2023 Crochet Temperature Blanket

With the holiday season coming to an end, you might be thinking about your next big crochet project. Why not add a crochet temperature blanket to your project list? With their easy-to-crochet nature, exciting color work and sentimental value, crocheting a temperature blanket can be a great addition to your project list.

There’s no denying that sometimes, you need a break from big intricate projects but still want to crochet. Let a crochet temperature blanket be the project you look toward during these times. Despite a simple stitch pattern that is easy to crochet, a crochet temperature blanket remains interesting as you’re crocheting 1 row a day to document the year in the best way we know how – with yarn!

What is a Crochet Temperature Blanket?

Simply stated, a crochet temperature blanket is a way of recording a year with our craft.

This is a project in which we crochet 1 row for each day of the year, or 365 rows. You can crochet 1 row each day or set aside time once a week to crochet each day for the week. How you schedule your crocheting is up to you but each row will correspond to the date.

We begin with January 1st and end on December 31st, typically. You can start on any day you like, though. Just make sure to work a full year. So, if you count June 1st as your first day on your blanket, make sure to work through the year and into the next, ending on May 31st.

In this blog post, I’ll break down questions and how to plan a crochet temperature blanket in detail. After reading through this blog post, you should have all the detailed information you need to get started.

A quick overview of what a crochet temperature blanket project is: You will pick a location and year (typically your current location and the current year, though you can choose any you like), break down the temperature range into increments (usually by 5 or 10 degrees) and assign a color to each temperature increment to create a Color Key, track the temperatures daily and get crocheting!

Do I have to do the current year?

Not at all! Many crocheters choose a different year from the current year for their crochet temperature blanket. While most crocheters choose to follow the current year, it’s fairly common for crocheters to choose a year that is special to them or a year that is special to the person they’re making the blanket for.

Other options for the year could be the birth year of a child, the year of a marriage, the year you graduated from college or any other year that holds a special meaning to you or the recipient.

Do I have to do my current location?

Nope! You can pick any location that you’d like. You can choose your home town, favorite vacation location, a place you’d love to go to but haven’t yet or somewhere random just for fun. It’s up to you!

This can be especially fun for crocheters who live in climates that don’t have a wide variety of weather.

For example, I didn’t really ever consider a crochet temperature blanket when I lived in Southern California because it was basically always 75 degrees Fahrenheit. If I had crocheted a temperature blanket when I lived in Southern California, I likely would have chosen my hometown in rural Northern California where there is more temperature fluctuation.

Can I track something other than the temperature?

Absolutely. While it’s technically a crochet temperature blanket, that doesn’t mean you have to abide by “temperature”.

You can track almost anything that you like, as long as it’s something that can be quantified daily. Anything you can think of that you can assign a color to and measure daily, you can use for a crochet temperature blanket.

What if I can’t start on January 1st?

That’s totally okay! After all, who is really going to be checking to make sure you started on January 1st? Not me!

As long as you track and measure the temperature (or other thing you’re tracking) daily and can crochet “Row 1” for January 1st, you’re all set!

In total transparency, I likely won’t be actually starting my crochet temperature blanket on January 1st, 2023. I’ll be tracking the temperature but I’ll be waiting for yarn to arrive to get started.

Do I have to do one row a day?

Technically, yes. You do want to work a row for each day of your crochet temperature blanket… But do you have to actually crochet 1 row a day? No.

You can plan to work on the blanket once a week or once every few days and work all of the rows necessary to keep up with the date.

So, while you can work 1 row a day for the next 365 days, you certainly don’t have to as long as you keep track of the temperatures and end up working 365 total rows.

How to Plan Your Own Crochet Temperature Blanket

There are 6 things to consider when planning your temperature blanket. This may seem like a lot, but I promise they all work together and are pretty easy. The hardest thing you’ll have to do is pick colors!

We’ll go through each of these in depth, but here’s the basics to consider:

• Choosing a stitch pattern & creating a gauge swatch
• Creating your color key
  • and how to know the range of temperatures for the location you choose
• Choosing the best yarn
• Planning your color palette
• What year you’ll do (if not the current year)

Choosing a stitch pattern & creating a gauge swatch

The first thing you want to do when you start planning your crochet temperature blanket is to choose your stitch pattern and do a gauge swatch.

Yep, before all the fun stuff of choosing your colors and temperature increments, you should know what crochet stitch you want to use. This will help you plan to create a blanket that is an appropriate size.

Without gauge swatches, temperature blankets can become absolutely massive.

For most crochet temperature blanket projects, you’ll want to use a stitch that is short. Because you’ll end up working 365 rows, shorter stitches are better for this type of project. A blanket of all double crochet stitches, for example, would be massive.

The Moss Stitch (also known as the Linen Stitch) is very popular for crochet temperature blankets. It is an easy stitch that has a woven look that helps to blend the colors together. It’s also generally quite fast compared to other stitches as it’s 1 single crochet, chain 1, skip 1 and repeat.

