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.

Hookery on tour

Hookery went on tour this year.  Our ladies travelled far and wide and some have sent through interesting photos.

Mags was on holiday in France and locally in Fermanagh.  In France she went to the Vendee but to quote they were ‘in the middle of glorious nowhere’. just into the Vendee region.  Knowing that it would be too hot to crochet and preferring to spend her time in the pool, her French project was very small.  Mags crocheted some flowers from Lesley Stanfield’s book 100 flowers to Knit and Crochet and plans to sew then onto a dressing gown.  Mags assures us as readers of the blog that photographic evidence will not be forthcoming of her modelling the finished article.

Camping at The share Centre in County Fermanagh provided the family with a few days of glorious sunshine between two weeks of torrential rain, a typical Northern Ireland summer!  The pic is of her ‘Argory blanket’ and was taken inside the tent because, unusually for Northern Ireland, the sun was in full blaze and too strong!  We are never weather-happy in Northern Ireland.

Elaine went to Scotland.  Her first visit was to a woollen mill in Hawick, the Scottish home of cashmere, ‘seriously the real job’ as she described it.  It would have been a shame not to buy …..  Elaine’s husband was encouraged to pose wearing the WIP, which is a new winter chunky James C Brett scarf, wonderfully matched to his jacket.  Although I understand that for the purposes of creativity, craft and continued matrimonial harmony he smiled throughout but has neglected to allow his photo to be included here.

Then they went on to Balmoral Castle on Royal Deeside where the scarf made another appearance.

Helen’s holiday hookery photos have come all the way from New Zealand.  The first was taken at the Franz Josef glacier and the second, as you can tell, on a much warmer and sunnier day in Queenstown.  The much-looked-forward-to holiday was over in a blink of an eye.

Catherine travelled to Moraira in Spain for a whopping 3 weeks as a special family birthday treat.  Whilst there she crocheted herself a beach cover-up which she got to wear before she came home.

I was in Germany, staying in Boppard on the banks of the Rhine.  I got some work done en route.

Within 30 mins of accessing the local shops on day one I had found a shop which sold wool.  It was a strange shop selling both wool and outdoor/trekking clothing and equipment.  It was also a very wet day!

Now which one to choose?  400g or 25g?

I also found a wool shop in Cochem a few days later which was more traditional selling textiles, material, wool and accessories.

Evelyn and I were on the North Coast and couldn’t resist the temptation when a photo opportunity arose.  Not so much a rose between two thorns as a pick-up truck between two roses?  Seriously, we should all remember water safety and thank these folks in the RNLI for the sterling work they do to patrol our beaches during the summer months and rescue folks from the sea all year round.

A few of us managed to have a wee day out, a girlie day, in August with lots of shopping and tea/coffee/lunch.  Individually we had all come across this wee wool shop and independently thought that it might be worth a visit.  It’s a wool shop in Bessbrook and although it has been there for about 40-50 years it is now under new management by Lorna.  Isn’t it great to see this happen and not see another independent yarn shop close it’s doors?  Lorna was on hand to help Elaine choose a yarn to match a current project, I was looking for some cream DK and we also got to chat to another customer and ‘help’ her to choose yarn for a new projet.  It turned out that Elaine and Lorna had mutual, local connections and histories were discussed.  I think that you could call this Hookery in the Bookery went to Bessbrook-ery.  We wish Lorna all the best in her new adventure and we will certainly be back.

One day, I did manage to have a late breakfast of coffee, croissants and a little time to do some crochet at Magheracross, near Bushmills, Co Antrim.

A few idol minutes up at Malin Head produced this.

Hope you all enjoyed our tour?

The end of summer

Well, it's the end of the summer meteorologically speaking because, although not terribly awful, it hasn't been one of the best or hottest summers in Northern Ireland.  Every spring they do promise us a heatwave .....

Our 3Ps Autumn project is continuing and although we are tied to a very tight schedule, we are beavering away to the best of each individual's ability.  Some ladies are more productive than others because they have the skill or because they have the time.  'Every little helps' as the supermarket chain reminds us. Together we will achieve our desired goal.

We have been lazily drifting through the summer holidays and next week sees our local school children return to the classroom.  Among our group we have parents, grand parents and teachers all ready to start the frenetic rush to get ready for school, buy uniforms, books, sports kits, shoes or get lesson plans completed for the old familiar school curriculum or prepare for the new adventure into a new school topic.  Others among us have wearily worked our way through the summer always intending to take a few days off when the 'good spell' arrived.

Two of us have been working away on Zooty Owl, aka Zelna Olivier's, Seaside Winter Blanket CAL. If you don't know what this is it's worth taking a look.  We are at the start of week 11 of 12 now and the time has flown by.  I had a few reservations because I hadn't done anything like this before but it is really enjoyable.  I'm only brave enough to complete a single blanket at a time but Zelan herself has 9 on the go!  Many of the other 2119 group members have at least two which they are working on simultaneously.  Brave women each and every one and I am full of admiration for them.  Check out the photos on Facebook - some of the colour combinations are stunning.

Next Monday some of us are going to a special event being held up on the north coast at Corrymeela. The event is called Dreams.  It is a ladies' day away from all that is happening on the home front, a time to relax, unwind, dream and enjoy hearing from the Scottish artist, Pauline Edmiston, and to create some beautiful silk pieces with her.

Ladies remember to keep taking your holiday hookery pics.  The next blog post will be a collage of our pictures.

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.

Happy Hookday

 School's out for summer, and Hookery is off on its holidays! Check the side bar for holiday hooking spots over the summer. I'm not always about still at this time of the year, but clearly if you host a Hookery the night before your birthday you shouldn't be as surprised as I was at great generosity and sheer culinary prowess.

 Thank you, Niqi, for the rose cake. Thank you, Debbie, for coming to join us, and my goodness we are looking forward to your night in September. I will confess that the idea of spending a night on decopatch terrifies the life out of my comparatively limited creative abilities, but your beautiul work is very inspirational!

 Always back to work eventually. Blanket components for Hombolo being laid out on the floor and considered. Fabulous crochet tops. A piece of magical whimsy in pink gossamer.

And oh the food. The food, the foodies, the fed! Thank you for my Happy Hookday x

Twin set and purrs

I have been working on two colour co-ordinated throws for a room with twin beds.  The colours are the same in both throws but the patterns are very different.

One of the occupants really likes cats so I was asked to make her a cat blanket.  Thanks to Guru Paricia for showing me how to crochet a cat pattern :-)

The cat throw is still a work in progress and will eventually be the same size as the granny square throw.

It might also need a little bit of blocking to get the shape just right .......  I don't think the cat has got the right idea about how I want to straighten the piece out!

Lots of other crochet has been progressing while we have been having a little hookey holiday.

Queen Niqi's shawl

Helena's warm winter jumper

A flimsy frilly fashion scarf

Guru Patricia's baby blanket

Anne's mini hat

Rosemary's Sammy Sheep

These two little characters have been knitted by Rosemary and Anne to go on mini Innocent bottles sold in Sainsburys in aid of Age Concern.

Andy Who?

Heather Boss is once again running the Holiday Hookery photo competition. I am submitting a lamentably poor contribution this year.

 Sunday 7th July 2013. There was apparently an historic tennis match in progress.

 77 years? Possibly how long it will take me to finish one side of this bag if the heat keeps up.

Alright dear. Yes, I'll be there in a minute...