The Temperature Blanket Experiment

 Last year, I blogged about going to a craft exhibition and being introduced to the concept of temperature quilts - quilts that are made with strips of color corresponding to certain temperature ranges.  

What a temperature blanket (it doesn't have to be a quilt) does is track the low and high temperatures (or only the high temperatures - a lot simpler) for each day of a given year. You assign different colors for temperature ranges.  For example, you can assign lavender fabric to represent a temperature range of -15F to five above zero F.  Medium blue can be for six degrees F to 20F.  Light blue 21F to 32F.  Green for temperatures in the 40's, and so forth, until the highest temperatures, say orange for 81F to 90F and red for 91F to 100F, are reached.  It rarely gets about 100F here in the Southern Tier of New York, but we can dip below zero F on occasion.. 

The more volatile your climate is, the more colorful the blanket is.  If you live in a climate that has fairly steady temperatures, you can decrease the range that each color is used to represent. 

Here's an example of a temperature color chart.  And, here are links to some patterns (crochet and knit).

I don't quilt but I have crocheted a lot of afghans in my life.  So how about a temperature afghan?  Recently, I decided I would try it out.  It turns out that there is a wealth of temperature blanket

Many people start their quilts (or afghans) on January 1 and continue through December 31 of a year.  I hadn't chosen colors yet, but decided my spouse (who loves to watch the weather) could record the highs and lows for each day from our outdoor thermometer.

Some people will create a temperature blanket for each grandchild for the year they were born in.  What a lovely idea! (no pressure, dear son....) You can use Weather Underground or a similar site if the gift recipient doesn't live in your town or city.

If we had started late last year, we would have had a lot of low temperatures (our low was three above F one day).  But, the past few days, it's been unusually warm. In fact, yesterday, it got up to 60 F (15.5 C).  Our snow has just about all melted.  But a warm winter weather pattern can lead to heavy rains and flooding here, too, so I am keeping my fingers (and crochet hooks) crossed.

So,  if I go ahead with this project (I have to dig to see the yarn I have on hand and assign temperature ranges) it may be recording quite a year.  "Dig" is the right word.  I've barely crocheted these past couple of years, except for finishing up a couple of blankets I started to work on before the pandemic. I don't even have crochet hooks at hand, for possibly the first time in my life.

Will I carry through on this project?  We'll see.

I don't need another afghan, but when did that ever stop me?