Each month in 2023 I’m sharing a Temperature Snake CAL roundup with a collage of some of our snakes’ progress – even if you aren’t joining in, I think you’ll enjoy seeing all the snakes growing throughout the year!

At 5 months through the year, we’re almost halfway through our snakes now! Here’s the May collage from some of the latest photos that have been posted. These are taken from the CAL threads on Discord and Ravelry, plus some from people who’ve tagged me (@PlanetJune) on FB and IG or emailed to me:

Click to see the full-size collage

Good work, everyone! Can you spot your snake?

If you’re making a Temperature Snake too, please join us in the PlanetJune community groups, share your snake’s progress with us all, and get chatting with our friendly community!

And, if you’d like your snake to be included in the next monthly roundup, please post an up-to-date pic (or email it directly to me: june@planetjune.com) by 9am EST on July 3rd. Do remember to tag me (@planetjune) if you post on social, or I won’t see your pic.

Putting together these collages is a real challenge for me, like a strange jigsaw where I have to trim all the pieces to fit as I assemble it. But I think it’s worth it – it’s so cool to see the snakes growing with each month that passes. I try to include as many snakes as possible in each collage, so please do get your pic to me if you can – I love seeing how your snakes are progressing. 🙂

If you’ve just found PlanetJune from the article about my Temperature Snake CAL in the latest issue of Simply Crochet magazine, I’m so glad you’re here! Please take a look around my site and let me know if you have any questions.

If you’d like to jump into the crochet-along with us, you can learn more about how it works and pick up the Temperature Snake pattern here, then start choosing your yarn colours!

If you’re new to amigurumi-style crochet, you can find crochet tutorials for all the techniques you’ll need (the magic ring and invisible decrease are the two absolute essentials) on my Crochet Tutorials page. And there are links in the pattern to more help and tutorials (like my Ultimate Stripes technique, which is optional, but I recommend it if you want to make the most perfect stripes for your snake).

You’ll find Temperature Snake CAL threads in both the PlanetJune community groups (on Ravelry and Discord – see details for how to join the PlanetJune community here) or, if you prefer to share on Facebook or Instagram, remember to tag me @PlanetJune whenever you post an update so I can see your progress!

This is a low-key, supportive CAL. Make progress on your snake whenever you have time, and we’ll cheer you along as you go! If you want to make a 2023 snake, the pattern includes a link to a website with historical temperatures, so you can get the data for the temperatures in your area back to the start of the year (or use any source you prefer – for example, I like to use my local weather TV channel’s website!)

There are two ways you can get your snake caught up:

• Once you get used to the pattern, you’ll be able to fly through a few weeks of stripes in a single session, so enjoy a couple of good catch-up sessions and you’ll be caught up in no time.
• Or, you can make two or three rounds per day instead of one for the rest of the year – you’ll be playing catch up for a while this way, but you’ll still be ready to finish your snake in December with the rest of us.

Take it at your own pace, and enjoy watching your snake’s colours change with the seasons as it grows throughout the year.

Welcome to PlanetJune, and welcome to the crochet-along!

Each month in 2023 I’m sharing a Temperature Snake CAL roundup with a collage of some of our snakes’ progress – even if you aren’t joining in, I think you’ll enjoy seeing all the snakes growing throughout the year!

It’s hard to believe we’re 1/3 through 2023 already, but temperature snakes don’t lie: we’ve completed four months (or 120 stripes!) now, and our snakes are starting to get more.. well… snakey in appearance!

Here’s the April collage from some of the latest photos that have been posted. These are taken from the CAL threads on Discord and Ravelry, plus some from people who’ve tagged me (@PlanetJune) on FB and IG or emailed to me:

Click to see the full-size collage

Looking good, everyone! Can you spot your snake?

I think we’ve all used a good variety of our colours by now – and I just love seeing all these different colour schemes start to become more obvious! You can also see that our snakes aren’t just stripey sticks any more: by this point, they’re starting to get fairly poseable. I expect we’ll see lots of variety in the monthly photos from now on, as we all bend and curve our snakes in different ways for the photos!

Now we’re a third of the way through the CAL, there are very few new signups, but I’m happy to report that we have over 750 worldwide participants! Isn’t that amazing?! I’m really looking forward to seeing the gallery of completed snakes next January – it’s going to be spectacular…

Are you making a Temperature Snake? Don’t forget to join us in the PlanetJune community groups, share your snake’s progress with us all, and get chatting with our friendly community!

