Friday, January 20, 2012

Starlings' Sky Scarf

 As I was thinking about what to share with you this month I thought "What am I doing right now?" and the answer is Conceptual Art.  More specifically conceptual knitting and it is all I can think about right now.
Photo from whipup.net
I found this post about the Sky Scarf a while back and I loved the concept but wasn't sure what I would do with a blue scarf, but last week I realized I live in Portland, Oregon, I wouldn't have a blue scarf, it would be grey, my favorite color!
And so my friend Paula and I are impatiently waiting for our order of grey and blue yarn to arrive so that we can start knitting.  In the meantime we have begun diligently recording the color of the sky each day.
Paula is knitting a sky shawl and is being a bit more methodical than I am, she has a palette of 6 colors, plus white for snow (which will be MAYBE one or two rows) and has specific criteria for what weather merits what color. She will decide the color for the day at 12:00pm.
I, on the other hand, am knitting a scarf an have a palette of 9 colors, plus white, and will be mixing the colors as well.  I will choose the color of the day when I wake up in the morning and will sit and knit the row after I say my morning prayers and wait for my eyes to "wake up." I don't have a strict criteria for the colors as I prefer a combination of matching the actual color of the sky as well as the mood of the weather.

Not everyone will knit this project but wouldn't it be fun to do this with your kids to record the  color of the sky each day, or record the mood of the day, or the color of sunset or the sunrise? One gal I read about is knitting the high and low temperatures of the day.  How about using a box of crayons and some lined paper?  Just color in one line each day. Or color the box on the calendar?  You could cut out squares of colored paper and glue or tape them on each page of the kids journal or daily school workbook.  The possibilities abound.

To learn more about the Sky Scarf and Conceptual Knitting visit Leafcutter Designs. Watch the video too!

4 comments:

Jenni said...

That's very cool. Wouldn't there be about a billion tails to tuck in at the end though? Or is there some way to carry the 8 extra colors inside (even if you don't use a particular color for 20 rows)?

Samurai Mom said...

Jenni,
If you watch the video (on the link) you can see that you carry the extra colors up the side.

Shaie said...

Wow, I pinned this a few months ago and over the last few days I have been thinking how much I really wanted to do this and was bummed that I didn't start it on the first day of the new year as I had planned.

Thanks for posting this! I'm excited to go out and get the yarn.

I'm curious though, what colors will you be doing? I can see the two different shades of blue and grey, and the white.

I love the idea of a shawl, perhaps next year.

And one last question, how would someone knit the temperatures? Interesting.

Thanks again!

Samurai Mom said...

Shaie,
I am using Knit Picks Palette colors:
Ash, Marble Heather, Silver, Mist, Oyster Heather, Clarity, Sky, Whirlpool and Opal Heather. The Opal Heather might end up being too green, we shall see IF the yarn ever arrives.