tristanaef

[tristanaef]

The C(r)ozier Cowl (with pattern!)

I FINALLY DID IT, and I'm so incredibly pleased with how it turned out (it's also maybe the warmest scarf I've ever knit, the Terror costume design people knew what they were doing)

Details and pattern below the cut, along with more pics!

Details:

This infinite loop cowl is a knit recreation of the scarf/cowl worn by Captain Francis Crozier in the first season of the tv show The Terror (2018).

The choice of yarn is, in my opinion, very important to the accuracy of the result. The pattern is quite simple, so getting the right yarn makes a big impact. My suggested yarn is below.

This is knitted in seed stitch at a very tight gauge, using a worsted weight yarn on size 4 needles. This produces a gauge consistent with the scarf from the show (did I measure Jared Harris’ eye and use it to calculate gauge from a photo of Crozier wearing the scarf? MAYBE SO). It makes the knitting a little hard on the hands, but the resulting fabric is DELIGHTFUL—super dense, and since the cowl is knit as a tube it's double thick and, in my experience, nearly entirely windproof. THIS IS A VERY WARM COWL!

After looking at too many screenshots, I ultimately determined that the article in the show is in fact a scarf (you can see the edge VERY briefly in one shot). However, I have designed my version as a tube cowl, as it more easily reproduces the look of the article as worn in the show (doubled over and in a continuous loop around the neck with no edges visible). You could produce a scarf instead by knitting this flat instead of in the round—cast on the same number of stitches with a long tail cast on, and then only knit/repeat row 1 (consider adding a seldvege edge).

If you have questions or want tips, or just want to show me what you made, hit me up!! I’d love to chat.

Materials:

3 skeins (approx. 660 yards) Cascade 220 Heathers in color 2445 Shire (google it to find purchasing options, or ask your local yarn store to order it!)

Size 4 needles; either 16 inch circulars or double-pointed

Stitch marker

Yarn needle

Instructions:

Provisional CO 72 stitches on size 4 16-inch circular (or double pointed) needles to work in the round. Place marker.

Row 1: k1 p1

Row 2: p1 k1

Repeat until cowl measures approximately 54 inches (4.5 feet; 137 cm) or desired length.

Unpick provisional cast-on, placing live stitches on any spare circular needles or dpns. Kitchener stitch ends together (tutorial for doing so in pattern here).

Wear as a single or double loop.

Now go have some glorious homoerotic tension with your second in command!

[tristanaef]

HMS Erebus officers

Went to see the Erebus muster book in person at The National Archives. Fitzjames' signature has faded so much!

[tristanaef]

i'm the guy who writes the books that the protagonist in supernatural horror movies frantically reads somewhere in act ii. job's pretty easy. lot of "legends of vampires have recurred all throughout human history" and "demonologists agree that the quickest way to un-summon a demon is to trap it in a cursed object". no citations of course; they don't pay me citation money. i had to learn html back in the early aughts when everyone started seeking their supernatural info on websites they found via top search engines like FINDLER and WEBSIGHT but that's died down now which is great because i didn't have it in me to pick up css. currently working on a new book about horses that are evil. it's called HORSES THAT ARE EVIL in all caps so the protagonist can find it quickly to yank off the library shelf. it will be published 35 years ago.

[tristanaef]

I deleted my Twitter. Here and Bluesky are the places to find me now.

[tristanaef]

FITZJAMES HAS BEEN FOUND!!!!

He was one of the first to die after they abandoned the ships. My boy didn't have to suffer for long. I'm so grateful that he has been identified. Crying and in shock too. I helped find you, my dear Fitzjames. 😭❤️

[tristanaef]

Stained glass window in St Mary’s Church, Banbury - photo by Rex Harris

Pictured here is HMS Terror stuck in the ice. The image was taken from the Arctic reports and notebook of Admiral Sir George Back during his Arctic expedition in 1836. It was commissioned by Henry Back, the admiral’s brother and vicar of the church in c. 1860.

[tristanaef]

New Frontiers

I have been inspired lately by the podcast New Frontiers, hosted by the polar explorer Ben Saunders. He interviews people who, like him, had outstanding accomplishments before they pivoted their careers to helping combat climate change. Ben Saunders himself is pretty cool: he's the third person to ski solo to both the North and South poles, and he led the first expedition that completed Scott and Shackleton's famous attempted Antarctic expedition to the South Pole! He ends each episode with this quote from Norwegian polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen:

It is a difficult time you are living in, no doubt, and the world does not give you a bright outlook just now perhaps. But it is an interesting time. Many important things are happening, and it is full of great problems for you to solve. It is you who have to create the future and make the world a better place to live.

