2016 Temperature Afghan complete

As promised, here is all the info regarding the 2016 temperature afghan. This afghan was begun February 23 and finished April 20. That does include a few weeks off while waiting for yarn.

Here are pictures of the finished afghan before I took care of the tails.

The finished size is approximately 43" x 72". 2016 was a leap year so one more row than the 2013 I did previously. As you can see the afghan is not lying flat so measuring was a bit tricky. I can't get down on the floor anymore to measure large items.

I used the Wunderground site to get my data for the high temperatures for each day. https://www.wunderground.com/history/ 

[Update: You can now use the weatherghan web site to get your temperature information for your locale. Faster and easier. http://weatherghansite.azurewebsites.net/ ]

I chose to use the calendar year from January to December. Some people go from their birthdate to first birthday.

How to get your data and edit it is in the post from February 17, 2017.  

This afghan was made using Knit Picks Brava Sport yarn. I usually love this yarn but had some trouble mostly with knots and especially in the paprika. The paprika, even the new skeins, had some plasticy flat sections. I just used those as is since they were just part of the yarn. It just felt funny but seems to have worked okay within the project.

I used a G hook. Foundation chain was 226. 

Here are the temperatures, the color used, and how many of that color.
30s eggplant (1)
40s mulberry (1)
50s freesia (25)
60s cornflower (35)
70s marina (40)
75-79 tranquil (51)
80-84 Grass (52),
85-89 canary (42)
90-91s orange (50)
93-95 paprika (46)
96-99 red (23)
100 caution (1)

Tips:
If you use the same stitch I did, to help you see that very first single crochet of the row you can put a stitch marker in that first stitch. Just move the marker up as you go to each row. You will need one at both ends of the row if you choose to do this. Both ends should be the same. Every row begins and ends with a single crochet.

In all the months that begin with Row 3, the odd numbered days are worked with sc, sc at the beginning and end of the rows, the even numbered days are worked starting with (sc, ch 1, sk 1).


In the months that begin with Row 4 it is reversed. Odd numbered days are with with the (sc, ch 1, sk1) and the even days are worked with the sc, sc.

Which months these are will depend on which year you are working.

I chose to mark the last row of each month with a stitch marker, but that is just me. It served no purpose except to show me the months.

My pattern:
With a G hook and sport yarn, chain 226
Change colors according to your temperature chart.
Row 1: sc in second ch from hook and in each ch across (225 sc)

Row 2: ch 1, turn, sc in first sc, * ch 1, skip next sc, sc in next sc, repeat from * across. You should finish evenly, with a sc in your last stitch.

Row 3: ch 1, turn, sc in first sc, sc in ch-1 space, * ch 1, skip next sc, sc in next ch-1 space, repeat from * across row to last stitch, sc in last stitch

Row 4: ch 1, turn, sc in first sc, * ch 1, skip next sc, sc in next ch-1 space, repeat from * across. You should finish evenly, with a sc in your last stitch.

Rows 5 - 365 (or 366) Repeat rows 3 and 4 consecutively 


Note: Every row begins with a sc in first stitch. After the first sc stitch, you will sc if the next thing is a ch space, and you will ch-1 and skip it if the next thing is a sc.

The edging is (sc, ch 1, sk 1) using (sc, hdc, sc) in corners. I used marina for the edging.

Here are pictures of the afghan at the end of each month. 

Janury

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

2016 tempghan thru November

Only one month left to go and then, of course, the tails. I seem to be good at getting the tails for the first couple of months done as I go but then I get lazy.

I don't know if anyone who reads this followed April the Giraffe's pregnancy but the calf was born today, a boy. I was able to watch the labor and beginning steps of the baby. I had only been following a few weeks but I felt quite rewarded to catch the birth.

I should finish the temperature afghan this week. Then I will put all the information together in one post.

It's been an interesting experience but I think I'm done with temperature afghans for a while.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

2016 tempghan thru October

Only two months to go. Here is October. I have finished with orange and red. I have only a very small ball of orange left. It had me worried for a minute. :-) There were 50 orange rows so it used almost the entire two skeins.

There are a few yellow rows coming up and then the rest of the rows are in the blues and greens.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

2016 tempghan thru sept

We're in the home stretch. Only three months to go! Here is September. It's outgrown the loveseat so here it is laid out on the big sofa.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

2016 tempghan thru August

Another month down ... 2016 Temperature Afghan through August laid out on a loveseat.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

2016 temperature afghan thru July

Temperature afghan is moving along nicely. It wasn't difficult to get back into the routine. I do most of the crocheting while watching TV. I've also continued using my stitch markers to make sure I don't miss the end stitch and to mark the end of each month, just for reference.

The Brava Sport Caution I used for the 100 degree temperature is very close in color to the Canary. It just has a bit more orange to it. I had a moment of wishing I'd chosen a shade with more variation in color, but it is only one row and when I realized it I had already gone a number of rows past it. 

