3 Tips for a Strong Start on Your Temperature Blanket

For years I thought about doing a temperature blanket, but I could never make the decisions needed. Once I decided to do one for 2023 there were still a lot of decisions to be made, which I’ll explain in a coming post! But there are 3 things that made it difficult for me to actually start, and to stay on track. Here they are so you can learn from my mistakes before you start yours!

1. Choose your pattern

I wanted to do a crochet temperature blanket rather than a knit one. And I wanted it to be granny squares rather than crocheted across or in another pattern. This meant I had to learn some crochet stiches. If you already know how to do the craft you’re choosing for your temperature blanket you’re already ahead of me! But still, you need to choose which pattern you’re going to do, and do some practice!

Practice will allow you to figure out:

• How long it will take you to complete each day (and whether it’s realistic for you)
• How much yarn each day will require
• How big your finished blanket will be (too small? too big?)

2. Select a good tool

Obviously you need to choose which craft your blanket will be created with and once you’ve decided that, choose your tools carefully. That tool needs to be the right:

• Size (4 mm, 5 mm)
• Material (metal, wood, plastic, etc)
• Fit for your hands

I ordered a hook with my initial yarn order, but it wasn’t a good choice for size or fit. I borrowed a hook from my mom, but it isn’t the most comfortable, especially as I’m trying to catch up and crochet a lot at the end of the year. But as I was starting to crochet more it was hard to get started when the too wasn’t really comfortable to hold. I’ve been thinking I need to buy a crochet hook with a bigger handle.

3. Get enough yarn

If you’ve practiced and figured out how much yarn each day will require, this gives you a good start on guessing how much yarn you’ll need for the year. But unless you live somewhere with really steady and predictable temperatures, this is still a hard one to figure out, no matter how much research you do!

That said, I didn’t do the math before I ordered yarn and I ordered an absurdly small amount of yarn to get started. I have no idea what I was thinking. And because I was ordering yarn rather than using something from Michael’s, it meant that I had to wait awhile for yarn to arrive which really threw off my groove and put me pretty far behind. It remains to be seen if my second order covered me for the year!

Have you been caught by any of these if you’ve made a temperature blanket before?