My 2023 Temperature Blanket (Colors, Pattern, and Tips!)

I’m excited to be crocheting a temperature blanket for 2023! In this post, I’ll be sharing my yarn color palette, the pattern I’m following, and tips for making your own.

What is a temperature blanket?

A temperature blanket is a year-long project in which each row of the blanket represents the temperature for one day of the year. The color for that row will be dictated by a pre-determined range of temperatures.

Though my blanket will be for the weather in 2023 in my New Jersey town, a temperature blanket can be for any year or place! Some people do years that are sentimental to them, like their birth year, or the year they got married.

About my blanket

PATTERN

I am using this pattern by Nathalie Bouffard. I purchased it from Ravelry for less than $6! I think the linen stitch this pattern uses is perfect for a big, long project like a temperature blanket. It only requires inserting your hook into every other stitch. Even though this blanket is over 6 feet long, it only takes me 10-15 minutes to complete one row.

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I recommend picking a stitch that feels easy to you and preferably one you do not see yourself getting bored with. I have seen beautiful temperature blankets with more complex stitches, but I know that for such a long-term project, I need something simple.

{RELATED: Basic Crochet Stitches You Need To Know}

COLORS

These are the colors I’m using! I purchased all the yarn from Michael’s. They are all acrylic with a medium 4 weight.

It’s common to see temperature blankets with a rainbow color palette, but I wanted to emphasize my favorite colors (purples, greens, and blues) with pops of brightness (ruby reds and pinks). I also tried to choose yarn that I know my store carries year-round, and nothing special- or limited-edition because I will have to repurchase these throughout the year.

With that in mind, I also chose yarn that was cost-effective. My best advice for picking yarn is to pick colors you love, choose yarn that is sold all year/easy to find, and won’t break the bank!

My yarn selections (color and brand): 

• Rich Orchid – Impeccable™ Solid Yarn by Loops & Threads®
• Capitol Reef – Lion Brand® Heartland® Yarn
• Amethyst – Value™ Solid Yarn by Craft Smart®
• Violet – Impeccable™ Solid Yarn by Loops & Threads®
• Petunia – Impeccable™ Solid Yarn by Loops & Threads®
• Green Lagoon – Impeccable™ Solid Yarn by Loops & Threads®
• Cornflower – Value™ Solid Yarn by Craft Smart®
• Blue Haze – Impeccable™ Solid Yarn by Loops & Threads®
• Ice Blue – Value™ Solid Yarn by Craft Smart®

This is how I am assigning temperature ranges to colors for where I live:

Because I live in New Jersey, where there is a wide range of temperatures throughout the year, I was able to do mostly 10-degree ranges. I have seen people use increments as small as 5 degrees for places with less temperature variation. Do what makes sense to you!

SCHEDULE

Another important aspect of making a temperature blanket is deciding how often you will work on it. Will you be able to crochet one row a day, or 7 rows in one day at the end of the week?

This is how I have been tracking my blanket. I use a small calendar/planner I bought from Target! Each day I record the temperature high, the corresponding yarn color, and place a check mark when I have completed the row.

I recommend thinking about how you can most easily track your temperatures and progress. For me, it’s in this notebook calendar, but you might prefer to track digitally on your phone or computer.

Because it doesn’t take me very long to do one row, so far, I have been able to crochet one row a day. If you plan to work on your temperature blanket less frequently, I definitely recommend marking your progress as you go, since it will be difficult to count rows as your blanket gets bigger.

Now for the exciting part, this is how my blanket looks after the first two weeks of January!

It’s definitely been an unusually warm January where I live. I never would have paired green and purple together by choice, but I love how they look together in this blanket! It was very exciting to use the Cornflower blue color today to change it up.

I’m excited to be tackling a temperature blanket this year and I hope this post encourages you to make the leap if you have been going back-and-forth like I was! I’ve been looking forward to adding a row each day and seeing how the colors blend together. I’ll try to do periodic updates as the year goes by. Happy crocheting!