Temperature Blanket

Every day this year I'm recording the maximum temperature where I live so as to be able to work it into my Temperature Blanket.

This is the plan I've drawn up; each triangle represents one day, the squares with arrows are the month labels and the grey squares are the border. That bit on the side with the red squares is going to be the key. There will be a square for each of the 19 colours I'm using, with the temperature range they represent embroidered on the front. The light grey rectangle above the key is for some sort of title. I haven't decided what to put on that yet - although it needs to be short as I hate doing the embroidery.

When I was planning this blanket I had fun making a mini colour key to refer to each day.

I wove these little squares on my 2" loom from Hazel Rose and then stuck on labels with the temperatures on. Each one represents two degree in Celsius, ranging from below 0° to above 35°. I've used blues, purples and greens so far; its been unseasonably mild here, I didn't expect to get to the greens for several months. I haven't used the lightest shade of blue as the maximum temperature has always been above freezing.

This is the rest of my Temperature Blanket kit ...

This old suitcase holds the plan, the colour key and my looms and tools. The looms are the Tiny Weaver Set, again from Hazel Rose. The finished squares are about 3½" and the triangles half that size. The green notebook is where I make a note of the maximum and minimum temperatures every day and a few words on each day's weather. The most dramatic day so far was last Sunday when we had sunshine, rain, hail, snow and then sun again. 

The suitcase slides under the settee so it's handy but doesn't get in the way. So, this is how my blanket has grown so far ...

First Few Days

Most of January

January and February

And this is what it looks like today, half way through March ...

It actually looks better in photos than it does in real life. It's very lumpy and bumpy and I think the squares are turning out a bit bigger than two triangles. I'm hoping that a good blocking will sort out most of this - that and a crochet edging to tame down the waves. But I can't really do that until it's finished so I shall have to have faith until then. I'm a great believer in blocking to solve most yarn-related problems. I only found out recently that wet blocking isn't supposed to work on acrylic yarns; I've been wet blocking acrylic stuff successfully for years.

The embroidery is nerve-wracking to do; I'm using chain stitch and all was going well until I had to do the square for March. Turns out it's much harder to embroider vertical writing than horizontal - the 'r' is virtually off the square.

Things I like about this project:

• It's made me notice the weather more (even if I tend to reply to innocent statements like "it was cold yesterday, wasn't it?" with statements like "yes, 2.9°", I really must stop doing that).
• I love playing with colour - oh the excitement when I get to use a new one.
• Each triangle only takes about ten minutes to weave and add to the blanket.

Things I don't like:

• Weaving in all the ends. I'm using my yarn doubled so there are four for each triangle and I'm not very good at hiding them.
• Embroidering the writing (see above).
• How uneven it looks at the moment.

I think it will all turn out all right in the end though. I quite wish I'd included the minimum temperatures too - perhaps using one strand of colour for the minimum and one for the maximum. I'm wondering about making another temperature blanket next year, using the same colours but a different technique. Perhaps I shall crochet it and use the minimum colour for the centre of each day's shape.

I think, actually, the best thing about this project is that I'm working on something that I haven't designed myself. It's nice to be a follower for a change.