Temperature blanket

January 15, 2017 by Carole 13 Comments

I’ve seen the odd mention of temperature blankets recently but didn’t really know what one was. Then, one of  my friends said she was going to do one, so I looked into it.

They sound interesting. You split a temperature range into sections and select a yarn colour for each section. Then, you do a row of your blanket each day, picking the colour according to the high temperature of that day. You get a lovely random striping effect that’s designed by the year’s temperatures.

A couple more of my friends said they might do one too and I was getting more and more tempted. Bear in mind that I currently have two Last Dance blankets in progress, plus one Carousel and a Ripple. (also a secret project that I can’t talk about, Ssshhhh)

Eventually I gave in to temptation but with a twist. I thought it’d be fun to do it in hexagons, working out from the centre in a spiral. Usually the blankets are done for a full year, but I’m just going to keep going until it’s the right size. I can do a hexagon, including join-as-you-go in under 20 minutes so it’s not a big commitment.

Traditionally they’re done in a range of colours going from icy greys, through blues, greens, yellows, oranges and red to denote the changing temperature but I wanted to use the lovely Stylecraft Batik that I’m making the Carousel with. There are enough colours to do that but I was imagining one done that shaded from grey through grey-blues to purples, pinks and red so I’m just using eight colours. I’m also using the local temperature at noon each day rather than the high temperature.

These are the colours that I’ve chosen.Graphite (below 0°)
Storm (0 – 5°)
Indigo (6 – 10°)
Violet (11 – 15°)
Heather (16 – 20°)
Plum (21 – 25°)
Raspberry (26 – 30°)
Cherry (over 30°)

I’m not anticipating using much cherry 🙂

The hexagon pattern I’m using is based on one on Attic24 Lucy’s blog. I’ve changed the centre section because I like starting circles with a finger wrap and dc.

The green stitch marker is the centre hexagon and I’m marking the edge of the last one added with a purple marker so I don’t get confused. I was overjoyed on Wednesday when the temperature managed to get high enough to use the violet as I was getting desperate to use a different colour.

I’m loving it so far. The hexies are quick and easy to do and it’s growing nicely. I’m even contemplating another one once this one is finished. I’m thinking these hexies would look lovely in two colours, one for the temperature and one for the general weather – windy, rainy, cloudy, sunny etc.