Nansen said that in 1928. Almost exactly 100 years ago.

It gives me hope.

[tristanaef]

Good morning and happy last day of Pride Month from Angelique! She is a new vessel but depicts an English fishing trawler circa 1880 with her sails treated against mildew with tallow, tannic acid, and red ocher.

[tristanaef]

Today’s research project is finding this Person of Doubtful Gender who was a shipwright in Durham ME

[tristanaef]

Careers of the Franklin Expedition

I've updated the timelines showing the career overlap of members of the Franklin Expedition. Now it is easier to see who might have met before they departed for the arctic! You can read more about the process on my blog.

If this looks familiar, this is an update to my Terror Camp 2023 poster.

[tristanaef]

Franklin Expedition Careers Project: Complete?

I have finally finished the main tasks I set out for myself with the Franklin Expedition careers project: transcribe the service records I found, do a second pass to clean up my data, and divide the timeline into more manageable chunks. What a relief! You can find the cleaned up timeline on the Careers of the Franklin Expedition page, and the transcriptions are all available on my Franklin Expedition page. Read on for some background on the process.

[Read More]

[tristanaef]

The novelist writes from inside. I’m rather sensitive on this point, because I write science fiction, or fantasy, or about imaginary countries, mostly—stuff that, by definition, involves times, places, events that I could not possibly experience in my own life. So when I was young and would submit one of these things about space voyages to Orion or dragons or something, I was told, at extremely regular intervals, “You should try to write about things you know about.” And I would say, But I do; I know about Orion, and dragons, and imaginary countries. Who do you think knows about my own imaginary countries, if I don’t? But they didn’t listen, because they don’t understand, they have it all backward. They think an artist is like a roll of photographic film, you expose it and develop it and there is a reproduction of Reality in two dimensions. But that’s all wrong, and if any artist tells you, “I am a camera,” or “I am a mirror,” distrust them instantly, they’re fooling you, pulling a fast one. Artists are people who are not at all interested in the facts—only in the truth. You get the facts from outside. The truth you get from inside. OK, how do you go about getting at that truth? You want to tell the truth. You want to be a writer. So what do you do? You write.

--Ursula Le Guin, from the "On How To Become A Writer" at LitHub, from The Language of the Night (via @neil-gaiman)

[tristanaef]

Franklin Expedition Service Records

I have finished transcribing the service records I used for my Franklin Careers project. You can find all the transcriptions on my Franklin Expedition page:

ADM 196/4/181. “Capt Sir John Franklin.”

ADM 196/4/220. “Com Jas. Fitzjames.”

ADM 196/4/373. “Lieut. Graham Gore.”

ADM 196/5/124. “Lieut. Edward Little.”

ADM 196/8/548. “John Smart Peddie.”

ADM 196/8/579. “Stephen Samuel Stanley.”

ADM 196/68/548. “Chas H. Osmer.”

Note that some of these are only officer service records. The midshipman service records are elsewhere.

These service records are all property of The National Archives, Kew, and were obtained from the digital service collection Royal Navy officers’ service records 1756-1931. Transcriptions published under the Open Government Licence (OGL) per The National Archives image reproduction guidelines.

[tristanaef]

The Forget-Me-Not (1886). Gabriel Schachinger (German, 1850-1912). Oil on canvas.

While reading, the woman places the forget-me-not flower that she had just picked. Perhaps she wishes never to forget the events of the day which may include an admirer. The woman’s dress has a Byzantine feel with the gold embroidered strip that runs down the front of the garment.

[tristanaef]

Charles Osmer Service Record

Another transcription is up! This one was a little tricky: Whoever wrote up Charles Osmer's service record was conscientious about including the names of his captains, but in veeery small print...

Osmer was the purser on Erebus during the Franklin Expedition. This is part of my Franklin Careers project.

[tristanaef]

A short comic I made about my experiences as a seasonal worker, and the way places change you.

Prints & PDF

[tristanaef]

Page decorations for The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1899 edition.