Are you ready to take on a big project? Crochet a temperature blanket! It’s fun, easy and will take a year to complete. You can also be working on other projects in the meantime. Just be sure to put some time aside to be able to crochet one row for each day of the year. How do you get started making a temperature blanket? Here are 5 steps to crochet a temperature blanket.
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Step 1 to Crochet a Temperature Blanket
Decide What City You Are Going to Use for the Temperature Blanket
Many people just use the city they live in because it is fairly easy to keep track of the daily temperature. However, if you live in a climate where there isn’t much fluctuation in the temperature, then you may either want to use a different city with a climate that fluctuates more, or you may want to change up the temperature range for your project. For example, I live in Michigan, so our temperature throughout the year can be anywhere from -10’s to 100+ degrees. In this case, I am going to have a very colorful blanket because one day it could be in the 70’s and the next it may be a high of 35 degrees. This takes us to the next step.
Step 2 to Crochet a Temperature Blanket
Decide How Many Different Colors of Yarn You Want to Use
This kind of goes hand in hand with the 1st step in creating your crocheted temperature blanket. If your climate fluctuates like mine, you will want at least 10 different colors, quite possibly 12 different colors. Even if your climate doesn’t fluctuate as much, if you want a more colorful blanket, you can just change up what kind of temperature increments you want to use. Also, if you want a one-color family blanket, you can go ahead and find 10 different shades of blue or pink, etc.
For my temperature blanket, I decided on using Lion Brand’s Re-Spun 100% Recycled Polyester yarn (sponsored link). It feels just like acrylic yarn and is easy to work with. I have been using this yarn for many different projects recently.
Step 3 to Crochet a Temperature Blanket
Decide What Temperature Increments You Want to Use
If you live in a climate like mine, you will probably want to use 10-degree increments. So you will use one of the colors of yarn you picked out in the previous step for each 10-degree increment. For example:
- 0 to 9 degrees = Silver
- 10 to 19 degrees = Blue
- 20 to 29 degrees = Grey
- 30 to 39 degrees = White
- 40 to 49 degrees = Green
- 50 to 59 degrees = Yellow
- 60 to 69 degrees = Purple
- 70 to 79 degrees = Pink
- 80 to 89 degrees = Orange
- 90 to 99 degrees = Red
- 100+ degrees = Black
If you live in a climate where the temperature only ranges from let’s say 50 to 100 degrees, then you will probably want to use 5-degree increments. Your “key” will look more like this:
- 50 to 54 degrees = Silver
- 55 to 59 degrees = Blue
- 60 to 64 degrees = Grey
- 65 to 69 degrees = White
- 70 to 74 degrees = Green
- 75 to 79 degrees = Yellow
- 80 to 84 degrees = Purple
- 85 to 89 degrees = Pink
- 90 to 94 degrees = Orange
- 95 to 99 degrees = Red
- 100 + degrees = Black
You may want to make yourself a “key” for this. All I did was write down the increments on a lined piece of paper and glue a 2-inch swatch of the corresponding yarn next to it. This way you won’t forget what color goes with what temperature.
Step 4 to Crochet a Temperature Blanket
Decide How Big You Want Your Temperature Blanket to Be
This step is where you will decide what weight/type of yarn you will want to use for your temperature blanket as well as how many rows you want. If you are going to go for the gusto here and decide you want to crochet 1 row for each day of the year, you probably do not want to use yarn any larger than a size 4 (worsted weight) yarn, also you will want to use a single crochet stitch. For example, the yarn I am using will work up 18 rows per 4 inches. This is going to make my blanket 81+ inches long, which is roughly 6 and 3/4 feet. You also need to decide how wide you want your blanket. I decided to do 275 stitches across. The yarn I am using will work up about 14 stitches per 4 inches. This will end up being about 78 1/2 inches wide or approximately 6 1/2 feet. Be mindful of the size crochet hook you are using as well. If you are using a larger one than is recommended for the yarn size, then you will end up having looser stitches which will in turn make the blanket larger. If you are using a smaller hook, then it will make it smaller, etc. If you want the blanket longer and/or wider, you can always use a heavier yarn like a size 5. If you want a smaller size throw blanket, then here is where I would suggest not crocheting 1 row for each day of the year. You could change it up and do 1 row every-other day, or take the average temperature of every 3 days, or let’s say you want to crochet on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays – you could just use the temperatures from those days. Keep in mind this is YOUR project and you are the creator. Mix it up and have some fun!
Step 5 to Crochet a Temperature Blanket
Decide When You Want to Begin Crocheting Your Temperature Blanket
Many people start their temperature blanket on January 1st because it’s easy to remember and it’s the beginning of the calendar year. When I decided that I wanted to start crocheting my temperature blanket, it was in mid-October. I didn’t feel like waiting for the new year. I went ahead and started right then. You could always pick out a special day to start such as your birthday, or significant other’s birthday. Or, if you wanted to have one for this calendar year and let’s say it’s already February – you can always look up the weather history in your area from January and get caught up. There is no right or wrong day to start.
Happy Crocheting!
