Lisa Crow chats to Josie George about her climate change crochet project
IN December 2019, Josie George started planning to knit a temperature scarf to make a statement about environmental issues.
“I had been thinking about climate change and how easy it is to get so consumed in our own lives that we fail to notice things changing outside,” Josie says.
Although Josie only worked on the scarf for ten to 15 minutes a day, the project was a constant reminder of environmental concerns.
“Months of the heaviest rainfall or the hottest temperatures are harder to ignore when you knit them into something visible,” Josie says.
“The scarf itself doesn’t give enough data to reveal global climate changes – it’s only one year in one place – but by noticing changing and extreme weather patterns, we can begin to engage with the threat and tragedy of climate change in a small way.
“It is a very practical way of not putting our heads in the sand!”
Each colour in Josie’s scarf represented a range of degrees in temperature or depicted conditions such as rain, sun or snow.
With a project of that nature, Josie didn’t know how the scarf would look w when completed.
“My favourite thing was how it wasn’t designed,” t the blog writer from the W West Midlands reveals.
“Nature chose the way t the colours would repeat or c contrast and I had very little idea what the month a ahead would look like.
“There were surprises: sudden soars and dips in t temperatures, and far more w warm, wet weather than I had anticipated.”
Aside from being a keen knitter, Josie is also an accomplisheda writer, and her first book, “A Still Life”, wasw w published in February.
Josie’s blog was spotted by a literary agent who suggested she write a book.
The result was a memoir, following Josie through a year of her life, woven with stories about her past.
“I wanted to give people an insight into what life lived slowly looks like – in the hope it would help others slow down,” Josie explains.
“As the year turned, the story grew. It became about life with chronic illness and all its themes of love, hope, and learning to see the world in a new way.”
Josie has suffered from chronic illness since childhood with an undiagnosed condition.
Symptoms range from a racing heartbeat on standing to extreme fatigue and persistent pain.
While writing the book, Josie met and fell in love with Fraser Lovatt, who lives in Denmark.
The couple had just settled into the rhythm of a long-distance relationship when coronavirus made it harder to see each other.
“It has only been possible for him to visit once in the last year,” Josie explains.
“We miss each other enormously. Our days revolve around video calls.
“We’ve been making the best of it and spend time making each other laugh and falling more in love.”
Josie’s local community centre and her best friend’s house are the only places she can normally go independently, and then only when she is well enough.
Lockdown took away not only her ability to see her partner but also to visit those places.
Josie is just grateful her circumstances of living with a chronic illness helped her cope with lockdown.
“It has been hard,” she says. “I have spent the last year confined to my house and garden, seeing almost nobody except my son.
“However, I am used to confinement.
“We’ve coped better than many.”
Aside from distracting herself with a new temperature scarf, Josie is working on a novel.
“I take it a day at a time; some days it’s more like a breath at a time. I am kind to myself.
“It’s OK to relax, to just do our best. I trust things will work out, and they nearly always do.”
Lisa Crow chats to Josie George, who found a novel way of making a statement on climate change.