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.

Grannies' meeting

Well now ladies, what have we here?  A grannies' meeting?  Last night it was a tad cold in the church hall and one by one people seemed to be wrapping themselves up.  And very useful the big blankets turned out to be too!

First it was Anne with the Fairytale Blanket

Then Gillain almost completely covered herself in Aran McPhee but that's OK because Gillian has been feeling a bit under the weather and this was her first night with us in ages

Barbara had her latest ripple blanket over her knees - lovely bright colours

Leigh was 'just trying out' Fleg for Queen Niqi

And Karen was measuring her Learning to Crochet blanket against Heather's Cappucino Aran  blanket for size

But the highlight of the evening was planning THE party of the season.  An evening not to be missed on 5th  June when Hookery at Coffee Dock will reach the mega-heights of one year old.  Yes, hard to believe but Hookery will have been meeting outside The Bookery for a whole year.  At our party we will have sweets and savouries, home-made ice cream, non-alcoholic cordials and, of course, cake.  We may even dress up for the occasion and you may be treated to facial photographs once again, not seen since we played dinner guests to the Brownies when they did their Hostess Badge earlier in the year.

Two of the original Hookery 3 had been no longer required to serve in The Bookery a few months ago and now Member 3 has also been discharged from her Bookery duties.  The three will once again be united on a Wednesday evening.  Looking forward to that.

See you next week :-)

At ripple's end

This is a special milestone for us as this blanket heralded the start of our Hookery group many many months ago.  It all began in October 2011 in the Library at Jordanstown when Mags asked guru Patricia for advice re stitches and colours ....  In the Spring of 2012 we spread our wings and started blogging and photos of the the ripple started to appear.

The tear-jerking final stitch

 

 Ta dah!!

122 ripples

Knowing when to stop rippling has been a bit of a dilemma, but one that was ultimately solved by mere logistics! After seeing Gillian and Ann under it at Christmas I could see that we were certainly nearly there, but did want it to cover all of my very tall husband during his late night TV marathons! So on I went for a little while, before discovering that actually I was down to my last ball of dark green.  So here is Prince Charming yesterday, and the 122 ripples do cover most him!

The next step is to do a border- Patricia, I need you! You got me started, and I want you to get me finished! It's very wavy at the edges- nearly as wavy as the ripples! If I tell you that it is 0.15m wider at the end than the start you'll not be surprised. And that's by no means an even growth- there are many coves and rock pools where the ripples crash ashore! My plan is to do a very plain border- double crochets mainly, but perhaps using triple in the most obvious valleys.  Overall, howver, I am thrilled- this has been my one real project for the whole length of time that we have been hooking in the Bookery and in the Dock...

 

Welcome to all you exceedingly kind folk who have arrived via Grow your Blog. I will explain, apologetically, to Hookery members that I signed fraise up to this event but completely ran out of time at the weekend to post over there, but in the meantime Hookery seems to have been signed up too, and here are Heather, Angela, liniecat, Jade and Pia! Guys, you are very welcome and we will all be visting you soon. If you ever find yourselves in the Belfast area, do come and hook with us x

Autumn term begins for Hookery

After the brief (but welcome) warmth of last week Autumn has arrived and the new term begins. For the time being we are still following alternate Wednesdays at Heather's and The Dock, but we need to come up with a revised plan if founding members are going to be able to attend this side of Christmas. Bring your diaries next week.

This week was quite quiet, but a lot of work taking place.

Knit one

Purl one

Fancy one

New project - cat blanket is complete

Another new project

Progress on another Patchwork Bag

Ripple above and more beautiful samples below

Mum's Christmas present - thanks to Lynne for winding a ball from my skein