This is a conceptual knitting pattern that will look different for everyone who knits it. In this pattern, you record the day's highest temperature by knitting one row in the colour designated for each temperature. At the end of the year, you will have a visual colourful graph of the temperatures of your area for a whole year.
Start by casting on 35 stitches in white and knit 5 rows, working in garter stitch. After that, knit one row a day, in the colour you have chosen to represent your temperature groupings.
Knit two rows in white at the start of each month, if you would like to keep track of the separate months.
At the end of the year, knit another 5 rows in white. Bind off, weave in ends, and you are done! I think this would also look nice in a monochromatic colour scheme. Hmmm, something to try next year? I am excited to see how mine turns out!
You can go to a website and download the high temp for each day from previous years if you don't want to wait to try it! I might do this 2012!
ReplyDeleteOooh, I'd love to see it if you make it!
DeleteI'm using a website to do the same - except, I'm going to do scarves for my boys for the year they were born!! This is a FANTASTIC idea!!
DeleteI have long admired the sky scarves (one row for the sky each day - so it's all blues / greys / whites generally) but I really love this idea! Can't wait to see your progress!
ReplyDeleteThanks Becca! I am so interested to see how it will turn out!
DeleteWhat a great idea! I can't wait to see everyone's progress!
ReplyDeleteThanks Danielle! Me too!
DeleteI just came across this today. I've enjoyed browsing through your blog, and I like your patterns. I'm going to see if I have enough colors in my stash to do this lovely scarf. If not, there's always next year!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by! There's a big group of us on ravelry who are doing a Knit ALong, so if you do cast-on, you should join in!
DeleteI love this idea, thanks for sharing it! I want to knit one for my partner, starting on his birthday this month. We're going to choose colours next week. :)
ReplyDeleteYay! Let me know what colours you go with.
DeleteSuch a nice idea Kris!
ReplyDeleteWhen you mean "one row a day" do you mean one row - or - one "round" (seams knitting two needles).
It seams to be a short(er) shawl with ~ 400 rows.
I hope you kno what I mean my english is long long ago from scool.
Best regards, Ursula.
Hi Ursula! It depends on what your gauge is. If you are using thicker yarns, you may only want to do one row a day. But if you are using finer yarns, you may want to do two to get the scarf long enough.
DeleteI´ll use "sock-weight-Yarn" - no thicker yarn. Today I made my "Colour Card" ... it will be a stash of 10 colours including white !
DeleteThanks for all, Ursula.
this is such a fun idea! Thanks for the inspiration!
ReplyDeleteThanks! It makes me so happy that so many people are into it!
DeleteSo glad I found you. I can't wait to try this. Thanks, Love your blog
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by Jacqueline! :)
DeleteI just saw this today on Ravelry and wow! What a great idea for a scarf!! I now just need to go through my yarn and decide what to use. Thanks!!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome!
DeleteHave you started already? I love this Idea and now I'm searching for the different colours to start....
ReplyDeleteYup, I started! I think I'll post monthly updates. If you're on ravelry, a lot of people are posting their progress under the projects section.
DeleteMy dissertation involves stream flow, and I'm really tempted to knit one by stream gauge height for the year I'm using in my thesis. I think it would be really pretty.
ReplyDeleteOh wow! That would be sooo cool! What a neat way to bring some visual art to your thesis.
DeleteI was thinking rain fall for PNW, since the temp hardly changes.
DeleteHow about ends? If doing 2 rows I could carry up the side if changes weren't too dramatic, but otherwise that's potentially 365 ends...
Just found your end discussion below!
DeleteI love this idea! I'm looking at my stash and it's time to look through the bits and bobs. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteIt's perfect for getting rid of all those scarps and odds and ends!
DeleteOops, scraps, not scarps
Deletethis is a very nice idea! I 'll try to do it but I believe color range won't be very wide here in Paris France. Hope I can show it at the end of 2013. Wish you very intense knitting times, Val
ReplyDeleteThanks Val! You could always do smaller increments of temperature to get in more colours. I'd be interested in seeing it when it is done :)
DeleteI'm in Paris as well (well, the suburbs) and there's no way we get as cold as even -14 so I am going to do a different colour range I think.
DeleteThis is SUCH a neat idea! I don't neat often, but I might start now... very cool! Looking forward to see your finished project... in a year (ish)! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Bree! You should join in. It really only takes about 1 minute a day!
DeleteI love this idea! You must live in a northern climate like I do to have temps that low. I have to go to the weather network to get the stats for the days I've missed so far, but I'm in!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Yup, we live in Northern BC. Gotta love the cold!
DeleteThis is So Cool! I cast on as soon as I saw it and caught up. My daughter thinks I've lost my mind.
ReplyDeletehttp://gnomeknits.blogspot.com/2013/01/this-is-so-cool-accept-when-itll-be-hot.html
Cool! I love the post!
DeleteThis idea is amazing!
