Projects
2022 Temperature Blanket: Final Countdown
This post is for my fellow Temperature Blanket 2022 knitters.
Huddle up, friends. It’s December 8. It’s late in the 4th quarter, and we’re behind. [Insert your favorite sports and/or military analogy here.] Our blankets are heavy, our shade cards are dog-eared, our lungs are filled with Felted Tweed fluff—yet we must battle on.
My message to you is this:
Here we see my own temperature blanket, bogged down in mid-October. With each garter ridge taking 15-20 minutes, and the project no longer suitable for even my envelope-pushing notion of “portable knitting,” I’m on the struggle bus. But I’m not giving up. Here are some tips that are helping me fight the good fight to completion of this glorious beastie by Auld Lang Syne tyme.
Math Is Our Ally
On December 1, I had a flash of helpful insight. I had 3 months of ridges left on my blanket, and just one month left in the year. That meant that to finish, I simply had to knit 3 ridges every day. That’s doable! With a little planning ahead to make up for days when I can’t knit at all, I made a schedule that keeps me on track and hopeful of completion.
So if you’re behind, do a little calculation. Divide the number of ridges, rows, or motifs you have left to knit by the number of days you have left in December. Portioning the work into manageable bites means you can do it!
Set Up For Success
Last month’s travels took a toll on my temperature blanket preparedness. I had balls of yarn all over my desk and various totes, bags, and bedside tables. So I took 10 minutes to gather it all up. Then I went through my bullet journal temperature tables for October and November, and packed just those colors into a bento bag. Knowing that I had the colors I needed, instead of wondering about that in an anxious way, was a relief. I knew I could get to December!
Stay Loose
As our temperature blankets get bigger, and as we increase our hours of knitting to try to finish them, they become harder physical work. Don’t make the mistake of knitting until your elbow seizes up or your shoulder gets oochy. Take frequent breaks: run into the kitchen, take a warm shower, do a few jumping jacks. Take care of yourself, and your temperature blanket will take care of itself.
Be Resourceful
In these final days, there are bound to be unexpected setbacks, such as running out of one of your colors. Do not despair! Do not let the perfect be the enemy of the finished! Phone a friend (a friend with a good stash), double check your own supplies (I found a whole ball of Cumin I didn’t know I had), or tweak your shade card to expand the temperature range for a shade you have in better supply. No one is going to look to these blankets for precise weather data. They will make their point, loud and clear, about the temperature changes and ranges over the course of a year, even if you have to substitute Vaseline Green for Electric Green on a row or two.
In conclusion, you got this. We got this. We will soon be walking the field, covered in mud and blood, dazed and amazed at our victory.
Love,
Kay
P.S. You’ll never guess my favorite Shakespeare play.
Oh thank you for the pep talk! I am stranded ( pun intended) in October and was losing heart. I chose to commemorate a special year, starting in May, so I have far to go but my determination is renewed! I will divide and conquer!
Kay that blanket is beautiful. The king would be proud!
Go Go Go! Kay, your blanket is so pretty!
I’m caught up with mine and loving knitting only one row a day again to take me through the home stretch. I have absolutely loved this project!
Your blanket is beautiful! I made some miscalculations and realized early on that my blanket would be wider than it is long by December so I’ve consoled myself that I will be knitting a year and a half blanket. Ah well.
My temperature blanket represents the temperatures from the year I was born in Colorado in 1959 (yes, they did have scientific data back then!). I’m just starting the March rows (yes, April – December were identified as calendar months back then!). Anyway I still have a long way to go but I cheer on my fellow tenacious TB knitters as your needles click, click, click through that final row!
Great plan! I’m all ready to start mine come Jan. 1!
I am hoping to do the same, although considering a cowl instead. Those blankets look too hot to knit in July and August!
I wanted to do the temperature blanket, but living in Florida I found very little change in colors. So I used Kaffe’s suggested colors and also used heavier yarn and a larger needle. My finished blanket has stripes running vertically.it became a wedding present for my youngest grandson. I made a photo, but need assistance in posting it in the lounge. I also learned you are a faster knitter than me. Each row took 30 minutes.
You can also make each color represent a smaller range of temperatures, eg 1-2 degrees, similar to how folks using Celsius do it to get a wider range of colors.
