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 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)