At this point, the afghan is approximately 40" long. It is doubled over in the picture so it is twice as wide as it looks on my loveseat.

As I've said before, I'll give all the details when it's done but quickly note that I am using a G hook and Knit Picks Brava Sport yarn.

The Paprika yarn I was waiting for has been a bit of a disappointment. It has had a few thick spots and some flat bits that have a plasticy feel. If I have to cut out a bit on a one-row color I generally start the row over and I've had to start a couple of rows over with this yarn. All in all it's not the quality I expect from Knit Picks. I hope it is not a sign of things to come in the line. That would be disappointing.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

2016 temperature afghan June

I've resumed work on the 2016 temperature afghan. Here is a picture through June.

I will put all the pertinent information in one post when I've finished.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

2016 temperature afghan through April

The 2016 temperature afghan is going very well. I will have to put it aside when I get to the month that uses paprika since I have none and Knit Picks doesn't have any either. It used to say they'd have some March 15 but now it says April 4. I'm sure I'll be at that point way before that date. I'm thinking of using a different color.

I thought of an additional tip that you might use, especially if you're a beginner at crocheting, to see that very first single crochet of the row. If you put a stitch marker in that stitch it will be very easy to see. Just move the marker up as you go to each row. You will need one at both ends of the row if you choose to do this.

And here is my progress ...

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

2016 tempghan through March

Here is the ghan through the end of March.

These are the colors I've used so far. I'm done with mulberry as there was only one row needing that color.

40s mulberry 
50s freesia 
60s cornflower 
70s marina 
75-79 tranquil 
80-84 Grass

I had a bit of a panic when I went to grab a second skein of the tranquil in my bag and couldn't find it. Eventually I discovered it in my closet. Whew!

Most of the months appear to take me two-three days to complete. I tried to determine how long one row took to complete but never could sit down long enough to do one row with no interruptions and actually remember to look at a clock. LOL That's one of my goals today!

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

2016 Temperature afghan through Feb

Here are the progress pictures of the 2016 temperature afghan, through February. As before I'm marking the months with a stitch marker. All the info will be in the post at the end.

Here it is through the end of January.

Here it is through the end of February, completed last night. All tails woven in. I doubt I'll keep that up, but it's my goal. :-)

I almost hate to say it's going fairly smoothly. I did have to frog one row because I picked up cornflower instead of tranquil. I don't think the toddler would have noticed but still ... heh

I still have a couple skeins I need to order but they're not available until March 15 so I'll just keep working until I get to where I don't have the color I need. 

I've been a little disappointed in the Knit Picks Brava Sport which is usually my go-to yarn. I've run into many knots (sometimes on one strand, sometimes a larger knot) and thick spots where I had to cut them out. Sometimes I could work on the thick and still use it but I was cautious on that.

Having to cut out pieces adds to the already huge number of tails to sew in on this particular afghan. I have been just starting the row over if it's just one row but that causes me to use more yarn than expected because I've had to do this several times. It's not been just one color either, although I can say it's been one of the few colors I've used so far. Cornflower I think has been the biggest culprit though I know I've had to cut in the middle of a two-row sequence on the freesia. The colors I've used so far are freesia, cornflower, tranquil and marina. I had one row of the mulberry but I don't recall having a problem with it.

Anyway, if the March order is the same, that's it for Brava for me. Maybe I was just unlucky with this batch and the next will be fine. I'm thinking of trying that Scheeljes yarn I talked about last time.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

2016 temperature afghan

2016 temperature afghan has begun! This is about halfway through January. I just wanted to note the day I began for reference. The beginning went much more smoothly this time around. No knots. No do-overs. :-)

I used an F hook for the foundation chain. There is still a little gathering but not nearly as much as before. In retrospect I think this time it may be from not making my chains between single crochets loose/wide enough. In any case, I'm okay with it. I'm trying to pay attention to those chains a little more and keep them the same as much as I can.

I'm using a G hook for the body of the afghan. I'm using my little cheat sheet for starting each row but am finding I don't need it as much as I did on the first one. Of course, it's early on.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

2016 temperature afghan

It begins! Here is my planning post for the upcoming afghan. I can't work on it yet as I'm waiting for yarn. It should be in next week. However, there's still a lot of planning to do before that. There was also some yarn that was not in stock, so I will have to order those when they become available. They are not needed until middle of the afghan so it should work out okay.

As a reference, I used the Wunderground site to get my data for the high temperatures for each day. https://www.wunderground.com/history/ 

To my surprise, when I searched for the 2016 data, it was missing the latter half of November and beginning of December. I was able to get those missing highs by doing a week by week search for those dates.

