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January 4, 2023 | Posted in: Knit & Crochet

2023 Temperature Blanket: The Plan

For the past few years, I’ve seen temperature blankets floating around on Instagram and Pinterest, and I must say, I was intrigued.

On one hand, it was super cool to me to have a physical representation of the year that you’ve experienced, but on the other hand, it is a year-long project that if you don’t stay committed to can easily become a WIP (work in progress) that will never see the light of day again.

2023 seems like the perfect year for me to tackle a temperature blanket. It’ll be the first full year that we’re in our new home, the first full year that we’ll be married, and possibly the first year we have a child. And no, I’m not pregnant just in case anyone was wondering 😉

I’ve done about 20 hours of research and planning for my 2023 temperature blanket, and I wanted to share that research and planning with y’all just in case you decide it’s time for you to make one, too!

What is a temperature blanket?

First off, what the heck is a temperature blanket? A temperature blanket is a year-long knit or crochet project where you crochet/knit one row every day and the color you use for that day is dependent on the temperature of your location. You can do the highs, lows, averages, dew point, etc. The daily statistic you can track is 100% up to you. Toni over at TL Yarn Crafts has a great post explaining more about temperature blankets!

I’m going with the daily high temperature for my area (Columbia, South Carolina). Our high temperatures range from 100+ degrees Fahrenheit in the summer to around 30-40 degrees in the winter.

Temperature Blanket Yarns & Colors

Traditionally, temperature blankets are made using very bright, vibrant acrylic yarns in the colors of the rainbow. And tbh, I think that’s where temperature blankets get their negative stereotype. If that’s your kind of blanket, more power to you, but for me (and most of the world), that’s just not my vibe.

I want to stick with somewhat of a “rainbow” color palette but without screaming RAINBOW. After spending a few hours on Ravelry and Pinterest, I found this temperature blanket pattern by Nathalie Bouffard. It was more along the lines of what I was looking for. Of course, as any Raveler or crafter would do, I looked through the Projects tab of the pattern to see what others had made with the pattern. And then I found this beauty. The colors were rich and saturated but also muted and just plain stunning.

The blanket was made using Lion Brand’s Heartland yarn. It’s a #4 medium weight yarn with 215 yards in 142 grams. It’s also made of 100% acrylic which means it’s machine washable and dryable and will *hopefully* stand up to years of wear and tear. And it’s available at JoAnn’s and Michael’s which is a huge convenient plus!

Ideally, I wanted to go with a superwash merino or a mixture of acrylic and wool to have the luxurious feeling of wool, but it’s hard to find a budget-friendly option that is available in local craft stores.

All in all, I got 20 skeins of yarn for around $90 from a combination of JoAnn’s and Michael’s. During the time that I purchased the yarn, all yarn was ‘buy 2, get 1 free’ at both stores. I also had a few other coupons that I was able to use to bring the price down. If you’re planning on doing a temperature blanket or any kind of blanket in general, keep an eye out for sales before you purchase.

I will probably need more of certain colors, but I won’t know until I’m in the thick of the blanket!

Temperature Blanket Temperature Scale

As I said above, I live in Columbia, South Carolina, where our daily highs range from 95-100+ in the summer to around 40 degrees in the winter.

2023 Temperature Blanket Scale:

93 & above – Yosemite
87-92 – Canyonlands
80-86 – Grand Canyon
74-79 – Bryce Canyon
67-73 – Capitol Reef
61-66 – Badlands
54-60 – Wolf Trap
48-53 – Rocky Mountains
41-47 – Petrified Forest
40 & below – Kings Canyon

* Note that all temperatures are in Fahrenheit.

Temperature Blanket Pattern

I am not following a specific pattern for this year’s temperature blanket, but I want it to be more than just single or double crochets throughout the whole blanket. I want to incorporate some texture and geometric patterns if possible.

At first, I thought about using a moss stitch or linen stitch because it provides a beautiful end result. It allows the colors to intermix with each other more so than a traditional single crochet blanket. This was my top pick as I was going into the planning process. And then I saw a post on Reddit showcasing a beautifully diamond-textured striped blanket and I knew instantly that it was the blanket pattern/motif I would be using for my 2023 temperature blanket.

