Get started
First things first!
The first thing we need to think about is what we are going to create. Purls of Wisdom is entirely flexible you can make whatever you feel inspired to. We would caution that as the changes in climate are shown by colour changes, a project that lends itself to stripes would work best for this. Scarves and blankets are great starter pieces, but feel free to let your creativity run wild! Some example patterns can be found in our downloads section. Also think about how many colours you have available, you can use whatever you have, but four or more colours with a bit of contrast will show the changes best.
What do you want to show?
The second thing we need to consider is what we want to show with our creations. What aspect of the climate is most important to you?
The most commonly used indicator is temperature. Met Eireann has made long term temperature records for the Island of Ireland available on its website. The temperature series has been derived using data from Armagh Observatory, Co Armagh, Phoenix Park, Co Dublin 1829; Birr Castle, Co Offaly (The meteorological station at Birr closed in October 2009, since then adjusted data from the close by meteorological station at Gurteen, Co Tipperary was used), Valentia Observatory and Malin Head, Co Donegal. This is a fantastic resource and the raw provisional data series is freely downloadable. Look for the link in the “The Long Term Island of Ireland Data Series” section underneath the graph (click the word here).
We have divided up the Island of Ireland temperature series by colour. This is available to download here - Annual colours download. Whether you’re working with two colours or ten, this download will show you what to craft with when!
Remember, there’s plenty of other aspects of climate that you can work with too, for example rainfall, soil temperature and maximum temperature. This data is available to you on the Met Eireann website, and you can watch our videos about how to make this data into a craftable format here and download detailed instructions on our how to’s page.
Get crafting!
So, we have our project in mind, we know what colours we’re using and we have our the data/pattern sorted – what do we do now?
Simple! Start your project using the colour for the first year of data, craft it to the thickness you’d like it to be, then move onto the colour for the second year, craft to the same thickness and continue like that until you’ve finished all the years! When you’ve finished, don’t forget to take a picture and share it with us on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook!
Introduction to Purls of Wisdom video:
