An Unplanned Year

Years ago I had seen social media and blog posts about temperature blankets. I’ve always wanted to do one but not had an occasion to do so yet.

I also knew I wanted to buy some wool from Ireland/Scotland this year and do something with it.

What is a temperature blanket?

A temperature blanket is a knitting project where, for a year, you note the daily maximum temperature of where you, or someone else is.

You assign a wool colour to a temperature range, and any days that fall in that range are knitted with that colour.

The idea is that you end up with a unique, striped blanket as a memory of that year.

How do you know the temperature?

I have been noting the daily temperatures of each place we stayed in our travel planner, and my spreadsheet. (Of course there is a spreadsheet.) If you forget any dates, there are websites that will give you the historic weather data for any give place.

Planning the project

I want the blanket to be a decent size – I envisage it being a lap blanket perhaps? Maybe something to go on a bed? So I knew I would need a decent number of stitches.

Planning actually really took place standing in the Glendalough Woollen Mill in Ireland. A quick google for how many metres of wool in a 100g ball, how many metres someone else used in a temperature blanket they knitted (size unknown), multiplied that by the speed of a fairy’s wings and the number of scales on the Loch Ness monster and arrived at the quantity of “two balls of each colour I liked”. (Spoiler: I grossly underestimated!!)

We stopped at a knitting shop in Cork (gorgeous place, lovely helpful owner) to buy some needles and knitting markers, and another in Enniskillen to buy scissors and a crotchet needle for picking up dropped stitches.

What is my colour palette and temperature scale?

I chose a colour palette of eight bright colours.

My scale is:

• <5 degrees – white
• 6-10 degrees – grey
• 11-15 degrees – light blue
• 16-20 degrees – blue/green
• 21-25 degrees – teal
• 26-30 degrees – apple green
• 31-35 degrees – yellow
• >36 degrees – orange

I may add a red for >40 if needed.

Halfway through knitting February, it became obvious that I do not have enough blue/green wool!!

So anyway an order has been placed with Glendalough Woollen Mill and another bundle of wool will be waiting for me when we get to a friend’s house in England in early July.

What are the specs of my temperature blanket?

I’m using 5mm, 100cm round needles.

The wool is 5 ply.

I cast on 300 stitches, thought it looked a bit small and added another 60. Plus 6 each side for a border.

I added knitting markers every 30 stitches so I could ensure I stay on pattern.

The pattern I am knitting is fairly straightforward:

K6,then K3,P3 repeated to the final marker, then K6.

The pattern is the same on both sides.

I started with 6 rows of a dark grey wool as my end border and will do 2 rows of grey between each month.

Temperature blanket progress

February

March

April

May

The blanket has been shipped back to Australia as I didn’t count the wool colours I would need properly before I sent the extras home. I have reached the end of one colour and so must wait until I have more blue!

TBC when we return home.