Knittin' Crap: SFAC November 2014

This month, Q apparently got himself kicked out of the Q Collective again, and we have to help him adapt to being human.

Mission	Report
Command: Demonstrate your ability to follow orders by crafting something following a pattern without changing it.	Q needs to learn discipline and mental focus. Practitioners of some Old Earth religions used a visual tool called a “mandala” to help them focus. Making a mandala was often a painstaking process requiring exacting detail. I tried to demonstrate this kind of discipline to Q by following the directions for Sophie’s Garden exactly, changing colors on every row.
Engineering: Craft something that requires some decision making (something modified, or a pattern with different options).	Footwear. So many choices. Of course, Starfleet personnel are rather limited when they’re in uniform, but Q isn’t in Starfleet. He will soon have to learn to worry about things such as adequate toe room, arch support, and proper width, in addition to styles dictated by the occasion. If he ever decides to play the old Earth sport basketball (or decides to become a musician in the late 20th-century Earth style known as “punk rock”), he might need some Chucks. Then he’ll really be faced with lots of decisions, like color, low- or hi-rise, fabric… Eventually he’ll learn firsthand about the psychological stress of ”decision fatigue.” And that’s after a single pair of shoes.
Medical: Craft something to ward off aches and pains - e.g. make a stuffed doll to help Q feel better or craft bandages tor something to keep him warm.	Q frequently expressed exasperation with humanity (at the same time exhibiting a fascination that wouldn’t allow him to stay away) while he was Q. Now that he’s human, he’ll quickly learn the race is not only a source of mental pain to Q but to its own members as well. In other words, I give him 3 days tops before he gets a roaring headache, probably the throbbing forehead vein kind. Of course, another odd feature of the human race is the fact that many aches and ailments can sometimes be treated just as effectively by psychological tricks as by actual chemical medications. We call this mental trickery “the placebo effect.” This headband doesn’t actually have any inherent physical ability to reduce headache pain, but now that he’s human, a medical officer just needs to tell him that it will, and odds are his headache will dissipate shortly. He’ll just look a little dorky while he’s wearing it, but since he will almost certainly have given half the ship their own headaches by then, they’ll need the laugh (another effective treatment for minor ailments).
The Brig: Where Neverending Missions Finally End	This prisoner should have been a simple reform job, but it just refused to get buttoned up until I showed it what nice buttons I had picked out for it.

Sophie's Garden designed by Dedri Uys.

Crochet Baby Converse designed by Suzanne Resaul.

Cardigan pattern by Amanda Griffiths