Hello Moogly readers! I'm super excited to share a guest post by Margaret McLaren, who's blogStitching in the Woods is the go-to site for Temperature Blanket info! Not sure what that even is? Read on to learn all about this fun crochet trend - and how you can make your own custom creation!
Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links. Content copyright Margaret McLaren, used with permission.
You may have heard a lot of other crafters talking about temperature blankets lately. This talk often starts to really pick up around December and January every year. Now that we’ve gotten through the craziness of the holidays you’re curious as to what all the talk is about. That’s why I’m here to help!
What is a Temperature Blanket?
At its simplest, a temperature blanket is a visual representation of a year’s worth of temperatures. You create a temperature blanket by crocheting a row of stitches or a motif each day based on the day’s temperature. A temperature blanket is a project that’s really easy to customize and therefore really easy to personalize. They’re also really addictive!
I’m going to now delve a bit deeper into each of these statements. Except the last. You’ll pick up on why they’re addictive as we go.
A Year’s Worth of Temperatures
A majority of temperature projects are done with a year’s worth of temperatures. These temperatures are usually collected from January 1st to December 31st of the current year. You could also use the temperatures just from one season or for half the year.
The temperatures don’t have to be from the current year, however. You could do some research and find temperatures from a special year in your life or in the life of someone you know. You could even do the temperature on a certain date over a long span of time.
This and other variations could come from what you want your blanket to commemorate. Keep in mind, you actually don’t have to do a full year’s worth of temperatures. I’m currently doing a blanket to document the temperatures during my current pregnancy.
A Row a Day
The standard form of temperature blanket has you crocheting a row or motif for each day’s temperature. This will give you 365 rows or motifs (366 on a leap year) if you do a January 1st to December 31st blanket. That seems like a lot, and it is, but keep in mind it’s getting broken down over the whole year.
What color you crochet in each day is determined by that day’s temperatures. Before you start your project you assign a color to each range of temperatures. Then each day you find where that day’s temperature fell and use that color to crochet your row or motif.
What do I mean by a color range? It’s best explained with a picture, so here’s an example, featuring Red Heart With Love!
If you can’t crochet every day, you can plan on collecting your temperatures to catch up later. I have a handy sheet for this on my blog, but you could also use a piece of paper, notecard, or note-taking app or program. My recommendation is you find time at minimum once a week to stay caught up on your blanket. Creating a habit of doing it will help greatly on getting it done.
A lot of crafters take the summer months off because they are spending more time outside and don’t want to work on such a large, warm project. I would still try to get at least something done on your blanket during these months, perhaps on a cool night. It’ll make it easier to get back into the swing of things when the temperatures cool off again. (It’ll also make it easier if you don’t get behind on your Moogly CAL squares and other projects during the summer months like I do!!)
Easy to Customize
Temperature blankets lend themselves very well to customization. At the minimum, two people could use the exact same color scheme and come up with two very different blankets due to living in two different areas. But living in different areas isn’t the only way to customize your blanket by any means.
Even working from the same pattern there are several variables you can change to make your blanket your own:
- Temperatures: using both the high and low, using the day’s average, using a week’s average, doing only part of a year
- Colors: doing different grades of one shade, picking only cool or warm colors, picking random colors from your stash
- Stitches: doing a different stitch each month, doing a variation on your stitch each month
- Yarns: using yarn of a different weight, using yarn of a different brand (Red Heart is my favorite for temperature blankets!)
Where to Go From Here
I hope by this point you have a pretty good grasp of what a temperature blanket is and how the process of making one works. I understand that you may still have questions, too.
If you’re ready to start on your project right away then head over to my blog, Stitching in the Woods, to get your temperature tracking sheet. That way you can start getting your temperatures down while you’re planning your color scheme and all. To help with your planning, you can go through my Demystifying Temperature Blankets series.
I also have a low-cost e-book, 5 Easy Steps to Plan Your Temperature Blanket, to walk you through the process if you need a little more help. (Moogly readers get a $4 discount when you click through the above link.) The e-book comes with a companion worksheet to gather all your planning in one place and color range charts to fill in with your colors and ranges.
I hope you have a fun, crochet-filled year!
What a fantastic look at Temperature Blankets - thank you so much, Margaret! I just love this idea - it's at least a little crochet consolation for the extreme temps when you end up with a more colorful blanket!
Be sure to check out all of Margaret's links above - and happy crocheting all year long!
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