ReplyDeleteI am not yet decided if I will knit this or not.... If so, I would knit 2 rows per day to get a scarf of about 1,5m - using sock yarn.
Recently I was travelling in some rain forest area. They could do a similar thing by color-docing the dayly rain fall ;-)
Keeping track of the rainfall would be so neat to see! Good idea!
DeleteI can just about visualize the scarf that would represent Dubai's temperatures! Neat idea, thanks. Will have to plan colours first.
ReplyDeleteHaha! You might have to do smaller temperature increments!
DeleteI am loving this idea so much, and have been keeping a record of the temps since I had to order a couple colours of yarn. Once they arrive, I'm in! Crochet for me though, knitting hurts my brain.
ReplyDeleteYay for crochet! Should look cool!
DeleteI started my scarf Today! Thank you for the inspiration! I posted a pic of my 1 week scarf on Tumblr: http://ministryofnailpolish.tumblr.com/
ReplyDeleteLooks good! Haha, I love the name of your tumblr.
DeleteIt's the Lea Redmond's idea: http://www.leafcutterdesigns.com/projects/conceptknit.html#skyscarf & http://www.flickr.com/groups/1743268@N22/pool/ ;)
ReplyDeleteThank you for the link :-)
DeleteVery cool! The sky scarf was definitely part of the inspiration for this pattern!
DeleteI love this, our climate isn't too variable I think I would have to have some yarn with sparkle for the few days a year when we have snow just to break up the monotony of winter :-)
ReplyDeleteGood idea! I'm hoping for either a warm or really cold day, just so I can use another colour! So far I've just used green and dark green :S
DeleteFound this on Facebook via Max's World , fantastic idea ! I am definately going to do this!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Looking forward to seeing them when they are done!
DeleteSuch a clever idea! It'll be crochet for me since I do that much better than knitting. Mine will be a variety since I live in the California central valley (read: cold to really hot)
ReplyDeleteI like that crocheters can do this project too! So far in January I have had a spread of 35 degrees (celcius) from my coldest daily high to my warmest daily high! We have a lot of temperature changes as well!
DeleteWhat's the color scale in standard measurements (F)?
ReplyDeleteEveryone seems to be making up their own. I'm not sure what the temperatures are converted to fahrenheit, but here is a scale that someone else made that includes fahrenheit http://blog.bernat.com/2013/01/18/temperature-scarf-cal-and-kal/
DeleteI realized I never stopped by to thank you for the idea! I'm working on a crochet version. Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by Marie! I look forward to seeing how the crochet version turns out!
DeleteI have started this myself. Thank you so much for the inspiration.
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping me a note! I look forward to seeing the finished scarves!
DeleteI think I might have to do this one in Tunisian crochet... I might even have all the requisite sock yarn colors hanging around. ^_^
ReplyDeleteOoooo, I've never seen Tunisian crochet before. I'll have to look it up! Please show me a picture when you're done! (Or part way through!)
DeleteThanks for the idea! My local knit group is going to start on this next week for a KAL. What do you suggest to do with the ends? Are you carrying them all up the whole way or cutting and weaving them in as you go?
ReplyDeleteHi Samantha! I've heard a number of people doing different things with the ends. Some people are going to do tassels up the sides. Some are carrying the ends up the sides and then hiding them with an icord after. Some are weaving them in as they go and some are doing the magic knot method. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nq_7EXTWHE
DeleteThanks for the help :)
DeleteYou're welcome :)
ReplyDeleteIf anyone needs a website to look up temperatures, you can use http://www.almanac.com/weather/history It lets you put in your location and you can search specific dates.
ReplyDeleteThanks Elizabeth, very helpful!
DeleteI would be interested in finding out the temperatures for the year I was born and making a "Weather History" Scarf or even afghan. I knit and crochet so can do several versions.
DeleteA nice gift would be a weather scarf done for a significant occasion for the recipient (year graduated from college; marriage; birth of each child, etc.
OMG! This has to be one of the coolest ideas I have ever seen! Satisfies my ADD-ish, OCD-ish, yarn addict all at once!!! Not sure I can do every single day, but I just might try, with the idea of getting temps from previous years to start, maybe....LOVE IT
ReplyDeleteHaha, Annie! ADD, OCD, yarn addict...I hear ya! Glad you like the project!
DeleteSince short I really love KAL's, so I found yours!! This is really a very original idea!! I am going to cast this scarf on this weekend!! Thanks for the great idea.
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked it and are joining the KAL!
DeleteIt is a great idea(-: I already choose my yarn. I adjusted the range of temperatures a little and changed the colours into the colour I really like. And now I have to decide if I like my scarf to be either knitted or crocheted....
DeleteSo glad I decided to check out your blog link on the Ravelry post. My daughter and I are doing this. She is in Australia and chose only 5 temperature ranges(celsius) and is knitting hers in the round so it is double thickness. I'm in N. America so I am doing 5 degree increments (fahrenheit)with about 16 colors so far.
