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.]

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Beautiful people and beautiful sweaters combine in Lasse L. Matberg’s Viking Knits. The book includes more than 40 Scandinavian inspired knits for men, women and children featuring textured stitches and colorwork.

Matberg is known as The Viking and has worked as a chef, naval officer, fitness instructor and model, as well as being on a couple of reality TV shows. He comes from a long line of makers and his book was first published in Norwegian in 2021 and has since come out in an English version.

The book is divided into sections including everyday sweaters, knits for the great outdoors, stylish knitwear, Norse sweaters and accessories. Some of the patterns use the same designs in different versions for men, women and children. I counted seven projects rated for beginners, 19 for intermediate knitters and 17 for experienced knitters. The more difficult patterns tend to have allover colorwork or stitch patterning.

The pattern stitches and colorwork are shown in charts, with a little bit of text to tell you how to make the garment. Most of the book is sweaters, but there are also hats (sometimes coordinating with sweaters), scarves and a couple of sitting mats.

You can check out all the patterns on Ravelry. Some of my favorites are the more basic ones, such as the Power Sweater, a close-fitting (sized for men) ribbed sweater; the Heart Sweater, a raglan with allover lice stitch; and the Midsummer Sweater, with textured stripes and a henley neckline. I also like the Breeze designs (there are versions for men, women and children) that have colorwork diamonds on them.

Sizing on the garments varies, but there are six sizes for the men’s patterns (noted as small through XXL and then Lasse sized), six for women (XS to XL) and three for children (age 2-4, 6-8 and 10-12).

The yarns used in the book aren’t available in the United States but you can find suppliers here if you want to use the same yarns. Otherwise the book gives a lot of details about yarn content and gauge so you should be able to find good substitutes wherever you live.

If you have Norwegian or Scandinavian heritage or just like the look of cozy textured or colorful sweaters, this book is a lot of fun, and the eye candy is pretty great, too.

About the book: 192 pages, hardcover, 43 patterns. Published in English in 2023 by Search Press. Suggested retail price $29.95.

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