Temperature Blankets: Crochet Patterns, Color Charts and Tracking Sheets

Every January people from all around the world begin their annual temperature blankets. These blankets are fun projects to make and many bloggers even host CAL events with pattern suggestions and yarn color chart examples. They are also called Weather Blankets. Feel free to leave me a comment with a link to any CAL events or Temperature Blanket Patterns you like and I will add them to the post.

Temperature Blankets Post Oombawka Design Crochet

Temperature Blanket Color Charts

Some blankets use the same stitch pattern for each row of the afghan, while others use multiple stitch patterns.

Typically you choose between 8-10 colors to represent the temperature ranges your location experiences within a calendar year and then you crochet 1 row for each day of the year.  More recently I have been noticing a wider range of colors being used with smaller increments between the temperature ranges they represent.

In the end, it is up to you how many colors you want to use in your blanket.

First you need to find the temperature range for your area.  To find your average temperature range, to help you plan your blanket, you can search online for your city and “average temperatures”. This will give you a good starting point to decide the upper and lower temperature ranges you need to include for your blanket. Here are some online resources to get you your average temperatures a little bit faster:

Average Temperature Ranges in Your City

Climate United States – Monthly Average Temperatures

Average Temperatures in Canada

Weather Underground (search by State, City or Airport Code)

Tracking Sheets for your Temperature Blanket

It is helpful to have a chart, or even just your calendar, to track the temperature each day and to check off the dates you have completed. We all know we can fall behind on our CAL projects so it is smart to have a tracking system in place to be ready to catch up. That way you don’t have to count how many rows you have done to find out what date you need to work on next!

One fabulous resource I saw online while I was researching this post is available as a free PDF from Mary Maxim Blog.  Temperature Blanket Organizer and Temperature Tracking Sheets

If you’d like tracking sheets for the yarn colors for your project, you may want to use these from Dedri. Or this method from Lucy at Attic24. Lucy’s most recent post has a plethora of ideas included for choosing colors for blankets which you could use to help you select and organize your colors for the temperature blanket.

Choosing Your Stitch Pattern for the Blanket

When choosing the pattern you want to crochet remember if you follow the ‘rules’ and crochet 365 days worth of temperatures, that means your blanket is going to be 365 rows long.

Depending on the yarn weight and the crochet hook you use that finished blanket could be gigantic!

One way to make the blanket more manageable is to do 1 color per week for 52 weeks.

Or decide to do 1 color every set number of days. If you choose to do 1 temperature reading every 3 days, this will give you about 122 rows.

If you are making a full blanket and changing colors for every row, you may want to leave extra yarn on each end to allow you to leave the side edges as a fringe. Otherwise you will need to be weaving in 730 yarn ends before you add your edging.

Stitches that will work well for your blanket when you are crocheting it in rows:

Apache Tears

Linen Stitch (Moss Stitch)

This pattern by Kim is an excellent option: Temperature Blanket

You could even work straight single crochet for the blanket or the waistcoat stitch would do nicely since it is worked on only one side of the fabric.

Gauge

If you can get the stitch you are using to give you 4 rows per inch, then you will have a 91 inch blanket length.

If the stitch gives you 5 rows per inch you will have a blanket about 73 inches long. This is before you add your edging 🙂

Remember you may want to try making this blanket using DK weight yarn to help you manage it’s finished size!

An alternate way to make your Temperature Blanket

Personally, I think the best way to proceed (if I had the time to commit to this project) would be to make 380, 2″ inch squares – either using a simple granny square pattern, or just a plain crocheted square pattern.

This would allow me to have a finished blanket measuring 19 squares wide by 20 squares long (or 38 inches wide by 40 inches long) plus my border.

To me this seems a more manageable sized project and one that I can easily take with me on-the-go.

I also like the idea that I can make some of these squares in different temperature colors in advance for each of the temperature ranges and then I can join them when I have time each week.

Another idea worth considering is this one.