Here's what needs to be done. Go to Wunderground and do a custom date range for the year in question. You will have to scroll down to get the daily data. Copy from January to December and place in Microsoft Word. Then copy the two columns which show the day and the high temp for that day (from Word) (or whatever temperature you decide you want to feature). Copy those columns into Notepad. Put the day and temperature on the same line, then copy and paste to a new Word document. For some reason this makes everything double spaced Make them single spaced. Then I made the document 3 columns to conserve space. It was still 4 pages long. Of course you could keep it in notepad if you want to, saving a few steps, but if you print it out it will be many pages (365 or 366 lines).

Using the "find" I checked each possible high temperature to see how many there were in each. That sounds so quick when you type it, but takes a while because you know there are 100 possible temps. Why did I do this? Because in order to decide how much yarn I needed for each color I needed to know how many rows I would be crocheting. Of course, the width affects this too. I also didn't want a one color afghan, so I wanted to spread the colors out fairly evenly. (Note that I started checking at 40 for this afghan and come to find out there was a 39 high. I discovered this after I had put all the color names next to the days. That one day had nothing next to it.)

I then put the name of the color needed for each day next to the day. I use a highlighter to mark them off as I complete each row. This also will tell you if you missed any high temperatures in your "find" as there will be no color next to them.

I tried to get 50ish or less rows in each color. I came close. Because of the way it worked out, I needed more colors for this one than the last one. I had a 39 and a 100 in this one so two extra categories.

Now knowing the colors, I put a little square of color next to each group so I could see how they would look together. (That brought the document to 5 pages). I am using Knit Picks Brava Sport yarn. 

Because this one will be the same width and length as the 2013 I have the advantage of knowing I can make about 25 rows with one skein, so I can estimate yarn usage better with this one. Don't forget to add a skein of whatever color you want for your edging. Note also that if your tension, hook, yarn, is different than mine, you may get fewer rows per skein. I always suggest getting an extra to be sure if you can afford to, particularly if your numbers are close to needing an additional skein.

For the 2016 afghan, I am going to use the seed stitch again, also called linen, moss, woven and granite stitch. This also helps keep the length manageable as the rows sort of go into one another. The pattern repeat in the pattern I use is rows 3 and 4. 

The 2016 afghan is a little different than the 2013 because the highs were different, of course, but also it was a leap year. That means that the months that begin with Row 3 and Row 4 will be different. Here's the result of that figuring.

Jan, Mar, Jun, Jul, Sep, Oct
(months starting with Row 3)
Odd – sc, sc
Even – sc, ch 1

Feb, Apr, May, Aug, Nov, Dec
(months starting with Row 4)
Odd – sc, ch 1
Even – sc, sc

I am going to use a G hook and Knit Picks Brava Sport yarn.

The width of the 2013 afghan was about 42". Since these afghans are going in the same room, I want them the same so I'm using the same foundation chain. If you want a wider afghan, you need to change the foundation chain and also allow for fewer rows per skein.

The foundation chain is 226 for a total of 225 single crochet stitches. Why? The pattern is (sc, ch 1, sk 1) which requires 2 stitches, plus you need a final sc at the end. That means you need to end up with an odd number to work with which means you need an even number for your foundation chain. You lose one chain for turning. That chain does not count as a stitch - you go into the very first stitch of the row when working single crochet.

Some of the colors are going to be the same as the 2013 afghan but will be used in different places. Other colors will be new. I chose purples for the colder temps this time. I kept the cornflower, marina, grass, canary, orange, paprika and red. I added caution (a yellow-orange) and tranquil (a pale green). Red is not as prominent because the 90s were divided into three sections rather than kept as one. In 2013 the orange, paprika and red made up the major portion of the afghan with 177 rows. In the 2016 they will make up 119 rows. 

Here are the temperatures, the color used and how many of that color.
30s eggplant (1)
40s mulberry (1)
50s freesia (25)
60s cornflower (35)
70s marina (40)
75-79 tranquil (51)
80-84 Grass (52),
85-89 canary (42)
90-91s orange (50)
93-95 paprika (46)
96-99 red (23)
100 (1) caution

I'm going to assume that each month will take about 6" as in the previous afghan since I'm using the same hook and yarns.

If you read all the above, you deserve a reward. Here is the pattern I'm using for my afghan.

Instructions:
chain 226
Row 1: sc in second ch from hook and in each ch across (225 sc)

Row 2: ch 1, turn, sc in first sc, * ch 1, skip next sc, sc in next sc, repeat from * across. You should finish evenly, with a sc in your last stitch.

Row 3: ch 1, turn, sc in first sc, sc in ch-1 space, * ch 1, skip next sc, sc in next ch-1 space, repeat from * across row to last stitch, sc in last stitch

Row 4: ch 1, turn, sc in first sc, * ch 1, skip next sc, sc in next ch-1 space, repeat from * across. You should finish evenly, with a sc in your last stitch.

Rows 5 - 365 (or 366) Repeat rows 3 and 4 consecutively 

Note: Every row begins with a sc in first stitch. After the first stitch, you will sc if the next thing is a ch space, and you will ch-1 and skip it if the next thing is a sc.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie