This is the time of year that everyone starts to think about temperature blankets, and I thought why not shed a little light onto the ins and outs of how these work, and different ways to create a temperature blanket of your own.

A temperature blanket is a blanket made up of rows, squares (squares refers to separate pieces which are then attached together and can be of any shape or size) that represent the temperature each day for a particular location. The colors can be any combination you choose and can represent any temperature range you choose. I know this all seems a bit confusing, so let’s break it down.

Deciding on your location and temperature range.

I start mine by deciding where I want to record the temperatures for (your hometown, your friends, hometown, where your children were born, etc.) There are great sites that you can get temperatures from for your blanket and for different years too. If you want to look up the year you were married or the year someone was born for instance, you can do that. The best site I have found is WeatherUnderground.com where I can enter the year and date for anywhere and get the high/low and average temps for that area. Armed with this knowledge you can decide if you want to do only 1-month, multiple months (such as 9 months of pregnancy, or last year of high school), or if you want to tackle a whole year. You will also need to decide if you want to record the high, low, or average range for each day. These factors will determine the pattern you will want to use to create your masterpiece.

You have decided where you are going to record the temperatures for but now what? You need to decide what you want to use for temperature ranges based on the area you have chosen. If you are creating a blanket for an area with very little temperature fluctuation you may want to do 5° increments, If you are doing an area with high amount of fluctuation you may want to choose 10° increments. This will all determine the number of colors you will need to choose. Start by writing down the highest temp you will need and go up from there in the increments you have chosen.

I like to use a small pocket calendar to record the daily temperatures for my area or when collecting historical temps, remember the days of the week don’t matter only the correct number of days, so don’t worry if the weekdays don’t match up. (This could be a good use for an old calendar from the past year)

Creating your temperature Guide

I like to do mine on a piece of card stock or thin cardboard so that I can punch holes next to each temperature to attach my yarn color which will represent that temperature range. What this means is that if a temperature falls within the range, it will be completed in the corresponding color. This will be your cheat sheet throughout the project.

Color Selection

Now for the fun part, color selection. You can be as creative as you would like with this part. Many people choose to do a rainbow color pallet with red starting the high temps working down to blues or purples for the low temps, but this is not a hard and fast rule, as you can see from my color selection on my chart above.

You can choose colors that you would like to do. For my son I used blues, teals and greens. You can use all muted colors, all bright colors, etc. this is your creation and should reflect your style.  The number of colors you will need will be dependent on the temperature ranges you have chosen. You will need one color for each temperature represented. Remember you will need smaller amounts of yarn for the highest and lowest temperatures and more yarn for the mid ranges since those occur more often throughout the year. You can start with one ball of each color but be warned that yarn companies have the nasty habit of discontinuing yarns right when you need it, so try to plan ahead when possible. For my temperature blanket done in New England USA I chose to do 10°ranges and needed 10 separate colors. I chose this range because we have a high temperature fluctuation throughout the year, and I didn’t want to have a 20-color blanket (way more yarn to purchase and store). If you live in a place where the temperatures never get above, let’s say, 100° or below 40° you would have no need for a temperature range of 0°- 30° and you could do smaller ranges without needing as many colors.

Sizing

The size of your blanket will depend on the technique you choose, the number of days you choose (whole year vs. a month or a few months), and the yarn and hook size you use. Mine are always done in worsted weight / 4 weight yarn and a 5.0 – 6.0 mm hook but you could choose a DK weight / 3 weight and a 4.0- or 4.5 mm hook for smaller stitches and of course then a smaller blanket. A single crochet temperature blanket for the entire year done in DK weight with a 4.5mm hook can become an approximately 6.5ft blanket.

What to do with months with less than 31 days?

You should always choose a neutral color (I suggest the color you want use for your border) to use to do the “blank rows”, these are the extra rows where there are no days for that month. Example: February 29, 30,31. Every square needs to have 31 rows to ensure they will fit together at the end. I also suggest that to each square you add a border row (this can be just an additional row of the stitch you are using, a row of sc, or any other stitch you prefer) around the square with your border color to make them cohesive, and to make joining them together easier.

Now what?

Here is where I find the mystery of temperature blankets comes in. How do you do 365 days of temperatures without creating a gigantic blanket? Let’s first think of this as there are no right or wrong ways to complete your creation. There are as many ways to make a temperature blanket as there are ways to crochet or knit. I will give you a few examples to get you started.