If you were to choose the Moss Stitch, my stitch tutorial will help you through creating a gauge swatch of this stitch and figuring out the number of stitches to make it the size you’d like.

Any other short stitch will do, though. You can use single crochet, slip stitches or any stitch pattern as long as they aren’t too tall.

Regardless of the stitch you decide on, make sure to do a gauge swatch to determine how many stitches you need for the width of your blanket and to make sure that your blanket won’t become too tall. My blog post about Gauge and Why It Matters will help, if you haven’t made a gauge swatch before.

Creating your Color Key

For a crochet temperature blanket we are, of course, tracking temperatures and for this we will make a Color Key. This will help keep us organized with our colors so we know which color is assigned to which increment of temperatures.

For the project to work out as best as possible, you’ll want to first choose whether you’re tracking the high or low temperature for the day.

Once you know which side of the temperatures you want to track, you’ll need to plan out temperature sets that will relate to your yarn color for your key. You don’t have to choose a yarn color for every temperature. Depending on where you live, that could be 90+ colors!

Setting up your Color Key using temperature increments, or sets, will help narrow down the colors that you’ll need and give you a plan and key to look back on.

In the US, our temperatures are in Fahrenheit and I live in an area that can have our high’s be as low as 20ish in the winter and as high as 100+ in the summer. So, for me, I’d choose to break down this range of temperatures into increments of 10.

For example:

• 11-20 F
• 21-30 F
• 31-40 F
• 41-50 F
• 51-60 F
• 61-70 F
• 71-80 F
• 81-90 F
• 90-100 F

Breaking down my temperatures into sets of 10 degrees means that I would only have to use 9 colors – not 90! 😉

If you live in a part of the world that uses Celsius instead, you could break them down into sets of 5 degrees so that you still have a nice wide range of color.

For example:

• 0-5 C
• 6-10 C
• 11-15 C
• 16-20 C
• 21-25 C
• 26-30 C
• 30+ C

Breaking down Celsius temperatures into 5 degree increments like the example above would mean that you would use 7 colors.

Of course, you can always break down the temperatures however you like, regardless of if you use Fahrenheit or Celsius. These are just general examples to help show how you could plan out your temperatures.

How to know the temperature range for the location you choose

If the location you choose for your temperature blanket is where you live, you probably have a good idea of just how cold and hot it gets and can plan your increments around your generally known temperatures.

If you’re choosing a different location, a vastly different year than the current year or maybe just moved to where you are now, you can google “Average Temperatures for LOCATION in YEAR“. For example, I can google “Average Temperatures for Los Angeles in 1980” and the top result shows me a graph of temperatures, like this:

So, if I were to make a crochet temperature blanket using Los Angeles as a location and the year 1980, I would be able to determine the general high and low temperatures to plan my Color Key around this temperature range, even though I don’t live there and it’s not 1980.

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Choosing the best yarn

The first and possibly most important thing to know about making a crochet temperature blanket is that it is almost impossible to know exactly how much yarn you’ll use of each color.

Especially if you plan on making your crochet temperature blanket for the current year, you won’t know the temperatures of future days.

For this reason, it’s important to choose a yarn that is easily accessible. It is very likely that you will run out of one or more colors through your project. So, you will want to choose yarn that you can purchase easily (whether online or in store) and is almost always in stock.

Mass produced yarn, like Lion Brand or Paintbox, will be a better choice for yarn than a hand dyed yarn that can come in and out of stock randomly or even be discontinued.

You will also want to choose a yarn brand that has a wide range of colors. Paintbox Yarn is a fantastic example of this. Their Simply Aran line has 62 colors to choose from so your options for a color palette are basically endless.

Additionally, you’ll want to stay within the same brand of yarn whenever possible. While you can mix brands, you’re more likely to run into gauge issues. Two brands might both call a yarn Medium weight, but that means next to nothing when it comes to gauge.

Planning your color palette

The most common color palette for crochet temperature blankets is a set of rainbow colors that follow the general idea of temperatures. Colder colors, like blue, are reserved for colder days and warmer colors, like red, are reserved for warmer days.

This palette is common because it works well. You’ll generally have a blanket that starts and ends with the colder colors and warms up to the yellows, oranges and reds in the center.

You certainly don’t have to do it that way, though. You can choose any color palette you like! You don’t have to force yourself into the rainbow of colors if you don’t want to.

You could choose colors that match the decorations of your home, a monochromatic palette of varying saturations of the same color, decide to use red for the cold days and blue for the warm days – the choice is yours!

It’s your crochet temperature blanket, after all!

A general rule of thumb for choosing colors is, of course, to pick colors that will go well together. So, you probably wouldn’t pick a dusty rose pink, a bright neon yellow, a navy blue and a neon green, for example. These wildly different saturations likely won’t go together.