ReplyDeleteAbout the ends: I'm working back and forth on a circular needle and leaving colors attached at the sides. Whichever end the yarn is on that I need, I can knit from either end so there are less ends to weave in.
I also measured how much yarn it takes to do a row. If the yarn is attached at the side several rows below where I need it, I cut it at a bit over a yard then weave it up the side. This also saves having a few more ends.
It would be fun to have a flickr group where we could all post photos of our scarves in progress through the year. Not sure how to do that.
Oooh, great idea about the circular needles. I too was thinking about a way that we could share all our photos. I know there are several KAL/CAL on ravelry and Bernat, but I kinda wanted to get people to send me their pictures and feature them on my blog. Hmmm, hopefully I'll get around to arranging something!
DeleteThanks for stopping by Marianne!
Maybe something like Mr. Linky would be good. The photos are just linked to each person's blog or photo storage but there is a thumbnail on your blog. But Mr. Linky is a paid subscription now. If you google, free linky tools, there are alternatives.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to check those out!
Deletei saw a suggestion of doing a row according to the color of the sky (I live in Seattle - there are a lot of shades of grey). I wish I'd seen your idea first.
ReplyDeletemaybe next year...
Yes, I did see the sky scarf, it was my inspiration for this one. I thought it would be easier to keep track of the temperature.
DeleteOh, oh, I know this is a pretty old post and I'm way behind but I still had to leave a comment and let you know how completely amazing this idea is. My boyfriend is obsessed with the weather (typical English, I guess). I sense a gift knit in the making.
ReplyDeleteThanks Michelle! We Canadians too are obsessed with the weather. It is the topic of conversation when you meet strangers in the street.
DeleteI am crocheting a temperature afghan and using 5 degree Celsius increments. I have done Jan. to almost finished May. I used white, Lt blue,green,yellow,orange,pink, wine,red and red varigated. White being 0 degrees(32F). So far no white was used. I'm single crocheting a row per day and double crocheting black between the months. It seems I may have a finished size of 52" by 102-108". Gonna need sunglasses to look at it, with the way the colors are coming together!
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome! It would be so nice to have an afghan at the end of this project! I have some major catching up to do on mine, pretty much from the beginning of May until now. I find it hard to knit when the weather is so nice though- we only have the warm weather for such a short time that you have to make the most of it!
DeleteI look forward to seeing pictures when you are done!
Kris- I finished the temperature afghan and will have to post it. Probably in Knitting Paradise. My user name is arlenecc and will post in the Pictures. At the top of each page is information and you can put in my name and when my name comes up, click on list items posted by me.. I will have it up by the 12th.
DeleteI posted the photos and here is the link|:
Deletehttp://www.knittingparadise.com/t-229890-1.html
Oh wow! That looks amazing! Now you have two nice big cozy afghans! That would have been a lot of work.
DeleteNot when you don't do it all at once. I loved your idea. but not a scarf so much, and since it was for a year, why not an afghan. I was surprised the colors looked ok as they would not have been a choice in another project. I tried to pick them in cool to hot and ignored the fact they might clash. Looks very Mexican to me.
DeleteThey do look Mexican! I love the variegated red stripes in there as well.
DeleteThis is a great idea! I totally want to do this. I'm going to give it a shot.
ReplyDeleteThanks Katie! Do show me a picture if you finish it!
DeleteWhat a great idea! Thank you for the pattern.
ReplyDeleteThanks Leslie!
DeleteI had started a crochet project like this, but I can already tell, on Jan 10th, that I made it too wide with a stitch that will use a LOT of yarn. I love your idea much better, especially the parts about starting the year with white and putting white rows in between months. Perfect! The colors you have here are much like mine too. The only difference is I will be using Fahrenheit instead of Celsius temps. Thanks so much for sharing this! It will be interesting to see how this turns out for our 2016 Colorado weather!
ReplyDeleteOooh, I would love to see your finished project! We are having a very cold winter here, with very little snow. It is a strange year for us! Sometime, I'd like to try a precipitation scarf!
DeleteHave you done more than one year of these? Or do you know anyone who has? I'm curious...does the weather change over time??
ReplyDeleteI haven't yet, but it would be very interesting to see, especially with the strange winter weather we have been having here the last few years!
DeleteYes, weather does change over time. Does anyone know of a website that shows daily temperatures from before 1960? I'd like to do a pair of scarves, one for 2017 and one for 1917.
DeleteI love this idea! Maybe start in 2017 and go back in 10 year intervals, like 2007 1997 1987 as far as you can. Keep me posted? I would say that if you ask at the library they can show you microfiche for old newspapers as well.
DeleteWhat size needles
ReplyDeleteYou can use whatever size needles to match the yarn you are going to use. This is a conceptual pattern, which means you choose your gauge, stitch style, yarn, needles, etc.
Delete