I had seen lots of people doing crochet and knitted temperature blankets but when I searched to see if there were any patterns for temperature embroidery projects, I couldn’t find many or any I wanted to do. There were a few cross-stitch patterns, but I much prefer doing embroidery.
So I set about designing one myself.
What is a temperature blanket?
It is a blanket where you knit or crochet a row each day that coresponds to the high, low or average temperature that day, and you do it for the whole year.
Here is a beautiful example by Wyldflower Crochet.
So how can you do this with embroidery?
The first thing to do is decide what you want it to look like and design the pattern. After lots of thought, I decided I wanted to show the high and low for each day in squares for each month.
I decided on a simple satin stitch for the boxes, so it wouldn’t be too tricky or time consuming.
I mapped it out first on the computer in excel / numbers to show me the number of squares per month for 2023, then I drew that onto my fabric using a Pilot Frixion Marker* and ruler.
The Frixion markers are brilliant as you can rub out any mistakes, or remove them with heat.
Choosing the colours for the temperature embroidery project
Next was choosing the colours for the temperatures, here in the South-East of the UK we have quite a large variety of temperatures throughout the year. Last summer we hit a new high record, so I wanted to make sure every possibility was covered. So I did a low of -15 and a high of 40 degrees.
I decided to do 4 degree increments, making 14 different colours for the project. I went with the traditional rainbow colour scheme, but you can use any colours you want.
I then went through my embroidery threads and picked them out, and made a note of what temperatures were what colours.
I use DMC stranded cottons from Hobbycraft if I want to go in store and look at the colours, or Love Crafts if I am happy to buy online.
Logging the Temperatures
I use the Time and Date website to check the high and low temperatures of each day and make a note of them in a note on my phone. You can put in your postcode / nearest town to get the closest place to you.
I try and make a note each day of the previous day so that it doesn’t become a bigger task.
The Temperature Embroidery
I have been doing the stitching weekly and we are now 3 weeks into 2023, there has been a good variation of temps, with a low of -6 and a high of 15.
It is also a really good way to look at time progressing through the year. When I started it, in the post-Christmas, start of the year grey days, it felt like moving forward was hard, but now 3 weeks into January, time is going as fast as ever forwards.
I am using a large embroidery frame as the project is 31 cm wide.
I am really looking forward to seeing it progress over the year and the colours change as we hit spring and summer.
I will update throughout the year here.
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