I am loosely following the Navajo Indian Diamond Stitch Afghan and instead of using 4-5 colors, I’ll be using my temperature blanket colors. I think it’s going to produce a very unique blanket in the end!

And do you know what the best part about the blanket pattern is!? There are ZERO ends to weave in at the end. Each row is made with a new piece of yarn, and you create fringe at the beginning and end of each row. Game changer.

I’ll be casting on 245 stitches using a 5.5mm crochet hook. Based on my calculations from my gauge swatch, My blanket should come out to 65″x81″.

What’re your thoughts on temperature blankets? Are you planning on making one this year? And if so, how are you keeping yourself accountable to stay on track with your blankets? Let me know in the comments below!

June 22, 2020 | Posted in: Gardening, Plants

Garden Update – June 22nd

Hello and welcome back to my garden!

Now that it is officially summer (TBH where has 2020 gone??), I’m going to start sharing weekly garden updates with y’all. This is also for me to be able to document what’s going on outside in my garden and keep track of all the successes, struggles, and failures.

To see more about how the garden got started and where it came from, check out my last post An Introduction to My Garden. I started all of the plants pictured from seed except for 10 pepper plants. This is my first experience growing an in-ground garden, and I garden in Columbia, SC, Zone 8a.

Successes:

The pepper plants are finally producing! I have a total of 21 pepper plants and about 15 different varieties of peppers. I’m excited to see how much they’re going to take off now that the summer heat has set in.
My marigolds are absolutely exploding with growth, and I’m so surprised by how big they are. Usually, when I think of marigolds, I picture the small pots you can buy at Lowe’s or Home Depot. The tall marigolds are about 3.5 feet tall, and that blows my mind.
I harvest enough pickles to make TEN PINT JARS full of fresh dill pickles. So excited to eat those! And to my Columbia, SC, friends, you’ll probably be receiving pickles very soon LOL

Struggles:

Vine bores. Vine bores. Vine bores. Vine bore attacked all of my zucchini plants this year. I managed to perform some “surgery” and save three of them, but the rest had to be pulled. In addition to larvae removal surgery, I heavily sprayed each infected stem with Bonide’s Captain Jack’s Dead Bug Brew. I wrapped each stem in tin foil and mounded dirt on top of it. So far so good. I started a new batch of zucchini seeds to succession plant just in case the remaining three plants die.

Failures:

I had to pull all of my spaghetti squash plants due to vine bores. Those annoying little moths easily destroy my whole batch of squash plants each year… Sad to see the spaghetti squash go, but I learned my lesson. I cleaned off the spaghetti squash trellis and direct-seeded more bean plants. Green beans are my favorite food so I’ll never say no to more beans!

Produce Amounts:

Prior Total: 23 lb. 5 oz.
- Zucchini: 17 lb. 12 oz.
- Green Beans: 1 lb. 15 oz.
- Cucumber: 3 lb. 10 oz.
Last Week’s Total: (approx. b/c forgot to weigh) 12 lb.
- Zucchini: 5 lb.
- Green Beans: 1 lb.
- Cucumber: 6 lb.
Current Total: 35 lb. 5 oz.
- Zucchini: 22 lb. 12 oz.
- Green Beans: 2 lb. 15 oz.
- Cucumber: 9 lb. 10 oz.

Well, that’s all I have for this week’s garden update. Can’t wait to share how the garden progresses over the summer!

~abigail gray

May 25, 2020 | Posted in: Plants

Say Hello to My Vegetable Garden

Spring has sprung!!! It feels more like summer outside, but the fact that it’s not cold and that plants are growing and thriving is all that matters to me.

Let’s talk about my garden… If you don’t know already, I’m a #CrazyPlantLady. I have 100+ houseplants, probably 300 succulents, and this year I’ve taken on an outdoor garden. It’s a lot, trust me. I get it.

Brad and I moved into our current house in May 2019. (We just celebrated one year of living together! WOO!) One of my most favorite parts about our house is the massive backyard. Yes, it’s a pain in the ass to mow every week, but there is soooo much room for planty activities and opportunities. Plus, the more I fill it up with garden space, the less mowing I have to do. Honestly, it’s a win-win situation.

