2021 Temperature Blanket

We all thought 2020 was weird. 2021 seems to be giving it a run for its money.

I’ve seen temperature blankets before, but I haven’t been a fan. Most of them are just rows of a single color, and they span the rainbow. I don’t love the look, and it doesn’t coordinate with any room in my house at all.

But 2021 has been such a roller coaster of emotion even on the weather map, I decided it needs to be commemorated after all. Maybe I could do squares. And maybe I could do a blue/tan gradient.

I found this great pattern by Ravin Sekai Designs. She used tiny squares and connected them with a flat braid join. She only used four colors. That was a bit too few colors for me, but the effect is pretty. It was exactly what I had in mind. Except red. I like blues. And hers was horizontal. I like diagonal designs. I ran with it. And smooshed a bit of other things in with it. But hers is the basic idea. Basically.

I’m almost done with January. I don’t know why I picked squares. Granny squares hate me. But I’m getting through it, and it looks pretty great.

But I had a momentary crisis. I like the yarn I picked, but the colors I chose had limited stock. What if they ran out by the time summer came and I needed more lavender and taupe? We had quite a few 80 and 100 degree days last year. So I made a trip to the store in person and changed some of my yarns. It’s not all the same brand now, but I’m pretty sure I have enough to finish it at the end of the year.

If you’re interested in the details, mostly I’m using Big Twist Soft Touch yarn from Joann Fabrics. I did move to Lion Brand Basic Stitch in Grey/White for the under 20F stitches and Gold Heather for the 80-89F stitches. I thought the Soft Touch cream was too similar to the white, so I moved to Big Twist Soft in Cream for the 90-99F stitches. It’s very similar to the taupe and creates a nice bridge between the Gold Heather and the Lavender, which I left for the 100F days. If this year is like last year, we should have about 20 or so of those days, and one skein should be more than enough for that. I’m using a 4.25mm (G) Boye hook.

This is my map. The red line indicates the direction the squares are being placed. The purple circle is Winter Storm Uri that caused the Great Texas Blackout of 2021. Yep, we had 20 and 30F days with lows in the 10s *immediately* followed by 70F days with lows in the 30s. So weird. Those 70F days are so Texas. A week full of 30 days are so not. It looks like that week is going to be surrounded by charcoal and navy squares. I’m anxious to get caught up so I can see what it looks like!