I am a Senior Research Scientist for the Paul Smith’s College Adirondack Watershed Institute and this is one of several pieces made for a project called Wool and Water.

Wool and Water is a data art project that blends fiber art with scientific data to create visual representations of changing water quality conditions in the Adirondacks and Lake Champlain Basin. In association with the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, the Paul Smith’s College Adirondack Watershed Institute has embarked on a collaborative fiber arts project supported by the Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership to showcase the legacy of protecting clean water in the Lake Champlain Basin and beyond.

In winter 2022/2023, as a component of this project, we hosted a make-a-long called Antarctiscarf. Our colleague was deployed to Antarctica to do limnological research in the dry valleys at McMurdo. While she was there, we asked anyone interested to follow along with the weather and just knit or crochet a row each day to denote whether it was warmer where they were or where Lija was in Antarctica. It was great fun and these are a few examples of the Antarctiscarves that resulted.