Temperature temptations, tribulations and trebles

I hope everyone had a quiet Christmas and that Santa was good.  Happy New Year to you all.

The ladies of the group all seem to have read the same Facebook and blog posts around the turn of 2017 into 2018 and the theme of a piece of temperature work has come up.  Enthusiastically last week we discussed the prospect of doing these and about six of us have got the ball rolling.   This is going to be a sort of CAL within the group but we will all progress at our own pace and at our own skill level. 

There are many blogs and Facebook posts about temperature work and Pinterest is chock full of photos for example The Crochet Crowd, Lion Brand, Simple Knitting, Sleepy Eyes, and photos on Facebook and Pinterest.  I have no affiliation to any of these sites but a good Google search will elicit myriad results to aid you in your research and give you lots of (too many!) ideas to get you started.

The idea is soooo simple …   Isn’t It?  The idea is that you work a set number of rows  per day of an item in a colour that co-ordinates with the temperature. You can pre-decide a colour range/chart using perhaps eight to ten different colors depending on your climate and as you work your piece, you will get a beautiful variation of colour throughout the year. Depending on the climate where you live, each color will probably correspond to between three and seven degrees.  If like me you live in Northern Ireland then temperatures will mostly vary between -5 to about 35 degrees.  However, you may live in a country where a temperature range of -20 to +40 is normal.  Choose your colours wisely.

And they’re off ...  

 

Or perhaps not …

Will I knit or crochet?

Will it be a scarf, a blanket or a tube scarf, a baby blanket? A cat? 

Straight lines or zigzag? Hexagons or circles?  Corner-to-corner?  Granny square?  Ribbed?

A straightforward temperature chart or a ‘mood’ chart, a weather type chart e.g. stormy, windy, wet, hot and sunny?

At what time each day should I take the temperature?  Max temperature, or at a set time?  What if I go on holiday, should still I record and use the temperature at home or the temperature wherever I am?  Do I use the highest temperature each day AND the lowest temperature?

How many colours each day?  Just one or two for the highest and lowest temperatures?  A granny square with three rows using white always as the middle row and the other colour as per the daily temperature?

Shades of the same colour such as a blue theme or a rainbow of colours?

DK, chunky or aran?  Use up my stash or buy new yarn?

Get myself organised?

Which stitch?  Doubles, trebles … Use the same stitch Monday to Friday and change for each weekend?  Use a different stitch each month?

Getting started was not as easy as first thought for many of us.  Two of us have frogged out the first 10 days and started over again.  One has taken a dramatic turn and halved the number of daily rows as her scarf was going to end up measuring over 3 metres/10 feet and another has planned a new colour scheme.  One other person has a spreadsheet to assist her with colours and moods together. 

One of our number, who lives at a great distance from the group but calls in with us when she can, will be working along with us and sharing lots of pics on Facebook.  Hopefully she'll get to visit us often throughout the year.

It’s so nice to see that we are all working differently, interpreting the challenge on a very personal skill level and colour preference.  Most of us are keeping diaries and I hope to update this blog monthly with pics of our work.  It's going to be very exciting watching all the pieces develop.

I thought I had made my mind up but time to cut the ties, I think, and start again …

(All pics courtesy of Pinterest and Google except for those depicting the work of ladies in the group.

World Wide Knit in Public Day June 2017

Here we are at our 3rd WWKIP Day held once again in Yarns Coffee Halt at Theatre at The Mill, Mossley.  We held our WWKIP Day a week earlier than the official date because of holidays etc. among the group.  We had our WWKIP Day on Saturday 3rd June.

Our local Hookery Group were joined by some lovely ladies from
the Knitwits Group in Portstewart who went on to host their own WWKIP Day on Saturday 10th June on Portstewart Promenade. Thank you ladies for your support.   Maybe next year we'll travel
to the North Coast and join you for The WWKIP Day.

We also had some friends from Whitehead who joined us again this year. Thank you ladies. 

The staff at Yarns were very attentive as usual and thanks must go to the Duty Manager and to Heather in the coffee shop.  We had 36 folks who came along - women, men, adults and children, some who could knit and crochet and others who couldn't, some who were coming back for a second time and some who were new.

On the table in the photo above you can see some white pieces of work.  It was quite difficult to get a good picture of the white work.  One belongs to Catherine's great grandmother and was crocheted back in the late 1800s.  Catherine's grandmother worked in the local linen mills and she then attached the crocheted pieces to some linen.  The work is so detailed and one can't even begin to imagine the poor light that the ladies had to do the work and also the material is so white and clean.  Another couple of pieces belong to Helena's sister-in-law who crocheted collars and cuffs for Irish dancing tunics.  All of these pieces of work have Irish roses and shamrocks on them.

