a weapon that will disarm, distract or subdue the warriors, crochet something that will disable the force field, craft something that will allow you to rescue the prisoners by stealth or cunning without the alerting warriors to your plans.	Oops...
Tactical A: Craft something to warn others of the danger of the energy dampening field – something yellow, red or shiny to serve as a warning beacon, a lace perimeter net to prevent ships from entering the energy dampening field, a map of the precise location of the planet for Starfleet database, or something that sends a warning message to ships nearby.	This large arrangement of menacing space flowers will serve to deter any errant ships. The flowers pose no threat to ships themselves but appear to wave off nearby moving objects because of their sensitivity to disturbances in the surrounding field of plasma. Also, the “L”, is, of course, the galactic warning symbol, even though it was never adopted on Earth.
Tactical B: Craft something demonstrating your research. Research the Ravelry pattern recommendation feature to find a pattern to try (the if you liked this pattern, you might like that one feature) or search the queue or favorites of one of your shipmates. Craft something using the pattern you found there (include a link to the original pattern or the crew member’s queue where you it). Bonus points if you make the item as a gift.	I found this design plan for a Ten Stitch Blanket in Pandalark’s queue and adapted it as a multi-modal diffraction grating to capture different metrics of the surrounding radiation. After I collected copious data for analysis, I gifted the grating, actually made of a soft fiber, to my cat:
Tactical C: “Dismantle” a project that isn’t working and rework the project into something that you like. You may rip the entire project and start over or just frog part of a project to correct a mistake, correct the fit or to change a design element that you just don’t like. You may also completely rip finished ugh projects so the yarn can be reclaimed.	I had somehow managed to complete the entire back piece of this special engineering shield before realizing my gauge had been completely off and that the cable fiber I had selected would not produce the required dimensions, or in fact dimensions suitable for any humanoid I know who is no longer required to sit in a ~~car~~ shuttle booster seat. (I cannot explain how I got so far before noticing the size discrepancy, except to say that I may have been exposed to some perception-altering radiation whose effects lasted several months.) I began to reclaim the cable fiber, then got distracted. That was, oh, at least 3 Earth years ago. Here is the state I left it in: I have now reclaimed the fiber, skeined it: washed and dried: and wound to prepare for re-use: