Tag Archives: sky

Inspiration: Aurora Borealis

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Supposedly, there’s a big solar flare happening right now.  And, supposedly, that means that we will be able to see the Northern Lights tonight.  It seems that somehow a solar flare leads to the Northern Lights showing up.  How that happens, as a non-astronomy-inclined person, is a big mystery to me.  (My husband has tried to explain it to me… I can’t make heads or tails of it.)

016[1]I’ve heard before that we were supposed to see the northern lights from the PNW, but I’ve still never seen them.  Maybe they show up after I go to bed.  Maybe you have to go out of town to see them.  Maybe the Aurora Borealis is actually a myth, like unicorns, wizards, or the Loch Ness Monster.

aurora-borealis-wallpaper[1]I read one article that said that you’ll see them better if you use your camera to take a long-exposure photo of the sky.  That just sounds like ghost-hunter-type behavior, to me.  “I swear, if you just point your camera over here for a few minutes, you’re bound to pick up something.  So what if you can’t see it now?”

aurora-borealis-northern-lights_1280x1024_159-standard[1]I might be a little pessimistic about my chances of actually seeing the Aurora Borealis tonight, but that doesn’t mean I won’t look for it, and it certainly doesn’t mean I don’t think it’s beautiful.

In fact, I think I’ll celebrate the Northern Lights by looking at some beautiful projects, filled with luminous, shifting colors, just like (hopefully) the sky tonight.

Revontuli -huivi/Northern Lights by AnneM

1503583993_9aa8397e28_z[1]knit/lab Colorwork Crescent by Kieran FoleyColourwork_mystery-7_medium2[1]

Paintbox Log Cabin Blanket by Katherine Keyes1532025337_64dd0cea32_z[1]

Inspiration: Knitting the Sky

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My friend Jenny visited me last weekend.  We have known each other for years (since college).  Actually, we met through the Knitting Illini, our university’s student-run knitting club.  (I’m still trying to find a knitting club as fun and welcoming as that one, but that’s a whole other story.)

Anyway, Jenny pulled out her needles and several shades of blue and gray yarn.  She whipped up a couple little garter stitch squares and put her knitting back in her bag.  I was curious what she was making, and she said she was “Knitting the Sky.”  I had never heard this concept before, and had her explain.

Apparently, Knitting the Sky is the idea that you put aside a few minutes each day to look at the sky and then pick a yarn color closest to the color of the sky to make an afghan square, or a few rows of garter stitch to add to a scarf.

As far as I can tell (and correct me if I’m wrong), the first person to do this was Leafcutter Designs.  They sell a kit (yarn plus directions) to make a Sky Scarf.  It’s a simple garter-stitch scarf, but the subtly shifting grays and blues make the scarf look almost like it’s made with hand-painted yarn.

sky-scarf-kit-3 Gorgeous, right?

But Jenny is an overachiever (in the best possible way), so instead of just making a sky scarf, she’s making a sky afghan, like this one.

Finished+Sky+Blanket+4How beautiful is that!  Who could have imagined that wrapping up in cloudy and rainy days could be so cozy?

And, imagine extending the idea of using a color to represent a day in other projects.  How about a striped cardigan that shows your mood each day for an entire year?  Or what about a pair of mittens that represent what you ate for breakfast for a month?  OK, I’m getting silly now.  But, the point still stands.

This is a fantastic idea, and a great way to get some knitting in while getting more in touch with the world around you.  Too bad that if I was to make a sky scarf it would end up being a uniform Seattle-gray.x354