As a general rule, Resting Stitch Face NYC stays in NYC. We broke the rule once in 2018, with Claudia’s trip to Rome, and here we are starting off the new year by breaking it again. But a chance to do a stitch face photo shoot in Antarctica was just too fantastic to pass up, so here is Sallie, at the bottom of the planet, where no stitch face has gone before.

Here she is with a whole lot of gentoo penguins.

Many people have asked Sallie whether she saw any bears in Antarctica. Here’s the thing: polar bears live in the Arctic. Penguins live in the Antarctic. Bears and penguins don’t live in the same place. If flightless birds tried to share a continent with bears, it wouldn’t go well for them.

A relatively easy way to remember which place for which animal: “Arctic” comes from arctos, which means “bear” as well as “north” in Greek. Antarctica is the opposite. Now you will never forget.

Antarctica is not like other places. Sallie isn’t entirely sure that people or stitch faces should really be here at all.

It’s just too beautiful.

In Antarctica, there’s daylight almost around the clock at this time of year. Meaning that the weather is far more cheerful in Antarctica than in New York. Not what Sallie expected after reading about Shackleton.

Sometimes the sea is like a lake. With icebergs.

Sallie is invited to visit the bridge of the ship. With all this technology, the captain is able to see where the nicer weather is, and then go there.

But there’s no avoiding the Drake Passage.

Sallie is made from a pair of shorts from Jessica. Her parka is made from a 30+-year-old Jansport backpack of my husband’s, trimmed with fake black fur from my friend Anne C., who once used it to make an ogre costume. Her penguin pants are made from my son’s old pajama pants, and her penguin sweater is made from a pair of my socks that I worked very hard to put a hole in so I could use them.