Thursday, November 17, 2016

Temperature Blanket

I have decided to make a temperature blanket next year. The idea is to crochet (or knit) a row each day on a blanket. The color that you use depends on the temperature of the day. Most of the charts have 8 or 9 colors like this one:

(I even found one chart that was geared for warmer areas and the lowest temperature was 45) The problem with having so few colors is you end up with large areas of the same color. I decided to make a chart that had only 5 degrees for each color. I went through my yarn to find ones that would work and then put them in an order that looked good for a temperature scale. 


I attached little tags so I will remember which yarn is for which temperature.


Then I put the skeins into totes for easy access. I obviously won't need all of them at the same time! 


I took pictures of each of the skeins. I then edited and pasted and labeled to make a custom temperature guide.


I decided it would be fun to mark precipitation also. That lead to denoting birthdays, which led to noting holidays as well. So I went through my tatting threads to find colors to crochet along with the color of the day. 

Top row: rain, snow, ice/hail
2nd row: Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter
3rd row: 4th of July (Memorial Day/Veteran's Day), Halloween (orange and black together)
bottom row: Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays


In case you'd like to know what yarns I'm using, this is the list:
95+    : Red Heart Super Saver - Claret
90-94 : RHSS - Cherry Red
85-89 : Bernat Super Value - Peony Pink
80-84 : Bernat SV - Carrot
75-79 : RHSS - Gold
70-74 : ? Bernat or RHSS
65-69 : RHSS - Bright Yellow
60-64 : Caron One Pound Baby - Yellow
55-59 : RHSS - Spring Green
50-54 : Wintuk - Paddy Green (I couldn't find my RHSS green)
45-49 : RHSS - Dark Sage
40-44 : RHSS - Light Sage
35-39 : Bernat SV - Sky
30-34 : Caron One Pound Baby - Denim
25-29 : RHSS - Royal
20-24 : RHSS - Amethyst 
15-19 : RHSS - Lavender
10-14 : RHSS - Pale Plum
< 9      : Lion Brand Pound of Love - Lilac

95% of my yarn stash is probably Red Heart Super Saver. Mostly because they sell it at Walmart and we get a discount there. It also comes in a lot of colors. The next highest frequency of yarn types is Bernat Super Value. I tried to use as many of the same type of yarn as possible, but to get the number of colors I needed, I had to add in the others. The Caron baby yarns say they are a size 4/worsted but I think they are on the light worsted side. I'm excited to get started on my blanket! My daughter already asked me to make her one in 2018!

6 comments:

Tammy said...

Wow, that looks like a big undertaking! Hope you enjoy the process! It will be very colorful when you're finished! :)

Unknown said...

Makes me tired to think of all the work, on top of all the normal stuff! You are amazing!!!

Becky Dempsey said...

I'm hoping since it is only one row a day it won't be too overwhelming. of course, I still have to figure out how long each row is going to be! I want it long enough to be a nice blanket, but not too big to be too overwhelming

Jane McLellan said...

What an interesting idea!

Ryan and Sandra said...

So cool, Becky! This will be really neat to see when it's done--and along the way if you have time to snap and post pics :) NO pressure, though; you're great at keeping us all updated on your lives and fun events. We appreciate it!
Sandi (for Ryan, too)

Patricia Paschal Denton said...

I found you while searching temperature blankets. I love your color choices. I am doing three at once. One for the current year and then one each for my two grandsons birth years. I am also doing every 5 degrees since our area can have temps from 100 plus down to almost 0. I will bookmark you so I can keep up with your progress.