You want your colors to tell different chapters of the same story. The colors should work together, not against each other.

If you’d like to break away from the rainbow temperatures and consider other options but you aren’t sure where to start, try googling “palette of 10 colors” (or however many colors you’ll use) and look at the image results. You’ll get a variety of palettes that will help give you some color inspiration.

Choosing the year

You don’t have to crochet a temperature blanket for the current year. You can certainly choose a different year, a different location or both to create a temperature blanket that will be special to you or the person you intend to gift it to.

Once you know the year and location you want to use, you can follow the steps I did above to find the range of temperatures to start planning out your increments. You’ll google “Average Temperatures for LOCATION in YEAR”.

Once you have your averages and your colors planned, you’re all set to get working on your blanket and, the best part, you don’t even have to wait to find out what the temperatures will be!

You can use the Wunderground site to find records of temperatures for almost anywhere!

To use this site, click the hyperlink above. In the upper right hand corner of the webpage, there will be a search bar. Type in the location you’ve chosen (or where you live, if you’re making a temperature blanket for where you live but in a different year) and choose it from the drop down menu that pops up.

The page will load to today’s current temperatures and data. Just above today’s temperature, there are tabs like “Today”, “Hourly”, “10-Day”, etc. In these tabs will be “History”. Click it.

From here, you can choose to view the daily, weekly or monthly temperatures for your location based on the time frame that you input.

If you’re making a temperature blanket for the current year but missed a day, you can check the past weather using this and can input the specific day you’re looking for.

If you’re making a crochet temperature blanket for a completely different year, I would recommend looking at the monthly records, as it will be much faster to jot them all down this way than it would be to look at each day individually.

I played around with this site a bit to make sure that it pulled data for several locations and years. I discovered that it was 72 degrees in the city I was born in on the day I was born. Fun!

I checked cities in different countries, different years, etc. You should be able to find historical temperature data using this site but, if you can’t, you should be able to find data by doing some google searching.

Create a 2023 Crochet Temperature Blanket with The Loophole Fox

This year, I’m finally making the dive into crocheting a temperature blanket. 2023 will be the first full year of my husband and I living in a new state and I thought what better way to document it than through a crochet temperature blanket?

I am so excited to be crocheting my own crochet temperature blanket with the lovely crocheters in my Facebook Group! We put the crochet stitch and shape of the blanket up to a vote and, overwhelmingly, the vote was for a rectangle blanket using the Moss Stitch worked in rows.

Simple, easy and gorgeous – These crocheters have good taste!

I’d love to have you join us with making your own 2023 crochet temperature blanket! You can join at any time during 2023 and be as present as you’d like. You can crochet with us by joining my Facebook Group, tagging me in your Instagram photos (@theloopholefoxcrochet) or joining my newsletter!

How we will stay updated with our 2023 Crochet Temperature Blankets

One of the hard things about making a crochet temperature blanket is staying motivated throughout the year. At first, it’s all new, fun and exciting but as the days go on and turn into months, it can be easy to lose motivation.

To keep up our crojo throughout this project, I plan to check in with my Facebook Group, Newsletter and update this post.

• Once a month, I will post a thread in the Facebook Group to check in on everyone’s progress. You can share your pictures, updates and thoughts for the month here (or any time in the group, of course)!
• I will update this post once a month with the progress on my crochet temperature blanket. I’ll include photos of my progress and any thoughts or updates I have in that time.
• I will aim to post weekly updates on my Facebook Page and on Instagram (but I can’t promise I will, haha).
• I will also check in once a month with my Newsletter Subscribers and, if you are a part of my newsletter, you can respond to the email and show me your progress!

Ready for the good stuff? Me, too! Let’s get into the plan for this 2023 Crochet Temperature Blanket!

Planning the Crochet Temperature Blanket (AKA Technical Information)

Planning out a crochet temperature blanket is a lot of fun. You get to think about all the colors you’ll use, what stitch pattern you’ll use and dream of what it will look like finished.

It also takes a lot of math and planning. I’ll walk you step by step through my plans, my gauge and what size my crochet temperature blanket should turn out to be after my gauge tests. You’re welcome to follow the plans that I have set out or alter them as you see fit.

Yarn, Tools & Notions

For my crochet temperature blanket, I’ll be using the following:

• DK (Light – 3) Weight Yarn – Paintbox Simply DK
• 4mm (G-6) Hook – I’ll be using my favorite Furls Streamline in Cookies and Cream
• Stitch Markers
• Scissors
• Tapestry Needle

Note that you can use a different weight of yarn and hook size, if you’d like. Make sure to read over the Gauge and Size section to help you create a blanket that is the size you’d prefer.

I’m using DK weight for 2 reasons – It will help keep the blanket from becoming too tall and it has better drape than the medium Paintbox yarn.

