Monday, January 9, 2012

The Beginning of the Sky Scarf

After about a four year hiatus, I've recently gotten back into crocheting. One of my new projects is called a sky scarf. Essentially, you knit or crochet a scarf with 365 rows. Each row represents the color of the sky for each day for a full year. I think it is a lovely way to capture a bit of the outdoors to wear and bring with you anywhere. It's almost like a yarn version of a weather journal. It's also a great way to get into the habit of just looking up and appreciating the sky and all its lovely hues a little more often.

Below is a photo of the sky scarf that inspired this project. Because mine will be crocheted instead of knit, it will look quite a bit different, but I am hopeful that it will be equally beautiful.


I decided to try this project a few months ago when I first found the photo and idea on Pinterest. I found a bargain on some nice soft yarn in various blues and greys and ordered it in November. At the end of the year, I spent a few days messing around with various stitch combinations to find one that is a little bit more interesting than your standard single crochet. 

Beginning January 1, 2012, I began recording the color of the sky in a little pocket calendar. That way, I don't have to sit down and crochet one row each day. After I record the colors for several days (or weeks or maybe even months), I can sit down and crochet a bunch of rows at once. Of course, the sky changes color many times during the course of one day, so the color choice for each day is a bit subjective. However, there is usually one color that seems to dominate or that really speaks to me because I was outside at that particular time and the day just left the impression of being grey or white or bright blue. Today, for instance was blue but with some wispy white clouds and chillier than previous days. Thus, I've deemed it to be a very pale blue day.

So far, we are nine days into the year and I've crocheted up the first eight rows of the scarf. I like how the stitch pattern I picked results in an overlapping, almost checkerboard sort of pattern. I'm excited to keep going with it, and I hope that I can stick with it through all of 2012. I promise to post updates as I move forward with this project! I'm not someone that's really big on New Year's resolutions, but I suppose that is my resolution for 2012... to remember to note the sky color each day and complete an entire 366-day sky scarf.