Knitted Temperature Blanket [Free Pattern]

My blog has been fairly quiet for a while, and one reason for that is because I recently finished my PhD in psychology! One part of our journey was a year-long internship in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. I decided to document my year there by making a temperature blanket. That means that you knit one row per day with a colour corresponding to the temperature outside. I had seen some finished blankets online, but actually had a hard time finding a good pattern, so I made up my own that I am going to share with you. Here are some of my tips!

Creating a Legend:
The first thing you need to do is create a legend. You can follow mine, but it might not be a good fit if you live in a warmer climate, or even another part of Canada. I would suggest making your own legend, or following one from Pinterest if you aren't into math.

First you need to choose the number of colours that you want to use (I used 9). I recommend using multiple shades of the same colour, and throwing in some neutral shades as well. I have seen some that are rainbow colours, but they are a little bright for me. I used reds, blues, and browns.

Next, you need to get a sense of what the range of temperatures will be for your location. If you go to the weather network you can find their monthly forecast page that will give you past weather data.

If you are in Canada, you can also look at this Government of Canada website to get an idea.

For my legend, I had -45'C as the extreme cold temperature, and 35'C as the extreme high temperature. I wanted the colour to change at 0' so I modified things that way. I only ended up having 1 day of -37 and colder, and I ended up having a couple days of +37 that I hadn't included in my legend, so I re-used another colour.

Take the extreme temperatures and subtract them to get the total number of degrees in your range.
E.g. 35 - (-45) = 80

Then divide that number by the number of colours you want to use.
E.g. 80 / 9 = 8 (ish)

Then make your legend, using a range of that number of degrees (8) for each colour. I also decided to add a second strand of lighter white yarn on days that it snowed. Here is how my legend turned out:

You should buy 2 balls of each colour, just in case. I only bought one ball of each colour, but ended up running out of a few colours. Unfortunately Michael's had discontinued the exact colour that I needed so I had to find a replacement. It ended up not being very noticeable because you are changing colours so often.

I recommend making a chart where you can write down the temperature/colour for each day and check it off. If you're anything like me, you may not be able to knit every single day and may need to do some catching up. I just had a little notebook and made a chart by hand.

I used the exact temperatures from the website above, and knit the row a day behind. I used the measured temperatures, not the windchill or humidex temperatures. I used the following temperatures:

Fall: Daily Average
Winter: Daily Low
Spring: Daily Average
Summer: Daily High




Now you're ready to knit! Here's how:

Materials: 
6mm (US 10) circular needle
Approximately 18 balls of worsted weight yarn (I used Impeccable from Michael's) Note: you will have yarn leftover, but buy at least 2 balls per colour

Directions: 
Cast on 167 stitches

Knit garter stitch (knit every row) across. Knit one row per day for a total of 365 rows.

Cast off and sew in all the ends.

Finished size is approximately 46" x 64".

Cabled Throw Blanket (Knit)

This is my favourite go-to blanket pattern. The cables are gorgeous, and there's just enough of a pattern to keep it from getting boring. The pattern is modified from a baby blanket pattern available from redheart.com, but I added a border, and changed the size of the ribbing between cables. If you haven't tried cabling before it isn't as hard as it looks! A cabling tutorial with pictures is available on my cabled headband pattern post. If you want to make this blanket smaller for a baby, or a bigger throw blanket, then add or subtract stitches in multiples of 12. Enjoy!

Materials

Lion Brand Homespun yarn, or another bulky weight yarn (4 balls, or 20 oz total)

Size 11 (8 mm) circular needle (a slightly different size will do)

Cabling or spare needle. 

Cast on 108 stitches

Knit 10 rows

A) Row 1, 3, 5, 7

K5, *K2, P2, K6, P2*, repeat from * to * to last 7 stitches, K7

B) Row 2, 4, 6, 8, 10

K5, *P2, K2, P6, K2*, repeat from * to * to last 7 stitches, P2, K5

C) Row 9

K5, *K2, P2, C3F, P2*, repeat from * to * to last 7 stitches, K7

When desired length, knit 10 rows and then cast off, and sew in loose ends. 

Note: C3F means put 3 stitches on a spare needle and hold to the front of your work, knit 3 stitches, but the stitches from the spare needle back on the circular needle, them knit those 3 stitches.

Finished size approx. 40" x 50"

This blanket is very similar to this pattern, but with more rows in between cables

Taggie Blankie Sewing Tutorial

My mom and I have finally decided to get a table at a craft show. Actually it is a mom to mom sale as a fundraiser for Great Lakes Christian High School in Beamsville, ON where I attended and my father works. I visited some friends and their baby a few weeks ago and saw that she had one of these taggie blankies, and of course my first thought was "I could totally make that". I found a tutorial on Pinterest to get me started, but here is mine anyways. I was going to make one over my reading week and thought I might as well make a few, and ended up making 14! It is pretty easy, but can be time consuming cutting and pinning all the ribbons. Hopefully it will be a big seller at the sale! These are more sensory toys than actual blankets. Babies like the different colors and textures of the ribbons to fell, look at, and suck on. I gave one to my 7 month old niece and she loves it!

You will need:
-Two pieces of fabric 16" x 16" (I used flannelette and fleece, but minky fabric and cotton would work too. If you have smaller pieces you can use that too I have seen some that are 8" x 8")
-16 pieces of ribbon 5" long, various colors, textures, widths
-Sewing machine
-Thread
-Pins
-Iron and ironing board

Directions:
1. Cut two pieces of fabric that are 16" x 16" (approx) squares.

2. Cut 16 pieces of ribbon that are 5" long. Iron them if they have creases.

3. Pin the two pieces of fabric together with just one pin in the middle, wrong side facing each other (on the inside). Pin the ribbons by folding it in half (right side facing out), and tucking it between the two pieces of fabric (edges touching). Pin 4 on each side, evenly spaced.

4. Sew along the edges using a straight stitch, leaving a gap between two of the ribbons (I place another pin between two ribbons to remind me not to sew it completely shut.) When you get to a ribbon, use your reverse button and go back over the ribbon twice to hold it in place (4 times total- 2 forward and 2 backward).

5. Take out the pins, and flip it right side out through your hole, and poke the corners out using a pencil. Iron it flat and make the edges flat.

6. Zig zag stitch around the whole edge, paying special attention to where the hole is (make sure those edges are tucked in good!

 

All done! The only thing left to do is give it to a baby!