2018 Temperature Blanket project.

Have you heard of the Temperature Blanket project?

Well, quite simply it is a row of crochet (or knitting, if you prefer) each day, matching the colour of the yarn to what the temperature is that day.

If you Google 'Temperature Blanket' you will come up with load of ideas and patterns, but if you would like to join in with mine then please feel free   :)

I have set up a Facebook group so we can all share our progress as we go along - you can find it HERE, just click the JOIN button.

So, we are going to make this one in 8 colours - it is impossible to know just how much you will use of each as each day might be different, so one ball of each is a good place to start, buying more as you might need it.

I chose to do mine in Stylecraft Special DK, which is a gorgeous soft acrylic yarn in delicious colours.  These are....Matador, Tomato, Grass Green, Lime, Aspen, Petrol, Emperor and Magenta.

I have devised my own temperature chart to go with these colours, basing it on the UK weather system.  Hopefully at some point we will get to use all the colours.

A little bit about my design idea then....... some people quite fancy the idea of doing a blanket, but if you do a row a day, you are looking at a 356 row blanket, which if you are using Trebles is going to be rather large.  Large is ok if you want large of course, but it's also quite a commitment in time, so my plan is to work four separate pieces and join them at the end.  It means that we will work for 364 days as it's dividable by four  :)

We shall call them "Quarters".  We will need to 'borrow' days from other quarters to make the pattern fit, but I will remind you of that as we progress - so don't worry about it now.

Jan / Feb / Mar (90 days)  (Quarter 1 - Lowest Temp)
Apr / May / Jun (91 days)  (Quarter 2 - Highest Temp )
Jul / Aug / Sep (92 days)  (Quarter 3 - Highest Temp)
Oct / Nov / Dec (92 days  (Quarter 4 - Lowest Temp)

So, how to check your temps.  To get the most out of each colour, I suggest taking either a low or high temp reading for each quarter as shown above.  If you were to pop over to the Met Office Website and put in your area, you will get both a low and high reading for that day.  (or you can use any weather apps you might have on your phone.)

And here are the colour rules..... so, as you can see from above, the temp for Carlisle today was a low of 3 degrees and a high of 8 degrees.  As we will be working on Quarter no:1 we will use the LOW number.

3 degrees on the colour chart means you would use PETROL for this particular day.

If you find you do not have time one day to do your row, DON'T PANIC, just jot down the temp for that day and play catch up when you do have time.

The pattern!   Finally, we have come to the part where the pattern is revealed.  As promised, it is a very easy pattern, basically just stripes, but every Sunday we shall pop a different row of stitches in so you can see your weeks work build up, I think that would be quite nice.

So.... shall we begin?

I choose to use a 4mm crochet hook, it is my hook of choice for DK yarn, but you may wish to use a 4.5mm or a 3.5mm - whatever you are most comfortable with.

We will be using the HTR stitch, which works like this......  Yarn round hook, insert hook into stitch, pull yarn back (3 loops on hook). Yarn round and draw through all three loops.

FOUNDATION ROW:

Chain 93, work a HTR into the 3rd chain from the hook and HTR into each chain following.  (91 stitches)  Leave yarn attached just in case tomorrow is the same colour  :)

FOLLOWING ROWS:  (not Sunday)

Ch 2, HTR into the BACK loop only of each stitch.

If you are not familiar with using the back loop of the stitch, let me show you where it is.
When you put your hook through your stitch you usually get two strands of yarn above your hook (ignore the one already on there)

We will just be using the back loop of each stitch, the one marked by the green thread.  It gives a lovely ridged finish to the work.

Do a stitch count every so often to make sure you keep to the 91 stitches, otherwise you will end up with a triangle  :)

Tomorrow, I will show you how to join a new yarn colour.

I will pop back in a few days with Sunday's row.

Happy hooking!!