Got behind on your snake? Don’t worry, it’s fine. There are many months left for you to catch up, but try putting on your favourite podcast, audiobook or TV show and get crocheting – you’ll find that it’s surprisingly fast to add a few weeks of stripes to your snake. (Aren’t you glad now that we aren’t making huge temperature blankets?!)

And, if you’d like your snake to be included in the next monthly roundup, please post an up-to-date pic (or email it directly to me: june@planetjune.com) by 9am EST on June 3rd. Do remember to tag me (@planetjune) if you post on social, or I won’t see your pic.

I’m trying to include as many snakes as possible in each collage, so please do get your pic to me if you can – I love seeing how your snakes are progressing. 🙂

Each month in 2023 I’m sharing a Temperature Snake CAL roundup with a collage of some of our snakes’ progress – even if you aren’t joining in, I think you’ll enjoy seeing all the snakes growing throughout the year!

Now we’re three months into the CAL, the season is changing, and we’re all starting to see new colours popping up on our snakes. (The colour transition should be even more obvious by next month’s roundup!)

Here’s the March collage from some of the latest photos that have been posted. These are taken from the CAL threads on Discord and Ravelry, plus some from people who’ve tagged me (@PlanetJune) on FB and IG or emailed to me:

Click to see the full-size collage

Well done, everyone! Can you spot your snake?

Now we’re a quarter of the way through the year, our snakes are starting to get too long to straighten out for these photos! This is a good thing – although it makes it more difficult for me to put the monthly collage together when the photos are all different shapes, we can start bending and posing our SIPs (snakes-in-progress) from now on, so they’ll look more fun.

With more people still joining every week, these photos represent just a tiny fraction of all the temperature snakes being made all over the world. I’m so thrilled with how well this is going – just look at all these colourful noodles.😊

If you haven’t joined in with the community groups yet, please do come over, share your progress with us all, and join in the conversations!

And, if you’d like your snake to be included in the next monthly roundup, please post an up-to-date pic (or email it directly to me: june@planetjune.com) in the last couple of days of April, or by 9am EST on May 2nd May 3rd. I’ll try to include as many as possible in each collage.

Feeling like you’re missing out on the fun? Don’t worry: you can still join us for this CAL! Grab the pattern and get caught up – we’d love for you to join us for the rest of 2023 🙂

And now, onto the second quarter!

Each month in 2023 I’m sharing a Temperature Snake CAL roundup with a collage of some of our snakes’ progress – even if you aren’t joining in, I think you’ll enjoy seeing all the snakes growing throughout the year!

We’ve completed two months of the Temperature Snake CAL, and our snakes are starting to grow! It’s lovely to see so many variations, and I’m also enjoying spotting ‘family resemblances’ cropping up in snakes from similar areas, e.g. I see a lot of snakes with a bright stripe around mid-February from that unseasonably warm blip we had here in Ontario (and also in many other states and provinces by the look of it!)

Here’s the February collage from some of the latest photos that have been posted. These are taken from the CAL threads on Discord and Ravelry, plus some from people who’ve tagged me (@PlanetJune) on FB and IG:

Click to see the full-size collage

Wow! Aren’t they all amazing? The collage is getting huge already as the snakes grow longer – and these photos only represent 7% of all the Temperature Snakes being made all over the world! This CAL is truly amazing – it’s wonderful to have so many of us together, all enjoying the slow process of seeing our snakes forming as the year continues.

If you haven’t joined in with the community groups yet, please do come over, share your progress with us all, and join in the conversations!

And, if you’d like your snake to be included in the next monthly roundup, please post an up-to-date pic (or email it directly to me: june@planetjune.com) in the last couple of days of March, or by end of day April 1st. I’ll try to include as many as possible in each collage.

Feeling like you’re missing out on the fun? Don’t worry: you can still join us for this CAL! Grab the pattern and get caught up – we’d love for you to join us for the rest of 2023 🙂

Now, I wonder if our snakes are going to see some new colours developing in March, as the seasons begin to shift… Let’s keep crocheting and find out!

It’s been a long time since I’ve done CAL roundups on the blog, but I think the Temperature Snake CAL warrants a monthly roundup – even if you aren’t joining in, I think you’ll enjoy seeing all the snakes growing throughout the year!