I also came across a knitter locally at a meet up who was doing 1-row (not ridge) for both the daytime temp and nighttime temp each day, in order to bring in more of the blues. The result was lovely and colorful. And leaving both ends as fringe so no weaving in, brilliant!
Ooh, I love that idea!
Agreed! I did a back-of-the-envelope temperature chart for Miami Beach in 2021 and ended up with a 1 degree range and a lot of colors (it’s in the lounge). You could also do a gradient (think blues/grays or yellows/oranges/pinks) that would give you a really beautiful blanket.
I’ve got the same problem. A Florida temperature blanket would likely be all one color! Maybe a rainfall blanket would work….
Or a hurricane color blanket although that would be sad. (I also live in FL)
I’m contemplating this undertaking for 2023 – your happy blanket color card has just about converted me!
I’m in mid October, too, i am also racing to finish a remodel so we can get back into the master bedroom by Dec. 17. After that it will be knit, knit, knit. Go fellow temperature blanket knitters. We CAN do this!!
Great post. Great movie. And thank you for Anderson Cooper’s “All There Is” Podcast.
That is a great suggestion to do the math on what it will take per day to get it done. I did this for my half and half triangles wrap and I’m sitting here 1 week with it having been finished because I took the 96 rows divided by 16 days in which I wanted to finish it, which was 6 rows a day. Because I could ‘see’ the progress occur and tick off a box, this made me successful and the gift was finished well in time for the deadline.
Beautiful blanket, Kay!!!
I am in awe of all of you Temperature Blanketers!!! I’m rooting for you!!!
And MDK is posts are such a better wake up than news headlines
One of the all time great speeches in Shakespeare, and Branagh nails it. I don’t have a temperature blanket to work on, but I’m definitely going to watch Henry V tonight. Or maybe this afternoon, since it’s raining and I have a Baby Surprise Sweater to finish….
Never a bad time to rewatch it!
Log cabin temperature squares reporting in.
I got waylaid and distracted by my unfinished Pressed Flowers shawl. I’m down to the border on it and weighed my yard to figure I’m a little short of what I need. While I put a call out for “that yarn” from a regional dyer who stopped dyeing shortly after I purchased it (and knowing Leading Men has a surprisingly close match I can sub if I figure out the name) I can push through on the blanket.
Ok back to the Temp blanket. I can do 2-3 squares each evening if my hand doesn’t cramp up (the other reason I’m flipping back and forth on the projects) soooo I could finish on time not counting the seams and border. Just tallied up that I need 8 of my 13 colors to finish the past 2 weeks. Wheee.
I’m still in—yesterday caught up by doing all 7 days of December. Cause I’m really ready to be FINISHED with this thing.
A few months ago I stopped buying/trading more FT for colors I’d run out of. Instead, I adopted the “substitute” plan: all out of Cumin? Now that temp range shows up in Cinnamon! Etc. Any color will do, in my rush to the finish!
I am on December 15 of my 1982 40th wedding anniversary corner to corner temperature blanket!! I love it! Tomorrow the stripes will be done then I will add an I cord edging. Thank you for the inspiration!!!!
I love this post! At the end of every biggish project I’m doing the math….always looking for the next fabulous thing to knit!
I’m caught up finally!
Much admire your dedication!!!
Brava!
I’m caught up…but… I decided to add a boarder. The final edge of which can’t be knit until the year is done… should’ve started at a different corner!
I am not Temperature Blanketing, but I sure hope that there will be a gallery of the finished projects! These sound amazing!
I didn’t start a TB, but I like the idea. However, I enjoyed the St. Cristian’s Day speech. It is a wonder, both in the writing and in the performance.
I love your temperature blanket. How wide and long will it be when done? I am thinking about making one in 2023.
Thank you.
Love this post so much!! “All things are ready if our minds be so.”
Just finished September and still crazily think I’ll be at the finish line. But hey, impassioned battlefield speeches are not given by the fully sane! I’m with him! Hoo-rah!
Much Ado About Nothing!
I would begin and finish one in time if Mountjoy would announce it!
Funny! I am in awe of your determination and organization. Nevertheless, I am not tempted to try this. Yet. You go, Kay!!
Yours is lovely, Kay.
I’m up to date on my log cabin version. I’m looking forward to figuring out the final design and sewing it together in January.
Just coming on to say, whenever you all finish, it will be a beautiful record of truth. These projects are worthwhile for so many reasons.
Lovely blanket, Kay! All the colors.