Gauge

Using DK weight Yarn and the Moss Stitch
20 sts (sc and ch 1 spcs) x 18 rows = Approximately 4 inches x 4 inches

Making a gauge swatch for a crochet temperature blanket is extremely important. You can skip this part but you may end up with a very wonky blanket that is super long and not super wide.

You are welcome to base your blanket off of my gauge but I would recommend checking your own gauge, as well. Especially if you decide to use a different yarn weight.

I tested gauge using Paintbox Yarns (my chosen yarn to use) in both their Simply Aran (Medium – 4) and Simply DK (Light – 3) yarn.

Ultimately, I’ve decided to go with DK weight. Here’s why:

When working a crochet temperature blanket, you know that you will have 365 rows (1 row for each day of the year). This means we are working backward with gauge. Typically, we make a gauge swatch to see how many rows we would need to work to create a certain size but, in this case, we are beholden to 365 rows.

Initially, I made a gauge swatch using the Simply Aran (Medium – 4) yarn and a 5mm hook. After doing the math, I discovered that with my tension, my crochet temperature blanket would end up being nearly 8 feet long – before placing a border.

I’m setting out to make a crochet temperature blanket that is more of a throw blanket size for my couch, not a California King Size, you know what I’m saying?

Using the Simply DK yarn by Paintbox Yarns makes the blanket more the size that I’m looking for. Using my gauge swatch and DK weight yarn, my finished crochet temperature blanket should be just about 81 inches long (just over 6 and a half feet) when finished, before the border.

Size

Of course, there are a ton of variables in project such as this that could make it so the size is off somehow. That being said, I am aiming for my blanket to be finished at approximately 85-90 inches long and 60-65 inches wide, after the border.

This is approximately the size of a twin blanket so I’ll count it as a big ol’ throw blanket. 🙂

Marking Special Dates

To make my crochet temperature blanket even more special to me, I’m planning to mark special dates by using Puff Stitches instead of single crochets for the date.

So, for the rows that will correspond to dates of my birthday, my husbands birthday, our anniversary, etc., I will crochet 1 puff Stitch, chain 1, skip 1 instead of 1 single crochet, chain 1, skip 1.

My Colors and Temperatures

Prior to choosing colors for my temperature increments, I looked around at different palettes of colors to get a general feeling for what I wanted.

I’ve decided to go with a palette that is not the “typical” crochet temperature blanket palette which means I will not be doing a classic rainbow of colors. I’ve chosen colors that are softer shades like pastels and played around with different ideas. Also, I love light green so I had to include it in my blanket, ya know?

While my palette has kept the “cool” to “warm” colors, I’ve played around with some colors that might not typically be seen in temperature blankets (like a sage green) and, instead of choosing red for the hottest days, I’ve picked white because 90-100 f is “white hot” to me. 😉

Here’s my temperature and color palette with my chosen colorways, all chosen from Paintbox Yarns on Lovecrafts in their Simply DK line.

• 30 & Below F – Granite Grey
• 31-40 F – Slate Grey
• 41-50 F – Misty Grey
• 51-60 F – Washed Teal
• 61-70 F – Light Caramel
• 71-80 F – Glorious Gold
• 81-90 F – Vintage Pink
• 91-100 F – Vintage Heather
• 90-100+ F – White

I would say these colors are subject to change. I’ve worked with some of these colors and loved them and other colors I haven’t used yet. When I see the colors in person all together, I might totally change my mind.

Creating a Temperature Tracker

There are a ton of different ways you can track the temperatures for your blanket. You can write them down in a note book, make note of them in your notes on your phone or grab a printable tracker to use that has all of the dates laid out.

I’ll likely write mine down in my notebook, but I made a temperature tracker PDF that you can download for free right here on my blog, print and use as you like.

This temperature tracker PDF has all 12 months on separate pages, so that you can keep your dates organized. Each month has the list of dates and an area to write the temperature for the day. There is also a section for “Special Dates” that you can note down to remember. This way if you’re following my plan of marking your special dates with puff stitches instead of single crochets, you can remember to do so. 🙂

This tracker works for ALL years, not just 2023. If you’re making a blanket for a different year or you’re here after 2023, you certainly can still use this as I included February’s extra day for the leap year (the 29th) and the dates are organized in a list, not a calendar.

Grab the free PDF for this temperature tracker by clicking the button below! 🙂

When to start our crochet temperature blankets

I’ll be totally transparent and say that there is no way I’m starting my crochet temperature blanket on the 1st of January. I’m ordering yarn and fully expect it to take a couple of weeks for the yarn to arrive.

You don’t have to start on January 1st. You can start on any date you like! As long as you keep track of the temperatures and remember to crochet a row for each day, you’ll be fine.

Your colors and rows will technically start on January 1st, but you certainly don’t have to!

