The Temperature Blanket, during the first few weeks of January in any year, it’s a common theme in just about any crochet group. You either love them, tolerate them, or hate them. Having attempted one myself a few years ago, I decided that they aren’t for me.
For the uninitiated, or those you who have never heard of one, a temperature blanket is basically a blanket made with one row denoting each day of the year with the color representing the average temperature for that day.
It, however, can also have other colors added to note special days of that year. I’ve seen ones made of squares, each square being two colors, denoting the high and low temperature for each day.
The colors are traditionally, based on the colors that the meteorological society uses on weather maps, though, in reality you can use whatever colors you wish. I would advise you to keep a key of the temperatures and you corresponding colors choices handy and a journal of sorts noting what temperatures are what days to make it easier to remember the color order when you decided to binge a few rows after not working on it for a few days.
If you forget a day’s temperatures there a couple of sites that I would recommend you try either http://www.weather.com or http://www.wunderground.com. Weather Underground is also great for historical weather temperatures and forecasts if you want to try making one for a past year.
Some people to opt to make a weather (sunny/rainy/windy/etc.) instead of temperatures. It’s the same except it tends to be less colors.
I do recommend that you tailor you temperature key to you area, unless you want massive chunk of all the exact same color. A key range that is in ten degree increments many not work for someone who lives in an area where the weather stays in a window that spans 60-90 degrees. Figure out a key that works for you with however many colors you wish to use.
I do know of some who break the blanket into 4 blankets and each blanket represents a 3 month time frame, which given how long a 365 row blanket can get, makes perfect sense. I’ve also heard tales of people making it as a scarf instead, similar in length to the famous Dr. Who scarf of the 4th Doctor.
