YEAR-LONG PROJECT
How to plan and track a temperature blanket in 2027
A temperature blanket records a year of weather: each day gets a row (or a stripe, or a square) in a color that stands for that day’s temperature. It’s a lovely, slow project, and the hardest part isn’t the knitting. It’s keeping track of 365 days.
1. Choose your temperature and your ranges
Pick one reading and stick with it all year. Most people use the daily high. Some use the low, or knit both as two rows. Look up your area’s typical highs and lows, then split that span into 7 to 12 ranges. Ranges of about 10°F (5°C) work for most places.
| Daily high | Example color |
|---|---|
| Below 20°F (below −7°C) | Deep navy |
| 20–34°F (−7 to 1°C) | Blue |
| 35–49°F (2–9°C) | Light blue |
| 50–64°F (10–17°C) | Green |
| 65–79°F (18–26°C) | Yellow |
| 80–89°F (27–31°C) | Orange |
| 90°F and up (32°C and up) | Red |
An example only. Adjust the ranges so your most common temperatures are split across several colors, or most of your blanket will be one stripe.
2. Decide how much to knit each day
- One row a day gives you 365 rows. In worsted weight, that’s a long blanket, and quick to keep up with.
- Two rows a day is popular in garter stitch, because each ridge then shows one clean color. It doubles the length, so many knitters choose a narrower width.
- A square a day, like granny squares or mitered squares, is portable and easy to catch up on, with more ends to weave in.
Knit a swatch, measure one row, and multiply by 365 (or 730) before you commit. That tells you whether your blanket will be a throw or a runway.
3. Work out your yarn
Swatch a few rows, weigh them, and work out the grams per row. Multiply by the days each color is likely to get, using last year’s weather as a guide, and add a skein of the colors for your most common temperatures. Yarn shops and online sellers often sell temperature blanket packs in December.
4. Keep a log, separate from the knitting
This is what makes or breaks a temperature blanket. Keep two numbers:
- Today’s date and temperature, written down every day, even on days you don’t knit.
- The last day you knit, so you know exactly which row comes next.
A row counter set to “days knit” does the second job. If the counter says 41 and it’s February 20th, you know you’re 10 days behind, and your log tells you which colors those 10 rows are.
Example: catching up after a busy week
Your counter says 59, so day 59 (February 28th) was the last row you knit. Your log shows March 1st to 7th as 41, 38, 44, 52, 55, 47 and 43°F. With the example ranges above, that’s light blue, light blue, light blue, green, green, light blue, light blue. Knit those 7 rows in order, then set the counter to 66.
5. Plan for the tricky days
- Leap years: 2027 isn’t one, so it’s 365 days. 2028 has 366.
- Travel: decide now whether you’ll use home or wherever you are.
- Joining colors: carry unused colors up the side if your stripes are short, or weave in as you go to avoid a pile of ends in December.
Starting a long project with lots of colors? See how to organize your yarn stash, and if you’re crocheting yours, how to count crochet rows.