I was struck by how monochromatic a British knitter’s temperature blanket looked. It could be that her location doesn’t have a lot of wild temperature variations (looking at you, FL) but then I realized that the primary reason was that the Celsius scale is not nearly as granular as Fahrenheit.
Oh Kay, you had me at Shakespeare! I am on August 14th and have been mathing up a storm here. There’s a lot left and yet, I still believe. Although I may be completely delusional I am all in on this one. The game’s afoot: Follow your spirit, and upon this charge cry ‘God for Kay, Ann, and Felted Tweed!’ And remember, Hank Cinque beat all the odds and if he could do it, so can I!
For Kay, Ann and Felted Tweed—rotflmao! You made my day!
Kay, Henry V is one of my favorite movies. My husband got tired of me playing the CD when the movie came out. I’m planning a temperature blanket for 2023 and I’ve been reading and planning it out now. Thanks for all of your notes and suggestions as 2023 is approaching.
I really want to make one but just can’t fit it in the budget, plus wool is problematic too. Sadness
Please check out the Tempestry Project for a smaller, more affordable version. Temp + tapestry = Tempestry. Knit and crochet versions available.
“Days when I can’t knit at all”. A horrible thought.
Yea! It takes me 20 – 25 minutes to knit one row (380 stitches long) so one ridge is about 45 – 50 minutes. I got behind in September, caught up in mid-November and am on pace to complete! Phew. I love looking at this blanket and seeing the story it tells. Thanks for all the updates and kudos to others as they complete their project.
The blanket looks great, even without a terrier! However, given the number of ends to be woven in, I’m guessing the favorite Shakespearean plan is The Winter’s Tale…
What a beautiful blanket! Well worth your effort.
Maybe I’ll make one next year. A bit aspirational for me, but maybe.
Congrats on your doggedness.
I’m back on track with the arrival of Celadon which is a big November shade. I won’t be able to wrap it up (pun intended) until the first week of January as this project is too big to travel with.
I have so much admiration for all of you temperature blanketers!! I am on the second strip of the color explosion throw, which also uses Felted Tweed, but doubled so hooray for size 9 needles! I have been doing the color changes with a spit splice (or what Jen Arnall-Culliford rather more elegantly calls a “felted join”). I know it’s very late in the game for you blanketers, but when using Felted Tweed shouldn’t this be the joiner of choice? No ends to weave in and when you’re done knitting, you’re done! Just a suggestion.
I don’t even want to do the math. I’m only to the end of February of this year!
I’m up to October 15th. Three crochet motifs a day will see me finishing in time with a little bit of wiggle room. There will be substitution/fudging of the shade ‘Night Sky’ which has been discontinued. Thank you, Kay, for your rousing posts. The game’s afoot …
Thanks for the very timely pep talk, Kay. I made it to August over Thanksgiving and took a little holiday knitting detour, but ready to get back on the blanket again and ride into the sunset!
“No one is going to look to these blankets for precise weather data.” This made me laugh
I was going to do a temperature blanket for 2022, since this is the year I turned 60. However, I never got around to it and I decided that it was OK. I wasn’t going to.
Then, I found out I was going to be a grandmother for the first time! So I am now going to do a temperature blanket starting on the day my grandchild will be born (12/17, if all goes as planned) and then follow through her entire first year.
I plan on giving the completed blanket to her on her first birthday. I’m so happy things worked out the way they did!
I know my limitations. I am a slow knitter. So, I am knitting a temperature table runner. It will measure 18 inches wide by 70 something inches long when finished. I have a ways to go, and I may not finish by December, but I will finish! Love the juxtaposition of colors!
I absolutely love the idea of someone in the future using these to determine temperatures for a year in the ancient past. Visitors from other planets who can’t take ice cores to figure out what things were like. I would absolutely go to an exhibition on climate that had knit temperature blankets! (Makes mental note to see if the Center for the Environment at work needs exhibition ideas…)
I pretty much did everything you listed-ran out of yarn, subbed in a new (similar) color and procrastinated like mad. But. TONIGHT I FINISHED IT! Victory! And I have told my knitting buddies that if I ever mention making another one to shoot me. Or at least stop me….
Oh, the blanket. The blanket! I am cold and could use one or two. Also, thank you so much for the podast gig. Well played! Can’t wait for the next article to appear hear 🙂
What is a reliable source for finding temps for months past?