January’s temperatures

The end of the first month is normally a good litmus test for year long projects, I’ve found. If I’m still excited by it, it’s likely to stick. If I’m already looking for “do that tomorrow” excuses and procrastination, chances are tomorrow will indeed never come and the project is about thirty seconds from falling over completely.

This year, I’ve committed to two daily projects. Surprisingly, given my track record with long projects, both are still going strong. One is a daily photo project (more to come on that tomorrow), the other, my temperature stitches. A key to my continued commitment, I think, is both have accountability to someone other than me. For the temperature stitches, it’s having a dedicated chat group, where we share our progress and some of the crazier weather patterns we’ve been experiencing (shout out to the southern stitchers rocking the blue floss this week!).

It’s also a very forgiving pattern** – each day is a motif inside a 5×5 stitch square. I have found myself not stitching daily, but using it as my Monday night craft. Each day I take note of the temperature according to our weather station, and then knock out a week’s worth in one go. Under half an hour, and the week is done and up to date.

It’s interesting comparing this year, to my 2019 January. A big difference is the scale I’m using – In 2019, I had orange over 25, red-orange over 30, and red over 35 (with a warm purple for those delightful over 40 days). This year, red doesn’t kick in until 39.5, red orange at 37, orange at 34.5 and yellow for over 32. While this new scale doesn’t allow me to compare across years, it does let me compare with the others in the group.

I look at all that yellow and lime (and a teal!!), and it looks more spring or autumn to me. The scale makes sense, absolutely. It’s the actual colours throwing me off. Back in 2019, it was very clear it was summer, and a hot summer (more so than this year). I only have one more colour this year in my range, but we are also only recording maximums, while 2019 included minimums so needed a wider range and larger gaps.

Tonight, I will sit down and add the past week’s stitches. Lots of coral and orange this week (and almost a red today!), which I was expecting. February often comes with a nasty little late summer sting, and can lend itself to the higher rated flosses than January.

The details of the colours are the least important though. What I really love about this project, is the energy and motivation that comes from working on a group project like it’s 2012 again. A handful of daily stitches seems like such a simple thing, and yet the group and conversation it’s inspired is such a wonderful addition to my 2023.

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