A report back on the last Craft Snippets event at Upper Riccarton Library. The next one will be held on Wednesday 25 November with guest speaker, miniaturist Debora Anderson.
Christine Powell's journey into knitting started at a young age, inspired by her mother Ginny. She is originally from Southern California, but now calls New Zealand her home.
New Beginnings
Her adventurous spirit found her often thinking there must be more to life than sitting in a traffic jam on the way to work in California. With her current employment closing their business, she found herself looking for a new job opportunity.
A friend had just returned from working in Antarctica and suggested she have a go. In 1997 at 30 years old, having never been outside the United States, Christine’s application for work was accepted and she travelled to Antarctica. This was the first of many trips over 18 seasons; staying 5 months in the summer, and 8 months in the winter.
Life in Antarctica
Christine had to get used to the cold, blizzards, and 24-hour sunlight.
In 2014, a severe storm shattered vehicle windows, blew doors off garages and rolled shipping containers, with sustained winds of 259km an hour (140 knots).
Summer was a busy time for staff with lots of events from concerts, sports and crafting.
With a local economy, staff could purchase drinks, snacks, and clothes from a retail store.
Work was difficult no matter what the job, working 6-day weeks. Over the seasons Christine got to work many different jobs. Starting as a dishwasher, to delivering supplies to work sites, to logistics co-ordinator of supplies to different remote research camps.
Food
Everyone had meals together in a cafeteria-style venue. Meals were prepared by the galley staff and there was pizza available any time. There was a lot of frozen food, that was kept in a building to keep it warmer than the outside to keep the food at the optimum frozen temperature. Fresh food or ‘freshies’ (fruit, lettuce etc) was occasionally delivered in summer.
Her life, and rediscovering a hobby
On Christine’s first arrival, she didn’t know that she was living a few kilometres away from her future husband. Her first week took some time to adjust, without family and friends, and the thought of being so far away for so many months. Antarctica is not an easy place to live if it doesn’t suit you. In winter, the only opportunities to leave is if a plane lands for a medical evacuation of a colleague, otherwise you have to wait till the end of your season.
But it didn’t take Christine too long to find a common interest with others. She joined a weekly ‘stitch and bitch’ group where she met and befriended another knitter, Lynn. Having not knitted for years, Christine’s skills developed with the guidance of Lynn and the group. The two decided to fulfil a mutual dream, and write a book, Knitting in Antarctica. Thus began a seven-year journey.
Meanwhile, Christine focused on designing hats that she crafted herself. As an artist, Christine took the time to notice the smaller details in the natural icescape, like the different shapes and textures of icicles. She was also inspired by the many colours she would see in Antarctica. While most would think of white snow, and black and white penguins, her experience living there proved there were more colours to see. From the dark and light blues of ice in its various forms, to fiery orange and red sunsets, to the bright green of auroras and spectacular multi-coloured nacreous clouds.
Only one time she felt very low – where the darkness and isolation of the winter got to her. It was her day off and one of the generators was being repaired, leaving no electricity in her room. She was trying to knit, in the pitch-black darkness with a headlamp, the room slowly getting colder.
Love in a cold climate
In her second season on Antarctica, she met her future husband, Anthony. In the next couple of years, they grew together. He sculpted an engagement ring out of ice and she accepted.
They had the first Antarctic wedding held in a small chapel in 2003. Antarcticans are very resourceful, and the community came together to put on the event. The wedding flowers were made from carefully-folded paper, the wedding dress from donated fabric, and Anthony’s jacket borrowed from the Station Manager. The reception was held at Scott Base, with an Antarctic-shaped cake, music and dancing. The wedding was widely celebrated with an article published in the Woman’s Weekly Magazine.
Creating and publishing a book
With Anthony being a photographer, the two worked together to photograph images on-location for the book, while Christine and Lynn continued to work on the contents.
Their book was released in 2017, with 1000 made with a spiral binding, and the rest sold on Amazon with print on demand. The book was very popular, as were Christine’s hats.
She even saw an actor wearing a hat she styled for an Air NZ safety video, as well as staff hosting Jacinda and her partner Clarke on their visit to Antarctica. Christine noticed the most popular hat requested was the penguin design.
Getting into quilting
Along with knitting, Christine formed a quilters group. During winter they would make quilts for charity. Some had never quilted before, and after months of hand stitching, they had a draw for the winning ticket to take it home, whilst raising and donating several thousand dollars to Cholmondeley Children’s Centre in Christchurch.
On the year of Christine and Anthony’s wedding, the quilters made a quilt with their vows and staff signatures at the back.
Documentary film-making
After receiving a special grant, Anthony and Christine decided to produce a film Antarctica: A Year on Ice. They were able to visit many places around Antarctica, including the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station. The movie was released in 2013, had great reviews and won many awards. It was played on Air NZ flights, and is available to stream on a number of platforms including NZonscreen.
Anthony is preparing to head back to Antarctica for another season. Currently, Christine is working on a king size quilt, as well as enjoying painting stones, many of which are on display around her home.
She also teaches knitting and crochet in Rangiora.
Latest craft titles
Angela chatted about some of the books and magazines on display.
Items shared at our September meeting
Our next Craft Snippets event will be held on Wednesday 25 November with guest speaker, miniaturist Debora Anderson.
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