Because we moved in May, I spent the majority of last spring/summer painting the house, decorating, and trying to get our lives in order. It didn’t leave much time for transforming the backyard or gardening to say the least. I had a few felt grow bags with two peppers, a cucumber, and a zucchini in them, and while they did decently okay and produced some veggies, it definitely wasn’t what I was hoping for.

Fast forward to this year. We decided to renew our lease for another year which meant I was able to actually plan an in-ground vegetable garden!!! WOOOO!!!

2020 Garden Timeline:

January/February – Solidify garden layout
February 14th-ish – Indoor seed starting begins
February/March – Prep the garden beds and get them ready for planting
End of March – Start hardening off seedlings
April 1st – Last frost date
April – Start transplanting mature plant starts

The Garden Space

In the above pictures, my parents and I just finished doing initial prep work for the garden. Because the whole area was full of grass and weeds, we tilled the soil, raked up and removed all of the debris, and then covered it with brown paper. The paper acts as a natural weed barrier, and it’s actually doing a fairly decent job. Would I change how we did things in the future? 100%. But for the first attempt at an in-ground garden, I’m pretty proud of how well it’s worked.

I decided on this particular location because A. it was no fun to mow and B. it surrounds our outdoor area and gives us a little more privacy. The garden is a fairly decent size, but I do kinda want to go bigger next year if we’re still in this house. See that grass under our bay window in the background? I want to turn that into a garden bed as well.

Seeds & Plant Starts

I am very proud to say that I started 85% of my garden from seed. It honestly amazes me how one tiny seed can produce such humongous plants and fruits. Science is crazy, man.

This year’s plants include:

Zucchini
Spaghetti squash
25+ pepper plants
Tomatoes
Beans
Cucumbers
Herbs (Oregano, Thyme, Basil, Parsley, Sage, Catnip)
Zinnias
Marigolds
Dahlias

To make the garden more #aesthetic and productive, I have a bunch of flowers and herbs intermixed with the veggie plants. Flowers attract such amazing pollinators to the garden, and herbs are great because who doesn’t love fresh herbs in their meals & drinks?!

A Current Look At The Garden

So, here’s what the garden looks like as of May 25th, 2020! All the plants are thriving and growing so amazingly well, and I actually just harvested my first three zucchini yesterday.

Not only am I having such a blast growing a garden and learning each and every day, but I’m also saving a lot of $$$ on groceries. Brad and I eat zucchini and peppers like they’re going out of style so to be able to fuel our consumption for a fraction of the cost is amazing.

I’m so excited to share the transformation of the garden with you over the next few months. Having a garden like this has been a dream of mine for years now, and the fact that it’s actually a reality is crazy to me. I hope y’all enjoyed this little look into my backyard garden oasis where I spend 80% of my free time!

Have you ever grown an in-ground garden before? Or do you tend to have a brown thumb? Let me know in the comments!

~abigail gray

January 14, 2020 | Posted in: Plants

Winter Grow Light Setup for Succulents and Indoor Plants

This post includes affiliate links. It doesn’t change the price of the product, but I receive just a little bit in return. Links like these are what help keep Living the Gray Life up and running! Thank you for your support 🙂

Y’all this is such an exciting post!!! I’ve been wanting to publish this post since about mid-October, but I just kept getting this feeling that it wasn’t ready to post yet. I wasn’t sure why, but now I know… This post is the start of my planty YouTube videos that will accompany select blog posts! Sometimes things are just better expressed through a video, and this is one of those times.

I initially wanted to write and publish this post earlier in the fall, but I’m glad I didn’t because my grow light setup has changed drastically since then. Thankfully I waited, and now I can share my grow light setup in its full glory!

My succulents live outside from March/April through September/October. Luckily, Columbia has a very mild winter and longish growing season so I can keep them outside for 7-8 months of the year. Once the temperatures start dropping below 50 degrees at night, I bring my succulents and other houseplants in for the winter.

I use grow lights during the winter because my window sills just aren’t big enough for my succulent collection. I’m pretty sure I would need a house made of windows in order to support the vast number of succulents I have… it’s honestly a problem and kind of embarrassing but hey, it makes me happy so I’m not going to complain too much.

I also use grow lights to keep my succulents from stretching (aka etiolation) and losing their vibrant colors due to lack of light.

