Crochet Tutorial: The Temperature Blanket!

I decided I wanted to crochet myself a big blanket that would be large enough for two people to snuggle under.  Through Pinterest, I found a neat blanket called a "temperature blanket."  I set my phone to go off every day at noon with an alarm that says "temperature."  It reminds me to check my app on my phone and record the temperature at that moment wherever I am at.  I text myself with the temperature.

  
Here's a screenshot of my cell phone text messages to myself for the past few days.  By the way, this is a great way to remember other things as well.  I'm constantly texting myself with reminders!  It's just a great little life hack!

I have a guide I created that shows the temperature ranges and what yarn I have assigned to each temperature.  I taped a snippet of each yarn to it and also stapled a yarn wrapper from each color to it.  If I run out of a particular color, I have the wrapper with all of the important information I need to purchase more!

Yarn labels should be saved for future reference!

My temperature chart!

I have subscribed to Ipsy which is a makeup sample club. Each month you get five samples of makeup in a makeup bag.  I now have five bags.  They make GREAT project bags for my crochet!  I like to be able to pick up my projects and go out the door with them if I know I'm going to have time to kill somewhere.    

My tools for this project!

A few months ago I subscribed to a makeup sample club called Ipsy.  Each month you get five samples of makeup in a makeup bag.  These little bags are PERFECT to throw into your project bag so you can keep your project tools in an organized place.  My Ipsy bag for this blanket holds my scissors, tapestry needles for weaving in yarn ends, an ink pen, my written temperature guide, and my reference chart.  Now when I head out the door if I know if I'm going to have to kill time somewhere, I'll grab the bag with my blanket in it which also has this little Ipsy bag tucked inside and I'm ready to go!

Here's my written chart for March.  You can see I've crossed off March 1 through 4 since I have crocheted those rows.  It is March 27 as I write this, so I'm a little behind!  I'm hoping to catch up tonight!  I also wrote the reference chart on the right-hand side.  I recently added white after the red and changed up the temperature ranges for pink, orange, and red.  I need to update that on my written chart here!  I already did it on my color guide!

To create this blanket, I started by chaining 265 plus 2 for a total of 267.  Then I started crocheting a half-double crochet in the second chain from the hook and in each chain after. Each row of this blanket is 265 stitches wide.  Every now and then I count as I go so know my blanket isn't getting more narrow or wider.  

I'm using stitch markers to mark the beginning of each month.  I'm considering embroidering the abbreviations for the months in white yarn on the blanket to indicate where the months begin and end on the blanket.

Stitch markers to indicate the start of a month.

When the blanket is finished, I plan to put a border of some kind on it.  Most likely it will be a shell border as that is my favorite.  I am not sure what color I will choose.  Perhaps white.  Perhaps a variegated color.  I'll wait until it is done and make up my mind at that point.  I might even do an interactive poll online and see what others think or go ask the crochet community online what their suggestion is.

See below for a quick video that shows how to do the half-double crochet stitch!

I can't wait to see what this blanket will look like after a year and 365 rows of color!  I'll be sure to update the post to show the finished project!!!  To all of my fellow crocheters, happy hooking!