The video is not in English but it will show the simple Yo-Yo motif and how to join-as-you go (so each day you can just add the next one to the one from the day before).

Temperature Blanket Color Chart Examples & Patterns

1 Temperature Blanket Chart from Mary Maxim – Temperature Blanket Organizer and Temperature Tracking Sheets

2 Temperature Blanket from Skein and Hook – Color Chart Granny Stripe and Hexagon Pattern 

3 Stylecraft Temperature Afghan from Master Procraftinator

4 Temperature Blanket How to Make a Temperature Afghan (includes Color Charts and pattern links)

5 Temperature Afghan and Customization from the Crochet Crowd (pattern tutorial and temperature gauge pdf)

Temperature Afghan Spectrum Afghan Crochet Crowd

Temperature Afghan and Customization from the Crochet Crowd

Pattern Tutorial, different blanket sizes, temperature gauge information and free pattern suggestions.

Watch the Video Read More
Temperature Blanket Color Chart Options - tempcharrt Vannas Choice LBY

Vanna's Choice from Lion Brand Yarns Temperature Blanket Color Chart

This Temperature Blanket Color Chart provides a 10 color option for you to use. The post linked also includes additional helpful Temperature Blanket information.

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Bernat Satin Yarn Color Chart Example 2013

Bernat Satin Yarn Color Chart Example

This Yarn Color Chart includes temperature ranges for North America. The linked pattern includes a knit and crochet version.

Read More
Temperature Color Chart

Temperature Color Chart from Fiber Flux

Jennifer did one color a week for a total of 52 rows for her shawl project. This made a shawl 52 inches wide. You could chain a multiple of 4 + 3 to make this stitch into a blanket instead.

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CrochetKim Birth Temperature Blanket Free Crochet Pattern CrochetKim™

Temperature Blanket Color Chart from CrochetKim

This blanket measures about 45 inches by 72 inches and allows you to crochet 1 row per day for the full year.

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Temperature-Blanket-Color-Chart_Large400_ID-2866537

Temperature Blanket Color Chart from All Free Crochet Afghans

With 7 color ranges to represent temperatures between 0 and 3 degrees Celsius (32 and 86 degrees F) and a link to a blanket pattern to use for your project.

Read More

Bohemian Temperature Wrap - It's All in a Nutshell

Read More

Videos in this Collection

Temperature Afghan and Customization from the Crochet Crowd

Temperature Blanket Intro | Allison Rae Crochet

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8 Comments

  1. Hi Tam 🙂 because I made a typo! I’ve fixed it now in the post. You are the very first person who noticed my error. It should have been 52 weeks. Thank you for letting me know, Rhondda

  2. Hi. Curious why you chose 56 weeks or 380 days for a one year afghan?? A year has 52 weeks and 365 days (366 in leap year). Why’d you make it 4 weeks (or 15 days) longer??

  3. Great ideas! Another site you can use to get weather data and plan your gauge is temperature-blanket.com.

  4. I’m planning on making two temperature blankets, one for January thru June and one for July through December. I’ll do the same colors and stitch and I think they will look nice together.

  5. I have started mine. I have chosen a hexagon design. Instead of doing an average temperature – which to me does not really give an accurate temperature of your area. I am doing both a high and low temperature of each day. Each of my hexagons are approximately 5″ across. I have introduced this idea to my crochet group that I am a member in Facebook. They love the idea. This is a leap year – so it works out with the hexagon motif. All the odd rows with be 22 hexagons, and all the even rows will be 21 hexagons. It will end up with 17 rows of 366 hexagons. I googled a hexagon graph and it worked out very well.

  6. I have not crocheted this yet. But it got my attention, it is totally different.
    You also have a lot of information for crocheting this. Think it will be fun!!

  7. Hi Rene, I purchased mine at Michael’s craft store it was in the ribbon aisle there and came in a couple different colors. I have also ordered online from amazon when it went on sale last winter. Hope this helps! Rhondda