Pattern Notes

1. As this pattern is a simple repeat of 1 row using the Moss Stitch, only a few rows will be written to get you started and then will state to repeat.
2. Make sure to change to the color you’ve chosen for the temperature of the day for each new row.
3. Row 1 = Day 1 (January 1), Row 2 = Day 2 (January 2), etc.
4. “Special Date” rows will be written out below. My special dates don’t start until later in the year, but yours might start as soon as January 1! I’ve included instructions for how I will work my Special Date rows below.
5. When working the Moss Stitch, the chain 2 that begins the row always counts as a chain 1 space. You may want to place a stitch marker in this space while you get used to the pattern, if you aren’t already.
6. If you have never worked the Moss Stitch before, I have a photo and video tutorial that will help!
7. My “Special Date” rows will essentially be the Moss Stitch but worked with Puff Stitches instead of single crochets.
   • I will be using “Closed” Puff Stitches. See special stitches for details on how to work this stitch or check out my Puff Stitch tutorial.
8. In the Moss Stitch pattern, we count both the chain 1 spaces and the single crochet as stitches.
9. The stitch pattern itself will always be an even amount of stitches. So when you chain, you’ll always want your chain to be a multiple of 2 + 1 turning chain.
   1. Example: If you want 12 stitches (6 single crochet, 6 chain 1 spaces), you’ll need to chain 13.

Special Stitch – Puff Stitch

This pattern uses a puff stitch. Puff stitches are worked in a few different ways – so it is important to know which puff stitch to use.

For the purposes of this pattern, we will be working with a “Closed Puff Stitch”. 

To work this puff stitch, you will: [Yarn over and insert your hook into the indicated stitch. Yarn over and pull up a loop.] Repeat inside of the brackets 2 more times in the same stitch. You should now have 7 loops on your hook. Yarn over and pull through 6 of the 7 loops. 2 loops on hook, yarn over, pull through 2.

Crochet Temperature Blanket Pattern

Chain 299

Row 1 / Day 1 – Single crochet in the 3rd chain from hook (this counts as a chain 1 space). [Chain 1, skip 1 chain, 1 single crochet in the next chain]. Repeat instructions inside brackets across the row to the end. Your final single crochet should be in the last chain. (298 stitches, counting chain spaces as stitches / 149 sc, 149 ch 1 spcs)

Row 2 / Day 2 – Chain 2 (counts as a chain 1 spc here and throughout), turn. Skip the first single crochet and place 1 single crochet in the first chain 1 space. [Chain 1, skip 1 single crochet, 1 single crochet in next chain 1 space]. Repeat inside brackets across the row to the end. Your last single crochet should be in the last chain 1 space*. (298 stitches, counting chain spaces as stitches / 149 sc, 149 ch 1 spcs)

*Note: “The last chain 1 space” is created by the chain 2 turning chain. For Row 2, your last single crochet will go in the space created when placing your first single crochet in the 3rd chain from the hook. Beyond Row 2, all single crochets will be placed in the chain 1 space created by the 2 turning chains.

Row 3 / Day 3 through Row 365 / Day 365 – Repeat Row 2 / Day 2.

Special Dates – Chain 3 (counts as a chain 1 spc here and throughout), turn. Skip the first single crochet and place 1 Puff Stitch in the first chain 1 space. [Chain 1, skip 1 single crochet, 1 Puff Stitch in next chain 1 space]. Repeat inside brackets across the row until 1 chain space (created by the chain 2 turning chain in the previous row) remains. Place 1 half double crochet in this chain 1 space. (298 stitches, counting chain spaces as stitches / 148 Puff stitches, 1 half double crochet, 149 ch 1 spcs)

Crochet Temperature Blanket Progress

As the year and my crochet temperature blanket progresses, I’ll update this section of this blog post with pictures, thoughts and information.

January Crochet Temperature Blanket Progress

General Thoughts on January’s Progress for the Crochet Temperature Blanket

January’s colors are as grey as the sky has been this month! I’m totally okay with that, though. I knew when I chose the colors I did for my crochet temperature blanket that the first few months would have a LOT of grey. Let’s just say that the Northern Oregon weather didn’t disappoint in that regard.

What I’ve found the most surprising so far is that our temperatures haven’t dropped below 41 F. December was a cold month for us and we had temperatures down into the teens. I would be lying if I said I thought I would only use two colors for January.

I definitely expected to use the colors I’ve chosen for much colder temperatures and a wider range of colors but, of course, I can’t predict the weather!

Looking at our future forecast for the next 10 days, though, it looks like we will have some colder weather. This would be fantastic as it would add so much to my crochet temperature blanket.

Routine for the Crochet Temperature Blanket So Far

We might only be about a month into the project but so far I’m finding it easy to stay motivated. I’m also loving the reprieve of an easy stitch to work in between designing crochet patterns. It’s nice to have something simple and easy to work on when I need to take a step back from more complex things.

I wasn’t able to start my crochet temperature blanket until mid-January. My original color choices were not in stock and I waited a bit to see if they would come back. They did not so I changed up my color palette. More thoughts on that below.

