My Temperature Blanket ♥ The Beginning

Hello Lovelies,
I'm feeling hap,hap,happy today because my cro-jo is back :0)
In 2018 I did very little in the way of crochet, I just couldn't seem to get enthused about it at all.
Where as  all last year my friend Jones was working on a blanket made up of small squares. This was despire having two small boys to run around after.
The colours were decided by the day's temperature in her town. It was a Temperature Blanket, and a very inspiring one too.

 This is not a new concept and I have been aware of "Temperature blankets" for a few years now. Initially I thought it would just be too annoying not to have any control over the colour pattern, but seeing some great examples via Jones and THIS hashtag on Instagram I began to think this could be a fun way to do a slow project that will result in a nice big blanket. And big blankets are always welcome I find.

Here are just a few of the examples I love....

1. Circles in squares with a neutral border....


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2. Stripes, stepped in this example....


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3. Good old granny squares with a contrasting joint....


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4. Straight stripes with the year embroidered on the corner...I like that idea.


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But one of my biggest influences was Amy's beautiful Hexagon temperature blanket you can see on her Instagram account HERE. Amy used multiple temperatures from 1 day in each of her motifs. I liked that idea a lot....despite the huge number of ends it will create :0)

I decided to go with the traditional cool to hot rainbow of colours and pulled 19 balls out of my Stylecraft Special DK stash. It was important to me that this should be a "use up what you have project"

As I want lots of colour variation each colour only covers 2 degrees Celsius, and 19 colours gives a range from -6 to plus 30 degrees. I can always add more colours if needed, at either end of the scale...

Yipee, time to get the yarn pegs out. Just look at that lovely wheel of colour...

This was my first attempt. Three round squares using THIS pattern (an old favourite of mine). The colours chosen by the daily high, low and average temperatures. Ordered in any way I chose....

 

 Then I looked again at Amy's Hexagons, why were they so effective? They are a set order and, crucially I think, they have the same colour in the centre as the border.

I never intended to use hexagons myself as I'm sure I would get totally mixed up as were to add the next day, so I changed pattern to my own Little Sunburst Square, and followed Amy's order....which is....Round 1= daily high temp. Round 2 = daily low temp. Round 3= daily average temp. Round 4= daily high temp again.

This is how the first 6 days of January  2019 looks. I'm working on the diagonal (to hopefully get that appealing colourwash effect) so the first is top left and the 6th is top right. At a glance I can see the only day we have had minus temperatures so far is the 4th (bottom left) ...as it's got lilac tones not all blues.

How great it is to have some pretty crochet and yarn to faff with again. Even if the dull weather makes my pictures less than perfect.

And can we just take a moment here to smile at my first bunch of Daffs of the new year. Such a special sight. They smell like spring.....sigh.

Ooooh lovely, a project bag full of rainbow yarn and a cosy fire. Perfect. 

At the moment I'm itching to do more and thinking maybe I should have waited till we were about three weeks into the new year so I could have more blanket to get on with.

If you are wondering were I'm getting my weather data it's HERE......you can choose any town for local data. Thank you again Jones for this tip. 

It doesn't tell you an average so I just work out the mid point between the highest and lowest temperature myself. 

I'm not a person who can follow another's colour choices exactly. Even if they are stunning. I like the mystery and uniqueness of going it alone. Sometimes I'm good at choosing, and other times I miss the spot. It can be stressful and off putting. I end up pulling things back, or stopping a project all together.
 With this project I'm looking forward to having no decisions to make but still ending up with something unique and hopefully beautiful.
An added bonus being those extremes of temperature that can be so trying will now mean new colours patterns to enjoy. Woohoo.

Here's to more crochet in 2019

Jacquie x