We’re one month into the Temperature Snake CAL, and things are starting to get interesting! We now have close to 700 people participating (wow!) and as far as I can tell, about 10% of us will be making southern hemisphere snakes (hot-cold-hot instead of cold-hot-cold). We have some wonderful colour schemes developing, and lots of learning opportunities in the community discussions.

I’ve made a collage from some of the latest photos that have been posted. These are taken from the CAL threads on Discord and Ravelry, plus some from people who’ve tagged me (@PlanetJune) on FB and IG:

Click to see the collage larger!

If you’re not joining in with the community groups yet, please do come over, share your progress with us all, and join in the conversations!

And, if you’d like your snake to be included in the next monthly roundup, please post an up-to-date pic in the 2 or 3 days before the last day of the month. I’ll try to include as many as possible in each collage.

Several people have decided to make twin snakes – one for the daily high temperatures, and another for the daily lows. (You can see a few pairs in the collage above!) I wasn’t planning to, but, as my January temperatures were unexpectedly high, I decided to join in with that, and Jewel now has a fraternal twin, Gem:

Jewel (top) has the daily high temps, and Gem (bottom) has the daily lows

I’m using the same temperature scale for both my snakes, so I anticipate seeing a lot of my coldest colour (purple) in Gem and little or none of my hottest colour (dark red), and vice versa for Jewel. It’s going to be interesting to see how different or similar they are throughout the year!

If you’d like to join in with that too, catching up on a month isn’t too much work, so now’s the perfect time to start your snake’s twin, before it gets too far behind… You can add some more ‘low’ colours to the bottom of your temperature scale, or just accept that there may be a lot of your coldest colour in your lows snake, as I’m doing.

And the same applies if you want to join us for the CAL right now! Grab the pattern and get caught up – we’d love for you to join us for the rest of 2023 🙂

Roll on February! This is the first year I’ve actually been excited at the prospect of a polar vortex bringing some extra-cold temperatures in the coming days…

With the first week of the Temperature Snake CAL behind us, I’m absolutely thrilled with how well it’s going so far:

• We have over 500 participants, with more joining every day.
• Crocheted snakes are being made in at least 26 countries, across every continent (except Antarctica).
• The lowest temperature mentioned so far was -27°C/-17°F, in Russia.
• The highest temperature mentioned so far was 33°C/91°F, in Mexico.

I think it’s safe to say that Temperature Snake is truly a global phenomenon!

Here’s a sampling of the week 1 snake pics that have been shared in the Discord and Ravelry groups so far. If you aren’t part of either group, I highly recommend joining us in at least one of them – the CAL is so much more fun if you share your progress and see how everyone else is doing:

As you can see, each snake already has its unique style and character after just one week. It’s going to be so cool seeing them continue to grow and change throughout the year.

If you’d like to join the fun, please do – it’s such a fast project, you can catch up with crocheting the days you’ve missed in no time! You can grab the Temperature Snake pattern here and get started whenever you want 🙂

The first annual PlanetJune Reindeer Games crochet-along has just finished, and it was a huge success! It was a lovely sociable way to end the year, and provided a good escape for everyone from all the usual end-of-year stresses.

Over the 2 month CAL, we had a very active time – 48 pages of chat! – and an amazing 104 completed projects:

Wow! Click through to see the Reindeer Games gallery on Ravelry, including credit for all the participants and links to all the patterns they used!

I’m going to make the Reindeer Games an annual event, so look out for my announcement next October if you’d like to take part in the 2022 CAL (or sign up for my monthly newsletter now so I can send you a reminder!)

In the meantime, I’m collecting feedback on how we can make the games better and smoother for the next run. The advantage of running my own event is that everything can be changed and improved, in collaboration with the PlanetJune community. There’s a thread in the PlanetJune Ravelry group where we can discuss suggestions and decide what changes can be made – I hope you’ll share your ideas there.

And please feel free to comment here too, especially if you don’t/can’t use Ravelry – having an (additional) off-Ravelry way to participate is one of the possible improvements I’d consider for next year, if people would appreciate that. If there’s another online location that you’d prefer to use instead of Ravelry, do let me know. A Facebook group? A Discord server? Something else?

Congratulations to everyone who participated in the first Reindeer Games, and thank you to everyone who makes the PlanetJune community such a friendly, welcoming environment. It’s a pleasure to be a part of it and to get to know you all – and to see the beautiful creations you make from my patterns 🙂