Each shelf has two, 4-foot 3200 lumen shop lights. I found them at Walmart for $17 a piece. After doing a hefty amount of research, I came to the conclusion that I didn’t need fancy lights that had the words “grow light” on the packaging. Almost any light would do as long as it was placed properly above the plants and provided the proper daylight spectrum that plants require.

I use an adjustable metal utility shelf on casters to allow me to roll my planty friends throughout the house if needed. The wheels actually came in super handy this past weekend when my parents came into town and I had to roll the plants out of the guest room and into my office.

While I don’t have any FAQs that people have asked me about my setup, I’m going to answer a few that I had when I was doing research about finding grow lights and how to set them up.

How long do I leave the lights on each day?

I let the lights run 14 hours a day. They come on at 6 AM and turn off at 8 PM. This gives the succulents enough light to bring out their beautiful colors and retain their compact shapes!

How far away do you keep the lights above the succulents?

Within 6-8 inches. For my babies up top, the lights are closer because they’re all at a uniform height. For my larger specimen on the middle and bottom shelf, the lights range from 5-8 inches depending on the height of the succulent. I do try to group my plants by height to allow for the most light to be available for the plant.

If I’m a beginner and only have a few plants, do I need a setup like this?

Absolutely not! I have a setup like this because plants are one of my hobbies and I tend to invest time and money into my hobbies to make them better. There are so many grow light options you can have to keep your succulents and plants happy. I am definitely not an expert on grow lights, but I used these from Walmart and these from Amazon last year and had very minimal stretching of my plants.

I’m so excited about this YouTube and blog collaboration journey because 1. the plant community on YouTube is amazing and 2. it’ll keep my blog from being all plant-related posts. I think the two platforms are going to work so well together and really help my creative juices flow in different ways! I’m sure some other bloggers out there can attest that it’s fun to do something new creatively, and it truly does help with inspiration for ongoing creative endeavors like blogging.

Make sure to leave a comment below if you have any questions about my grow light setup! Now you have no excuse to have sad houseplants in the dreary winter…

~abigail gray

January 11, 2020 | Posted in: CrossFit, Fitness

My CrossFit Experience: 6 Months In

May 29th, 2019.

This was the day I left my comfy, cozy bodybuilding/weightlifting world and entered into the realm of mirrorless gyms, chalk-coated clothing, and sweat-soaked shirts.

Here I am a little over 7 months later, stronger, leaner, and more athletic than I’ve been in my entire life. My world no longer focuses on aesthetics and appearances. Instead, it’s all about strength, endurance, and mental toughness.

I’ve met some genuinely amazing people.

Graduating from college and immediately working from home is a hard transition. I went from seeing people and interacting with people on a daily basis to being home with just me and my cats all day every day. That’s really not a great combo for someone who is introverted and suffers from anxiety and depression.

CrossFit has made me much more outgoing and I’ve created friendships that are probably unbreakable. There’s just something about suffering through a workout with a bunch of people that creates an instant bond. Plus, everyone is so encouraging and positive towards each other. We’re all suffering together, we’re all cheering each other on, and we’re all there to better ourselves in one way, shape, or form.

The price is 100% worth it.

Memberships to a CrossFit box are notoriously more expensive than a regular gym, but there are several good reasons for that. My monthly membership fee supports a local business, provides me with a trainer, keeps me from having to write my own workouts, gives me access to a beautiful gym that is not overflowing with #gymbros, creates an amazing community with like-minded people, and so much more.

For me, paying more each month for an amazing community that encourages me, breaks me out of my shell, and pushes me to be my best is hands down worth the cost.

I’ve come to realize just how powerful my body is.

My mind gives up so much sooner than my body, and if I can just mentally push through a workout, I know I’ll come out on the other side pretty darn proud of myself for finishing. I used to be super nervous and scared when I saw something challenging programmed for that day. Now I look at it with excitement. I wonder just how much that workout is going to suck but I’m somehow excited for that feeling of suffering.

Pacing myself in workouts is KEY.

When I first started, I was in decent shape, but not in great cardiovascular shape. Workouts were hard for me because I’d get out of breath and have to take more time than I would’ve liked to get my heart rate down. I’d dread intra-workout runs mixed with barbell movements because that was a recipe for me to die.