I did end up having about 16 rows to crochet initially which wasn’t difficult for me. Once I had the yarn colors in hand with the new color choices, it was pretty quick to catch up.

Since being caught up, I work on my crochet temperature blanket every 3 or so days. One row a day would become a chore for me and I think I would become bored very quickly. But having 3 or 4 rows to crochet at a time keeps me interested and is easy enough to pick up and do. I think this will be even more motivating as the colors change.

Big Change from Initial Plan: I changed my yarn colors mid-January.

When I initially wrote this blog post and planned out my crochet temperature blanket, I was totally sold on the color palette that I picked. Some of the colors were out of stock but I had faith that they would be restocked soon. The reality was that I was stubborn and didn’t want to change colors.

I received a comment on this blog post saying that a crocheter waited a staggering seven months for a Paintbox color they needed to be back in stock which definitely motivated me to reconsider my color choices. As it stands, most of the colors I initially had chosen are still out of stock.

I waited until a couple of weeks into January before I finally decided to change colors up. I didn’t want to fall behind on my own plan and blog post, so I reworked my Color Key.

What I find the most interesting about this is I actually like my new Color Key better. I did love the first one but after reviewing the two side by side, I knew the new one was the winner.

Now, unfortunately 2 of the colors I want are still out of stock. But! These are colors I’ve chosen for the hotter temperatures so I’m going to have faith that by the time those temperatures come around, the colors will be available.

I’m not checking the Love Crafts website daily, or anything… why do you ask? 😉

If it comes to it, though, I’ll change those colors up, too. Nothing can stop me from crocheting my 2023 temperature blanket!

Here are 7 of my 9 colors. I get so excited just looking at them sitting there that I can’t wait to see how they come into play as the year progresses.

February Crochet Temperature Blanket Progress

General Thoughts on February’s Progress for the Crochet Temperature Blanket

February finally allowed me to use my 3rd and 4th colors. I’m counting the 4th color even though it was only used in one row.

We had a few days of temperatures in the 30s in early February and then, right at the end of the month, we had quite a big snow storm. We expected maybe a half an inch of snow since that is what the meteorologists predicted and we ended up with 4 inches where we are. The city ended up with 10 inches of snow in less than 24 hours.

This is the most snow accumulation in 24 hours since 1949 for this area and I got to actively document it within my blanket. How cool is that?

The snow was the perfect powder for snowboarding and it made me really wish I still had my snowboarding gear to hit the mountain. My husband and I did go for a nice walk in the snow and saw some beautiful winter-y scenes.

We had one day in the 20s and you can see it in the darkest row. This was right in the middle of the snow storm, in which the roads were still to icy to drive.

We will likely see a couple more dips into the 30s or below but from here on out, the colors are likely to get warmer unless another big storm hits us. Although I do think that March will likely be a lot more of the 40s and 50s which means more of the Misty Gray and Washed Teal.

Routine for the Crochet Temperature Blanket So Far

Two months into this year long project and I’m still finding it easy to stay motivated. I’m also loving the reprieve of an easy stitch to work in between designing crochet patterns. It’s nice to have something simple and easy to work on when I need to take a step back from more complex things.

I still work on my crochet temperature blanket every 3 or so days. One row a day would become a chore for me and I think I would become bored very quickly. But having 3 or 4 rows to crochet at a time keeps me interested and is easy enough to pick up and do. I think this will be even more motivating as the colors change.

Considerations for Next Year’s Crochet Temperature Blanket

Now that I’ve crocheted 2 months worth of rows for this blanket, I’m already considering what I would do for another year. I think if I were to crochet another Temperature Blanket for next year, I’d likely break the Color Key down into 5 degree increments. This would add quite a few colors to my Color Key but it would give more variation in the fall and winter months.

As this blanket continues, I’ll see if that feeling changes. I may end up liking the longer stripes of color in the fall and winter. I did some research on temperatures from last year and noticed that the temperatures in spring and summer will bounce around a lot more.

March Crochet Temperature Blanket Progress

General Thoughts on March’s Progress for the Crochet Temperature Blanket

While we haven’t had super wild temperatures like some locations, March has brought me some extra fun by using 3 colors I’ve previously used (including my middle grey for the 30s) as well as a warmer color for the 60s! I’m excited to add the taupe color into the blanket and to watch the blanket get progressively warmer.

I think as we head into April, I’ll see the colors change more often and possibly use more colors. I wouldn’t be surprised if we get at least a day or two in the 70s since we had some days in the high 60s this month. I’m super interested to see how that goes!

Routine for the Crochet Temperature Blanket So Far

My routine completely failed this month. I have been really busy with designing, planning big projects, writing blog posts, etc. that working on my Crochet Temperature Blanket just fell by the wayside.

