Temperature SAL - Announcement Post

It's not often that I do something asked for by a specific person but Karen Thompson came with the Idea of a temperature SAL and I was intrigued enough to make a design. The design is a simple blackwork style pattern (I seem to have many of these this year hehe) that gets repeated many times.

What:

• This is a temperature SAL.
• A temperature SAL is where you do a small amount of stitching a day using a colour you have picked to correspond to the temperature of that day.
• The pattern is 90 x 140 stitches, that is set so the starting days are on the cross point of a 10 x 10 grid.
• The pattern is in backstitch.
• There will be a single pattern with a pattern layout.
• There will be twleve check in points in the year.

Where:

• All patterns are posted here on my blog.
• To find the temperature of the day check your local weather station or weather app (you will need to write it down if you can't stitch that day)
• There is a Facebook group to share progress and talk about the project here.

When:

• You get the patterns for the SAL on the 1st of January.
• I will start on the 1st of January 2020. 
• Each post after that will be on the first of the month, this is when you show your progress so far - though if you want to show your progress at other times of the month in the fb group that's more than OK!

Fabric:

• While I don't normally suggest a colour of fabric for this project I strongly suggest using a white, off-white, or black fabric so all of the colours show up well.
• I have rounded up the numbers working from the actual size of the stitching to make sure you have enough fabric. 
• Fabric amounts are given based on stitching over one bunch of Aida or over two threads of evenweave. 
• If you decide to stitch over one you will of course need less fabric but tbh I wouldn't do this unless you are very experienced at backstitch over one.
• I have given 3 inches / 7.62 cm of fabric on each side for framing. 
• If you wish to calculate the fabric for yourself based on your plans then this is a helpful tool. 

Size in inches:

• For 14ct Aida/28ct evenweave:
• The pattern is 6.4 x 10 inches.
• It requires a piece of fabric that is 13 x 16 inches.
• For 16ct Aida/32ct evenweave:
• The pattern is 5.6 x 8.8 inches.
• It requires a piece of fabric that is 12 x 15 inches.
• For 18ct Aida/36ct evenweave:
• The pattern is 5 x 7.8 inches.
• It requires a piece of fabric that is 11 x 14 inches.
• For 20ct Aida/40ct evenweave.
• The pattern is 4.5 x 7 inches.
• It requires a piece of fabric that is 11 x 13 inches.

Size in cm:

• For 14ct Aida/28ct evenweave:
• The pattern is 16.4 x 25.5 cm.
• It requires a piece of fabric that is 32 x 41 cm.
• For 16ct Aida/32ct evenweave:
• The pattern is 14.3 x 22.2 cm.
• It requires a piece of fabric that is 30 x 38 cm.
• For 18ct Aida/36ct evenweave:
• The pattern is 12.7 x 19.7 cm.
• It requires a piece of fabric that is 28 x 35 cm.
• For 20ct Aida/40ct evenweave.
• The pattern is 11.4 x 17.7 cm.
• It requires a piece of fabric that is 27 x 33 cm.

Floss:

For the floss you will need a range of colours to suit the temperatures most likely to happen in your location. Most people use a rainbow of colours to work with, I'm giving a wide range of temperatures and a small number of degrees within each to give a better idea of the temperature. For example (temperatures are in Celsius):
Up to -20 - DMC 333
-19 to -15 - DMC 155
-14 to -10 - DMC 156
-9 to -5 - DMC 800
-4 to 0 - DMC 809
1 to 5 - DMC 798
6 to 10 - DMC 909
11 to 15 - DMC 911
16 to 20 - DMC 913
21 to 25 - DMC 445
26 to 30 - DMC 444
31 to 35 - DMC 741
36 to 40 - DMC 946
41 to 45 - DMC 666
46 and up - DMC 816

And for those that use Fahrenheit (I converted Celsius to Fahrenheit for this, adjust if something else works better for you): 

Up to -1 - DMC 333
-2 to 5 - DMC 155
6 to 14 - DMC 156
15 to 23 - DMC 800
24 to 32 - DMC 809
33 to 41 - DMC 798
42 to 50 - DMC 909
51 to 59 - DMC 911
60 to 68 - DMC 913
69 to 77 - DMC 445
78 to 86 - DMC 444
87 to 95 - DMC 741
96 to 104 - DMC 946
105 to 113 - DMC 666
114 and up - DMC 816

If the range is too large - or not large enough - for your area then it's more than OK to change and skip things to work for you! What I suggest above is just that, a suggestion to get you started!

Don't like using so many colours? Then make the temperature range for each colour larger - say 10C/14F per range or more.

The most important part is to choose a scale that works for you, set colours to the variables and stick to it for the whole year.

Floss use:

How much floss you use really depends on your temperatures over the year but... in total the pattern uses around 2 skeins of floss on 14ct and one skein on 20ct, so you won't need all that much of most colours unless your temperature range is small (I'd then suggest perhaps adjusting the temperature scale a bit then to have fewer degrees for each colour so you get more variation in colours)

That's all for now for this, if you have any questions or need help ask! You can add a comment below or you can ask in the fb group.

I'll be back tomorrow with the next SAL announcement post, Friday for a Friday Freebie, and finally Saturday for the very last SAL announcement post!