9-Year-Old Knits the Weather

I have heard about people using the daily weather where they live as inspiration for their knitting projects before (see the Sky Scarf from Leafcutter Designs) but I really like what 9-year-old knitter Rebecca Ryan did last year, knitting a scarf with colors that represent the high temperature each day in her native Seattle.

She worked her scarf in purples, pinks and blues, and it’s actually quite beautiful, as well as showing a record of warm days and cold snaps. She decided to do that instead of a sky scarf because so many days are cloudy in Seattle, and it’s easy to forget to write down what the sky looked like, where you can always look up the daily high if you forget to keep track.

This is also really interesting because you can see the temperatures for the year graphed out in a pie chart if you click through, and there was no really dominant temperature through the year (the most yardage used was for the 51 to 55 degree range, which was the temperature 14 percent of the time).

Rebecca is knitting a new scarf this year with the added twist of working in beads on the days it rains. Given the soggy reputation of Seattle, that should be a really interesting finished object.

[Photo via Komo News.]

Have You Knit a Temperature Scarf? Heres How to Do it

Dad Knits a Blanket to Track Babys Sleep

Next Pattern:

Santa and Saint Nicholas generally get all the good press, but Central European kids know you don’t want to just be good so you get presents from St. Nicholas; you also want to avoid the ire of Krampus. (He’s depicted as a human-like figure with horns and usually hairy or furry who gives birch rods instead of gifts to kids who are bad.)

If you’re the type to embrace the naughty side (or you just want to scare the children into good behavior over the holidays), maybe you’ll want to knit a Krampus sweater.

This one, from Sofie Amalie Laulund, is a top down circular yoke sweater with Krampus faces at the top and cavorting Krampuses further down the body, with some traditional Scandinavian snowflakes thrown in for fun.

Because of the large motifs there’s not a lot of room for adjusting the fit, but it is available in five sizes (the Ravelry page doesn’t say what the sizing is, and it says its worked with no ease but the photo looks like the sweater has a bit of positive ease, so if you decide to make this one just check the measurements and your own comfort level for ease when picking a size).

It also uses five colors, but there’s very little red and brown so you can probably use scrap yarn for those parts. It calls for DK weight yarn. You’ll want a background color that helps the creatures stand out. You could also work the snowflake bands in different colors if you want to mix it up.

The pattern is available in both English and Danish, and you can find it on Ravelry. This is the designer’s first pattern, which kudos to them because it’s such an ambitious (and fun!) project I’m happy to add to my collection of whimsy-filled knits.

[Photo: Sofie Amalie Laulund]

Next Pattern:

Have you read?