Solid Granny square

With this option you can start from the center and add a round for each day of the month. At the end of the year have 12 squares to then stitch together to form a blanket. These can be done in a multitude of shapes, such as hexagon, circle, square, triangles, etc.. By doing this method you can control the height and length. This also ensures you do not end up with a very long skinny blanket as I have seen many temperature blankets become. This is what seems to discourage many from completing the project.  You can do all average temps, or do 2 rows a day and do one low and one high for each day (this will make a much larger square of course). Be sure to add a single crochet border in your border color to make joining easier.

If you are very enthusiastic you can do one square per day with low in the center (I suggest at least 2-3 rows) and high for the outer rows. This would mean a lot of joining but could be a great option when doing a blanket consisting of only one month, such as the year a child was born or the month you were married. You can adjust the amount of rows you want to do to get the square to the size you desire by adding more border rows or by increasing the number of rows used for each temperature.

C2C (Corner to Corner)

There are many great graphing sites available, such as Stitch Fiddle where you can create a C2C graph using your temperature data and colors (especially helpful when doing one for historical years when all data is already available) or you can just do this day to day as you record the data. You will do the first block as the first day of the month. The second row of blocks as the second day of the month and so on. This will create a very nice diagonal design for each block as seen below in the graph I created. Be sure to add a single crochet border in your border color to make joining easier.

Half Granny square or half and half Granny square

This can be a traditional 3 stitch cluster granny square or a solid granny square where you complete one half of the square in one set of colors (for instance your low temps) and the other side in another set of colors (High temps).  Another option would be to do the average temps on one side and a solid border color for the other side which would make a fun pattern once attached together. The nice thing with this option is that you can get high and low temps without creating a larger square. Be sure to add a single crochet border in your border color to make joining easier.

Mitered Granny square

With a mitered granny square you again have the option of doing traditional 3 stitch clusters or solid granny. With this option you create the first full round of your square with the color that corresponds with the temp for day one of the month and then every day after is only worked on 2 sides of the square creating the mitered effect. Again, this can be done in average temps or high/low temps depending on the size of the square you want to achieve. Be sure to add a single crochet border in your border color to make joining easier.

Mile-a-Minute strip (best for shorter time frames and high/low temps)

This is a fun option and could be done in a multitude of ways. Any mile-a-minute strip pattern can be used and you can make shorter strips that are all attached together to create a more patchwork style (an option for doing multiple months) or longer strips that are attached together (great for 1 month blankets) With this option you do the low temp in the center and the high temp is your border row. These can be done in join as you go which is great if you must sew squares together. Jada in Stitches did a great year of Mile a Minute strips, any of which could be used for this option. If you are not joining as you go, be sure to add an additional border row for stitching together at the end (you will be glad you did).

Single crochet

This is the option (along with moss stitch) that I see the most often for temperature blankets. Where I                        get confused is, why you would want a blanket that can cover a king size bed and puddle on the floor or that will be the size of your entire living room? Of course, if your goal is to make a rug this could be a great option. Now as I have stated my thoughts on this, I have a better option using the same stitches, and a much more manageable blanket. Instead of all the calculations to figure out how many stitches to start with to create a rectangle or square and halfway through the year figuring out this will be a monstrous project, try doing squares that are 31 stitches across by 31 stiches high and attaching together. You can attach them as you go, so no major amounts of stitching at the end. Another option is to 4 strips of 3 months and attach together in rows. Example: 31 stitches across by 93 stitches. Be sure you remember to add the additional rows for the days with no value as stated above “What to do with months with less than 31 days?”, you need to have the same number of stitches per strip for them to match up when sewing together. Be sure to add a single crochet border in your border color to make joining easier.

If you want to do highs and lows, you could do 62 stitches by 62 stitches for you squares or one square highs and one with lows. You could also do long thin squares by doing 10 or 15 stiches across by 31 or 93 stitches high. This is your creation and there are no right or wrong answers here.

Bobble stitch

With the bobble stitch as with the single crochet you can create a square by doing 31 bobbles x 31 bobbles or as stated above in the single crochet section you can adjust to any size you want as long as each square is 31 rows high. As always, be sure to add a single crochet border in your border color to make joining easier.

Bonus! … All of these can be joined or stitched as you go so no long prosses of attaching squares at the end of the year.

There are so many options for creating a temperature blanket that you don’t need to feel intimidated by the thought of such a massive project. Do one month, do several months, or take on the whole year knowing you will end up with exactly the right size for you.

Have fun, get creative and be sure to share with us on The Pastel Blonde Facebook page, the link is located at the bottom of the page.

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