We decided on a floral theme this year and everyone pulled out all the stops to come up with unusual ideas for crocheted and knitted garments and other items on the theme of flowers.  The photos don't do justice to the work.

Ladder kindly loaned by Mags and the flowers and vines kindly donated by Judith, Niqi's mum.  Judith was tasked with crocheting 'just a few' while she was over on holidays a few weeks ago. 

  Doesn't Ermintrude look well?  This is one of the cows placed in public places around Northern Ireland.  This one is in The Civic Square at Mossley Mill.  Ermintrude's head was carefully measured to ensure a snug fit of her sun hat!

It was a warm day so Ermintrude didn't really need her blanket but there were a few very heavy showers of rain!

'THE Bernard' as it has become known was ceremoniously cast off on WWKLIP Day.  It had been cast on at last year's WWKIP Day.  

This is a very special little flower.  Maureen was teaching herself how to do this pattern when news came through about the Manchester Arena explosion.  After she had finished the flower Maureen decided to put a single pink button onto the flower to represent each of the 22 lives lost.  

 Some other flowers seen on the day.

On trend cacti ....  Have you noticed them everywhere in the shops, in flower shops, on clothes and in the home decor magazines?  Can you see the dinky red watering can tucked away in the background?  

Here's a cheeky little cacti man made by Chloe ....  And a bouquet of carnations made by me.

 The group are making a friendship blanket.  We have all made flowers according to a pattern from Crochet Now but have chosen our own two-tone colours.  Catherine has started joining them together and some of the rest of us will do some more of this.  It is our intention to raffle it off once completed.

 Meet the members of Hookery Group.  Elaine started to crochet in February and this is her first piece.  It's a labour-of-love blanket for her husband.  The Mayor came to pay us a visit too that day on one of his last official visits at the end of his term of office.

 Evelyn's smiley little happy flower, from an Attic24 pattern, resting against Niqi's Sunshine and Showers blanket.

Maureen's sunshine flower.

 We were lucky enough to have one of our Poppy Pieces on display for our WWKIP Day.  It generated lots of discussion from members of the public who were also using the coffee shop that day.

And so to rest ...

Making chains at Malin

Had a lovely day out at Malin Head in Donegal yesterday and the sun shone.  I took my seaside winter blanket CAL and took some pics of it at the seaside.

I've since finished both Port Shepstone squares and edged them. This square was the most challenging mainly because it was so large in comparison to the others but the stitches were still really easy to do.

I have every admiration for the ladies who are taking part in the CAL and who are doing multiple blankets simultaneously.  Zooty Owl herself is doing a mere 9 and another lady has 8 versions on the go meaning that they have had 18 or 16 of Port Shepstone respectively to complete in a week.  Phew!!  Many others are doing 2 or 3 versions of the blanket which is challenging enough.

I'm just about to start Shelly Beach, square number 7.

Now I shall hand over the baton to one of my other hookery ladies to do the next update.

Tutti Frutti

At last... my squaring the circle blanket is completed. I followed the pattern as for Sunset Boulevard.

It was easy to follow. Well done Heather for converting the 'American crochet terms' I made 24 squares. 6 x 4, and added a few rows of border. Thanks also to Heather for the suggested name.

Ready to start.

The first few squares.

A few more......

 Laid out. Joining commenced...

....and continued.

And finished

Sunset Boulevard

My next project was to crochet some circles, turn them into squares and join them into a large throw.  After a bit of searching, I found this pattern on Google.  Whilst I've bought some new colours, I hope to be able to use up a lot of what is already in my 'secret stash' to make Sunset Boulevard.

Here are two finished products as crocheted by Kate at Signed With an Owl who provided the pattern.

Here's one called Fiesta Blanket made by someone else and shown on Pinterest

Here's my progress.  It all started with a colourful circle

And a pattern (Oops! American crochet terms so a bit of translation required)

Ok, on to the pattern!
Worsted weight yarn (I used Vanna's Choice)
Size J hook
Written in US stitch terms

Square by colourful square ........

 

And some more

Edging towards the end .....

Ta-Dah!

I think that this blanket could take on the mantel of Oceania as Guru Patricia has now taken the pattern to have a look at.  Let's wait and see how her version and colour combo turn out.  Patricia,  we can't wait to see your blog post ......