21 Color Palette Ideas For Your Temperature Blanket

It’s temperature blanket season ! 🌈 And if you’re planning on making one this year, you might find this post helpful. But first…

What is a temperature blanket?

A temperature blanket is a project that lasts a whole year and a nice way to keep track of the weather. The idea is to crochet (or knit) a row or two per day according to the temperature outside.

If you’re not up for a blanket, there are other variations like the temperature snake, the temperature scarf etc..

How to start

If you’d like to make a temperature blanket, the first thing you need to do is to choose a pattern for your blanket. You can pick simple stitches (all single crochet or half double crochet) or a more complex pattern, it’s up to you! But since the project lasts the whole year, you need to keep in mind that you’ll have 365 rows, so maybe don’t pick a stitch that’s too tall or a fiber that’s too thick if you don’t want to end with a gigantic blanket. Also, picking a simple pattern means you’ll be more likely to stick to the projet until the end.

Once that’s settled, you need a color scheme. You can pick as many colors as you want, most temperature blankets use between 8-12 colors. In order to create your color palette, make a temperature chart and assign a different color to each temperature range. Here’s an example of what your temperature chart can look like:

If you’re using my chart, you’ll need 10 different colors for your palette.

There are different ways to approach the temperature chart. You can record the highest/ lowest temperature of the day, which will give you a higher contrast blanket; or use the average temperature of the day, which will more likely result in more gradient, smoother color transitions.

How to pick you palette

Most people pick colors that ‘match’ the temperature (blues for cold weather, bright red for very high temperatures, for example) and, very often, the final result is not very pleasing to eye. It’s not easy to pick color palettes that require that many colors, so here are a few tips:

1. Choose a fiber that offers a wide range of colors and will allow you to pick the colors you like rather than just going with what’s available.
2. Decide on a ‘theme’. What do you want your blanket to look like? Do you want it to match your home decor? Color palettes that have more than 3 colors can quickly become overwhelming, so choose different shades/tints of the same colors and don’t be afraid to add neutrals to the mix. Another tip to avoid an overwhelming palette is choosing logic over number of colors: all pastels, all brights or all earth tones, for example. This will help your final product look coherent despite the wide range of colors in it.
3. Put all colors next to each other to see how the match together. Your eye is your best friend.

Color Palette Suggestions

It’s time to get inspired! 🎨

I’ve put together 21 different palettes to help you choose the perfect color combos for your temperature blanket. It’s not always possible to find the exact shades depending on which fiber or brand you’re working with, some have a very wide range of colors and some are very limited, but it’s easier to decide on the yarn we’re going to use for the project if we already know which colors we are looking for. Also, research yarn equivalence so you can mix and match different brands to have a better spectrum. Have fun !

I hope you enjoyed this post ! Save it, share with friends, and reach out if you have any questions.

See you soon,

❤︎

Clarissa