I did carve out a chunk of time to settle down and work on it. I absolutely do not want to get to a point where I am a month or two behind, so I made it a priority. I sat down happily crocheting away until…

The tail end of the yarn slipped through my fingers. That was that. I was out of the Misty Grey yarn and didn’t have another skein. You can see in my image all of a sudden, there’s the end of the yarn and I’m only halfway through the row.

So, while I’ve only worked halfway through March 20th, I’m still happy with my progress considering how busy my month was. I’ve ordered more yarn and, once it’s here, I’ll make it a priority to get caught up.

What is really motivating me to get caught up is that April 1st will be my first “special” day in which I use puff stitches instead of single crochets. April 1st is my Maine Coon’s “gotcha” day – my April Fools kitty! He’s been such a big part of my life for the past 11 years and I truly can’t imagine my life without him. So he will get a special day marked out just for him in the blanket. (My two other pets, our dog and additional cat, will also be marked because they’re just as important, of course!)

April Crochet Temperature Blanket Progress

General Thoughts on April’s Progress for the Crochet Temperature Blanket

April, despite being a lot of temperatures in the 50s, is one of my favorite months so far. We’ve had 3 days in the 70s, shown in the gold color in my blanket. The “golden” days of warmth! 😉

April also brought my first “special date” which you can see in the row of Puff Stitches. This row reflects April 1st, which is my Maine Coon’s gotcha day.

I’m really loving how the blanket is coming together now that we are a few months in. I took an additional picture of it on a blanket ladder (while I still can, anyway) to show the progress. I’m loving the bigger stripes of color and how the new colors come in to play.

I also noticed something interesting that I probably wouldn’t have noticed if I wasn’t making a crochet temperature blanket. The last two months have started out with about 15 days of weather in the same bracket. Then, later in the month, the temperatures start to change.

This is obvious, of course, because as time goes on the weather will get warmer (or colder) but still, I find it interesting that it doesn’t jump around more early in the month.

This is progress through April 27th. Tomorrow looks like it will be in the 80s, so I’ll be able to add yet another color to my blanket.

May Crochet Temperature Blanket Progress

General Thoughts on May’s Progress for the Crochet Temperature Blanket

Oh hey there, warmer temperatures!

May was a total change up from April in terms of our temperatures. April stayed mostly in the 50s with a few days of warmer weather scattered in at the end. Then May came along and brought all of it’s gorgeous sunny days.

May 1st begins at the second teal row from the top. Aside from 3 days of 50s, all temperatures were at least 60 and above, with many beautiful 70s days that are shown with the gold yarn.

We were also hit with a bit of a heatwave and had several days that were in the upper 90s. Not my favorite weather by any means. I choose the purple for those hot days to help me look forward to crocheting them – purple is my favorite color. 🙂

This month I definitely struggled to keep up and ended up setting aside blocks of time to crochet like mad to get May completed.

The reality is that I just did not feel well for a big part of this month and didn’t keep up with it as well as I would have liked. But! It’s okay to slow down and give yourself time to rest, even if you don’t complete everything in the self imposed deadline.

Either way, I’m loving these warm colors and can’t wait to see what June brings. I’ll have several special dates marked with puff stitch rows. June is my busiest month with my birthday, my husbands birthday and our wedding anniversary all within the span of a couple of weeks!

June Crochet Temperature Blanket Progress

Hello Summer! And hello questioning my sanity every time I work on this blanket during this hot weather.

This blanket is getting long now and I’ve gotta tell you… She’s warm!

June is a huge month in our household. My husband and I have birthdays are only one day apart and we celebrate our wedding anniversary in June. Woo! There was a lot of cake eating and trip having this month – I wouldn’t have it any other way.

June starts in my temperature blanket 3 rows below the gold puff stitches.

Of course, since my husband and I are both Gemini’s, I just had to include both of the Furls Gemini Zodiac Hooks in this Temperature Blanket update – Aren’t they gorgeous?

All of my special dates are marked with rows of Puff Stitches to be a part of the celebration. What is really fun is that my birthday ended up in my favorite color (purple) and my husbands birthday ended up in his favorite color (gold/orange). How cool is that?

I’ve really enjoyed crocheting the temperatures through June. I ended up with a lot of different colors (and a lot of ends to weave in, of course!). I have a feeling that July will give me less variety of colors and more big stripes of warm colors, similar to my January and February… but we’ll see!

July Crochet Temperature Blanket Progress

Oh boy, July has been a hot one!

This month used only three of my colors: Glorious Gold, Vintage Pink and Vintage Heather. This means the temperatures only dipped down to the high 70s and not super often at that. We mostly had 80+ degree days and a few scorching 90+ days. There were a few days I was concerned I was going to have to pull out my white yarn for 100+!

I absolutely love how July has panned out though in terms of colors and how the temperatures control them.

You know those times when the sun sets and the sky lights up like cotton candy with shades gold, pink and purple? That’s what this month reminds me of.

As much as I am not a fan of the hotter weather – I seriously can’t handle the heat physically – I’m so happy with the colors that it has brought.

