FAQs

Q: DO I HAVE TO MAKE A TEMPERATURE BLANKET? CAN I MAKE SOMETHING ELSE?

A: Let’s break this question down into two pieces. First, for the “blanket” part, it is up to you if you want to make a blanket that covers a bed, or a throw blanket, or a baby blanket! You may decide that a blanket takes too long to make, or gets to heavy/bulky to work with. If you’d rather do a project that takes less time/yarn, then consider a scarf, a table runner, a potholder, etc. Maybe you’d rather do a temperature hat, or temperature socks. You have options!

For the “temperature” piece, this is also up to you. Temperature data is very simple for people to collect day-to-day by following their local weather forecast, or by taking their own measurements. But other data that can be visualized with yarn include precipitation, snowfall, air quality index, pH values in a stream, average windspeed, etc. Any measurement that is gathered over time is fair game for your creative work.

Q: OK, SO IF I STICK WITH TEMPERATURE DATA, DOES IT HAVE TO BE FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR? FROM ONE LOCATION?

A: Again, you can use any data you like that has been collected over time, but we’ll stick with talking about temperature data for the remainder of these questions. The data can be for one full year, but it doesn’t have to be! For example, the blanket on the right is one I made for a friend of mine as a delayed baby shower gift. I waited until her daughter was born and made a baby blanket representing the daily maximum temperature for the first three months of her daughter’s life. I also gave her a graph of the data, which makes for such a unique gift! (and an opportunity for her to talk about temperature changes with everyone that sees the blanket! For detailed images/instructions, see Temperature blanket – the perfect baby gift) If you want to make a smaller object such as a potholder, one month of data may be enough. So the length of time and the data record you represent with your yarn is up to you.

Q: WHAT COLORS AM I REQUIRED TO USE?

A: The color choice is up to you! (By now, I’m sure you see a theme here….). It seems that many needleworkers started generating temperature blankets by using the typical ROYGBIV color palette, such as what is shown on the CraftWarehouse and Lion Brand Yarn website. I also used that for the scarf pictured to the right, which is one I made for my Chancellor to represent the maximum daily temperature for her first year as Chancellor at my campus. The red and orange represents the warmer temperature, while the blue and purple represents the colder temperature.

And note that each color of yarn does not need to represent a 10-degree span of temperature. In my geographic region of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, I could do red for the 90’s and orange for the 80’s, etc. But your region or dataset may not have that much variation, so you can use a color to represent a 5-degree temperature interval, or 3-degree interval. I would recommend looking at the range in your entire dataset first (if you have your data already – or look at the historic record for an idea of the range) and decide how you will assign your colors.

Here’s a beautiful example of a temperature blanket where ROYGBIV was not used, and the white row represents a break between the months. You may want to explore using color scales that are friendly to those with color deficient vision.