A Knit Temperature project is a great way to capture the weather of a place in a colorful and beautiful piece
Total Project Time: One Year
I recently became aware of temperature scarves and blankets where each row is the temperature of a day and the project lasts the entire year. This makes the whole project 365 rows long which makes a great length for a project. Since I live in an area of rapid climate shifts, I thought this would be cool to show in knitting. It’s a fun way to capture how it can be a high of 28°F one day and then watch it increase to a high of 72°F the next. Cleveland is a weird place y’all.
But instead of doing a scarf or a blanket, I decided to do a shawl! This seemed like a fun idea because the number of stitches in a row increases and keeps count with the day. Although I’m a little worried about what it will look like at the end of the year! Below is the pattern for the shawl I plan to use so for those knitters out there, join me to make a fun 2022 project!
Check out the Craft section of MCG for more fun patterns in strings and things or more unlimited ideas.
Supplies
For this project I decided that each span of 10 degrees was going to be a different color. This leads to 11 different colors of yarn! I listed out the colors below.
| Less than or equal to 0°F | Black |
| 1°F – 10°F | White |
| 11°F – 20°F | Purple |
| 21°F – 30°F | Lilac |
| 31°F – 40°F | Blue |
| 41°F – 50°F | Teal |
| 51°F – 60°F | Green |
| 61°F – 70°F | Yellow |
| 71°F – 80°F | Orange |
| 81°F – 90°F | Red |
| Greater than or equal to 91°F | Pink |
Process
01
Knitting Pattern
This pattern consists of four blocks. Blocks two and four are effectively the same expect for the last row – it’s a garter stitch so all knitting. The first block is a dropped stitch block. This stitch consists of doing yarn over stitches and then promptly dropping them to create a zig zag stitch between the two blocks of garter rows.
The third block is the most complicated but it’s not that difficult. This block is made up of lace stitches to create a pattern of alternating holes. This is the biggest block with different patterns for the stitches on the right side of the project.
02
Finish
For each day, I do one right side row and one wrong side row. I think it has a better look. Changing the yarn colors leaves a lot of string tails along the one border of the project. I have seen some scarves that leave these strings as a fringe, but I will probably weave them in over time.
Quick Recipe
Temperature Shawl
Instructions
Starting the Project
- CO3
- Row 1: Knit all stitches
- Row 2: Knit all stitches
- Rows 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15: Knit until the last two stitches, K1FB ,K1
- Rows 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16: Knit until end
Block 1: Dropped Stitch
- Row 1: K1, *K1, Yo2*, repeat *-* until the last two stitches, K1FB, K1
- Row 2: K1, Purl across dropping Yo stitches until the last stitch, K1
Block 2: Garter Stitch One
- Rows 1, 3, 5, 7: Knit until the last two stitches, K1FB, K1
- Rows 2, 4, 6: Knit until end
- Row 8: K1, Purl until last stitch, K1
Block 3: Yarn Over Lace
- Row 1: K1, *K2tog, Yo1*, repeat *-* until the last two stitches, K1FB, K1
- Row 2: K1, Purl until last stitch, K1
- Row 3: K1, *K2tog, Yo1*, repeat *-* until the last three stitches, K1,K1FB, K1
- Row 4: K1, Purl until last stitch, K1
- Row 5: K1, *Yo1, K2tog*, repeat *-* until the last three stitches, YO1, K3
- Row 6: K1, Purl until last stitch, K1
Block 4: Garter Stitch Two
- Rows 1, 3, 5, 7: Knit until the last two stitches, K1FB, K1
- Rows 2, 4, 6, 8: Knit until end
Shawl
- Repeat Blocks One through Four until desired length is reached.
Notes
| K1FB | Knit one, front and back | Increases the stitch by one by knitting through the front and back of the stitch |
| Yo | Yarn Over | Increases the stitch by one be wrapping the yarn around the needle |
| K2tog | Knit two together | Decreases stitches by one by knitting two stitches together |