I’m finally doing it. I’m making a temperature blanket! I’ve been intrigued with the concept of temperature blankets ever since I saw a post about it on Instagram. Toni shared her first temperature blanket in 2019 and I just couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Tracking your year through yarn is a beautiful idea but I HATE the unappealing way it is done with all the rainbows. You’d have to be great at selecting the right palette where all the colors complement each other. Even then, there’s no guarantee that they’ll work together since you can’t predict the weather.
I’m not a fan of all the colors… I like my projects to be monochrome, simple, not too flashy (as far as color), and easy to blend into almost all decor settings. I want to make things that I can use in my space or wear, no matter how much my style changes. No matter how much the decor changes so let’s make a temperature blanket using one colorway!
What Are Temperature Blankets?
The idea behind temperature blankets is to crochet (or knit) a number of rows on a blanket each day for a full calendar year with colors corresponding with the temperature outside. The more colors you choose to have in your palette to correspond with the temperature ranges, the more vibrant your finished blanket will be. As I said earlier, I’m choosing to go with one colorway.
You don’t have to use the average temperature. At least that’s not your only option. You can choose to make your blanket using the highs, lows, or average. It’s all up to you.
So How Will This Be A Temperature Blanket?
I’m going to use stitches and lots of texture to show the changes in temperature. Instead of having red for temperatures between 90-99 degrees, I will have bubble stitch for example. Each of our blankets will be as different as the weather in our city. Even then, two neighbors could have different blankets at the end of this project.
Because I like adding extra challenges to my plate, I decide to make my temperature blanket to reflect my brother’s 36 years on this earth. I will be making a list of the high temperature in the city he was on his birthday over the past 36 years. This will hopefully be his Christmas present or I’ll hide it until his next birthday.
I hope you will join me on this year-long project with zero strings attached… maybe a lot of strings lol. Make this your own. I’m making one for my brother, you could use the low/high temperature of each of your wedding anniversary to make your blanket. Or your own birthday, the average temperature each month you’ve lived in your house, your imagination is your limit.
Let’s Get Started!
Before we start you’ll need a temperature gauge based on the climate of your local area or wherever you want to focus. I’ve put together the one below for all of us to use.
Adjust the temperature gauge to better fit the weather of your region. Don’t let the lack of temperature variance in your region stop you from making a temperature blanket. You can use one of the many ideas I mentioned earlier or make your range smaller. You could make it 5, 10, 15, 20 degree range to suit your need.
TAP THE IMAGE BELOW TO DOWNLOAD THE YOUR CUSTOMIZABLE TEMPERATURE GAUGE
You can also use the different weather conditions in your area to make your blnket or other project. Choosing different stitches to represent windy, stormy, cloudy, sunny etc. days could be a uniuqe way to make your project your own. Another take on this would be to choose one colorway and adding lace weight yarn to reprepresent the different weather conditions, for example, mohair held with your main color to show foggy days. Main color held double with fuzzy yarn for rainy days. There are many ways you can use this ideas to make your blanket fun.
You can use this link to find the high/low of your city or country (Try this link). Speaking of country, another way to make this blanket is to find the high/low/average temp of your country for specific years, days, months or weekly average, and use those to make the blanket. This would be great if you travel a lot and want to remember the times you spent in specific countries around the world.
Here’s The Plan!
This will be my blanket. Remember your stitches will fall differently. I went with the high temperature on his birthday every year from his date of birth to his 36th birthday.
The Construction
Each stitch will be worked for 5 rows or however many rows you would like to reach the desired blanket size.
Some stitches are worked in multiples, so start with a beginning row that will account for all of them.
Stitches With Multiples
Brick St – Multiples of 4 sts + 3. If you are starting your blanket with these sts, you will need for example 20 sts plus 3. If you are working it on another row of the blanket, you will need a row that is divisible by 4.
Even Mixed Loop St – If you’re blanket starts with this st, you will need an even number of sts. If you are working it as the next st in your blanket, you will need an even number of st.
Yarn
You guys know my love for worsted-weight yarn and it’s a close second DK. I’m using this beautiful hand-dyed yarn by Shobha of Serendipitous Wool Co. I absolutely adore it the colorway I’ve chosen to work with; Ripped Avocado!
Serendipitous Wool, aims to be mindful of their footprint on the planet. They believe in community building, sharing resources and advocating for equity, equality and a better future. They are committed to being anti-racist and are continually working to ensure that our space is safe.
Staying On Track
Don’t let this project take over your craft room, crochet joy, and life. You don’t have to crochet every day. Batch your crocheting to one or two days a month. If you feel like you won’t keep up and may abandon the project halfway through, get an accountability partner from the very beginning to keep you motivated.
I’m going to work on a few rows/sections every Saturday night as I catch up on my shows for the week. If you’re making this using the temperatures of your current year, maybe keep track of them in a planner.
Now that we’ve got all of this out of the way. Let’s talk about you joining me on this adventure!
Join Me!
I’ve been talking about making this (openly) for about a year now and I really hope you’ll be making it with me. I hope you’re as excited as I am to get started.
- Use the Hashtag. Follow and use the hashtags #TexturedTempBlanket and #desamourdesigns to share your progress while seeing others progress throughout the year.
- Join the Facebook Group. Join the Desamour Designs Facebook group so we can keep each other accountable. I’ll be there sharing my progress monthly.
- Find an Accountability Partner. Work your temperature blanket updates into your social media or/and blog calendar. Make weekly/monthly reels, Youtube videos, posts, Zoom meetings, and Instagram lives where you talk about your blanket, share your project and chat with a support system. There’s nothing quite like having a community around you to keep you motivated on such a big project. Find a friend you can check in with regularly. Whatever you need to stay motivated, plan for it NOW!
I really hope you’ll consider starting your own temperature blanket in the new year with me. Tell us about your temperature blanket in the comments!
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