Funnily enough, I now look at our intra-workout runs and sets of burpees as a chance for me to catch my breath and slow down my heart rate enough to continue the workout without having to stop…

I’ve learned that it’s not about going balls to the wall at the start of every workout or having to do every workout unbroken. Pacing is smart, breaking things down into sets is good, and setting small, manageable goals for a workout is fantastic.

Okay, this is a complete side note, but a few weeks back we had to run 800m after a workout and I didn’t have to stop a SINGLE time! And just last week we had to do a workout with running followed by strength movements and again, I didn’t have to stop! I was so freaking proud of myself.

What’s Next?

2019 was a year of so many changes – graduation, moving, not being hired, starting my own business – and some health-related things definitely fell off the radar. One of those being diet. Since I’m home all day, it’s easy for me to drink coffee until 3 PM, snack on anything sugary and sweet, and have my first nutritious meal at 8 PM after I get home from the gym… Not great.

2020 is going to focus on getting my diet back in check and truly creating a workout schedule that fits with my daily routine and keeps me accountable. While I love my 6:30 PM classes, it’s so easy to use the “I’m tired and it’s already late” excuse to not go to the gym. No more of that in 2020!

~abigail gray

January 7, 2020 | Posted in: Lifestyle

A New Decade, A New Direction

Okay, I promise this is the last ‘2020 goals/updates/blah blah blah’ post for January. But I felt that this was an important one to address.

In 2017, I made the decision to rebrand Living the Gray Life from the typical college blog where I covered study tips, class advice, scheduling, dorm life, etc., to a college fitness and lifestyle blog. Fitness was a HUGE part of my life, and it’s what saved me from my deepest, darkest depression.

I kept that passion for fitness throughout college, and it kept me sane. It was a break from class, homework, and the stress of tests. It was the one hour I had to myself every day where I didn’t have to think about my job as a Resident Mentor (aka RA’s at other schools). It was my mental reprieve from day to day activities. I found so much joy in scheduling workouts, tracking progress, and sharing my journey with you. I loved being able to show that even in the hectic life that is college, there is time to prioritize your physical and mental health and be strong & confident in your body. See what I did there? Strong & Confident? That’s my free workout guide… #shamelesspromo

Once I graduated college in May 2019, I no longer had my ‘free’ gym membership at USC. I was in a confusing place that most recent college grads experience. I had my $60,000 piece of paper with no full-time job and no prospective jobs on the horizon. No one would hire me, my resume would get thrown out because I didn’t meet the minimum ‘1235623423 years of experience in 37 different coding languages, platforms, and systems’. My life was a confusing mess and fitness was an area that suffered due to that.

I knew my fitness routine needed to change, and that’s when I started CrossFit. Don’t get me wrong, I love everything about CrossFit, and it’s truly transformed my athletic ability. But since I’m no longer having to program my own workouts, and I’ve gotten out of the #GymBro environment, I’m not as interested in sharing about fitness. Since I’m not writing my own workouts, I don’t really have much to share on a day-to-day basis of what I’m doing in the gym.

Sure, I can show you my life at the CrossFit gym, but that’s the thing. It’s not just me in the gym anymore. I’m a part of a 5-12 person class each and every day. I don’t want to make others feel uncomfortable because I’m taking photos, videos, etc. Plus, when I’m doing a CrossFit workout, the last thing I’m thinking about is taking pictures because I’m just trying not to die 🤣

With that being said, I’m going to be moving away from fitness content and focus more on sharing content about my plants, running a business, and general life stuff. Fitness will always be a part of the blog, but it’s going to be less prominent from here on out.

I will continue to share updates on my CrossFit journey, reviews of my favorite activewear brands, and possibly the occasional workout. Fitness is and will always be a huge passion and hobby of mine, but I’m no longer that person who is chugging protein shakes and working out only to improve my physique.

I’m excited to take you on the next portion of my blogging journey because it’s going to be a fun one! I’m already working on planning content, revamping my YouTube channel (yes, new videos are a goal of mine for 2020), and developing routines that truly allow me to create and expand on my creative passions.

Thank you for sticking with me for the past four and a half years and always supporting the directions in which I choose to go with my content. Your support means the world, and here’s to an exciting 2020!

~abigail gray