What’s that? Well, crocheting is when you use a single hook… oh, you mean a Temperature Blanket? It’s when you crochet a little bit each day based on the current temperature, or specifically (in this case), the day’s high temperature at my current location. I had heard about the concept years ago, and was considering starting one this year, but the last couple months have been kind of hectic (something about co-chairing a convention…). But someone told me that a Temperature Blanket doesn’t have to start on January 1st, so when I learned that JoAnn Fabrics is closing the three stores closest to me, I rushed out to pick up some yarn.
OK, not quite rushed out. I wanted to know how much yarn I needed to buy first… we have more days in the 70s than in the 20s, and only a handful of super hot days, and I wanted to know by how much. I pulled temperature data for the last year for Rosemont into a spreadsheet, used the mround function to round up or down to the nearest 10, and created a pivot table to count the occurrences. Yes, that’s a super geeky approach to yarn shopping.
Based on those numbers, I determined to buy 1, 2, or 3 skeins of yarn, as appropriate, with some loosely set colors. I know from experience that color selection varies, especially when trying to find multiple colors in the same or similar yarns. Then I went shopping – the only change was picking up a gradient white & blue for 30, because there wasn’t a white available in that yarn, and I flipped the blue and light blue because there was only one skein available for the darker color. (Caron Simply Soft, for reference. Which is, in fact, fabulously soft.) I also picked up a joining color (gradient black & white), having already decided I would be crocheting squares.
After shopping, I grabbed a spare piece of cardboard, punched 11 holes into it, and looped a snippet of each yarn by the appropriate temperature. Because I’m using the mround function, 10 really means anywhere from 6 to 15, and so on for the ranges. I created a tracking sheet where I enter each day’s temperature, set up a vlookup against my color guide, and track when it’s done. If I miss a day or two, I’ll have the data saved and can mark as I catch up.
I picked a granny square pattern that starts from the center and works out (which is why I needed a joining yarn). While searching for that pattern, I spotted another one that starts with a more obvious circle in the center before expanding to a square – that might be fun some other year for a lows and highs temperature blanket, since we do get wide ranges some days. I also trimmed the pattern down to three rounds instead of the five it comes with, realizing that I’m making either 360 or 375 of these squares (for rows of 15)… at 3.5 inches, that builds up pretty quickly.
I will admit it’s hard to only crochet today’s square. Yes, I could look at the forecast and crochet ahead, but what if it shifts? A predicted 14 can easily become a 16, which is an entirely different color! It’s a practice in patience. I’m sure I’ll share some progress photos later in the year.