August Crochet Temperature Blanket Progress

August’s addition to my crochet temperature blanket has been a lesson in releasing control.

I have to say that August is my least favorite update in my temperature blanket so far. Specifically, I don’t like that our major heat wave, 4 days of 100f + heat, looks planned.

The 90 degrees (purple) on either side of the 100+ days (the big white strip) look like I planned for it to be that way and I don’t like it as much as the other months.

I really had to force myself to not just throw in a little bit of a different color in the middle of the big white stripe to make it look more chaotic and unplanned.

When I first started this project, I really, really had to let go and let the temperatures tell me what to do. As a designer, it was surprisingly hard for me to let the temperatures control the colors when I first started.

However, as time went on, I really enjoyed the chaos and not knowing what was going to happen. I loved that colors changed randomly and that there was no true rhyme or reason to what was happening with them. I’ve really enjoyed the surprise of how pretty it can be with the random colors at random rows.

August had a horrible heatwave that made me grit my teeth and buy a portable air conditioner (we bought this one and it actually cooled our 2 bedroom, 850 sq ft apartment to a reasonable degree, which I didn’t expect – yay for things working well!).

Those 100f + days are white because it was absolutely white hot and unbearable – without the portable AC, at least.

I think September will likely jump around more as our weather starts to transition to fall. I cannot wait to see the light caramel and the washed teal come back into action.

September Crochet Temperature Blanket Progress

September brought back the fluctuating temperatures which I absolutely love.

It looks to me like confetti, a celebration or even a golden sunset showing the end of summer. I absolutely love how September turned out in my blanket.

Of course, there’s a special date this month – My little black cat’s “Gotcha Day”! I will never forget how the little black fuzz ball that was a kitten walked up onto my porch, jumped up on my lap and settled down like he owned the place. I suppose he does now… Haha.

September started out quite warm, bouncing between the high 80s and low to mid 90s. All of a sudden, a cooler front came in and we received tons of rain – which I love! You can see where near the end of September, the weather switched to 70s (gold) and 60s (the light tan color). It’s such a relief to me to have this weather back as I don’t do well in the heat at all.

October Crochet Temperature Blanket Progress

The warm weather tried to hold on through October but eventually, more mild days took over and we are well on our way into autumn and winter.

The peachy puff stitch rows are my two special dates for October. The first is October 5th, for when my husband and I first got together. Yep! I am that much of a sap that I included both our wedding anniversary and when we first started dating. He’s great, what can I say?

The second special date is October 7. This my pup’s “gotcha day”, from when we brought her home when she was just a puppy. Hard to believe she’s 4 years old now!

I absolutely love all the different colors in October and I’m so excited to have that teal back! I based my entire color palette around the teal so I’m happy to see it back in action. I was surprised to see our weather dip down into the 40s for the highs, though. It’s a bit early for that!

I went back and checked last years temperatures because I felt like October stayed warm longer in 2022 and I was right! It stayed in the 70s and 80s until nearly the end of the month and then dipped down. Interesting to compare, at any rate!

On a personal side, October has been a very long month for me and it has generally been quite stressful. I really enjoyed coming back to this blanket to work on it. The simple stitches, the repetitive motions and the colors were so soothing and, while I have loved my temperature blanket all year, this is the first month that I noticed it has actually helped my mental health.

That’s it for October! I can’t wait to see what November brings. 🙂

Crochet Temperature Blanket FAQs – Quick Answers

What yarn should I use for a crochet temperature blanket?

Any fiber of yarn you prefer will work well. Try to stay within the same brand of yarn whenever possible. Pick a yarn that is easily accessible – Mass produced yarns are typically a better choice as they are usually in stock and come in a wide variety of colors.

What crochet stitch is best for a temperature blanket?

Choose a short stitch so that your blanket doesn’t become too long since you’ll be working 365 rows. Single crochet, Back Loop Only Slip Stitches, Moss Stitch, etc.

How many colors should I use for a temperature blanket?

This one is completely up to you! You can break down the range of temperatures for your area into as many or as few sets of temperatures as you like. This means you can use as many or as few colors as you like!

How many skeins of yarn do I need for a temperature blanket?

It’s almost impossible to say exactly how much yarn you would need total and for which color because of the nature of the project. I would expect to use around 2,000-3,000 yards total, but that’s a ballpark guess.

If you’re concerned about cost, choose a nice yarn that is still economical like Lion Brand Basic Stitch or Paintbox Yarns.

How do I find temperatures?

You can use the Wunderground site to find records of temperatures for almost anywhere! Input the location you’re using for your temperature blanket and the site will pull up the current temperatures. Use the “History” tab on this page to find temperatures in the past for your chosen location.

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That’s it for now! I can’t wait to get started on my 2023 crochet temperature blanket and I hope that you’ll join me. I can’t wait to see all of your progress!

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