Make a Temperature Scarf as an Alternative to a Temperature Blanket

Temperature blankets are a popular way to track a year, whether you’re stitching up the colors of the current year or a year that is important to you.

But a blanket is a big project to keep track of all year, and maybe you don’t want a giant randomly striped blanket at the end of the year, anyway.

Another option is to make a different kind of project that tracks the temperature, such as a temperature scarf or cowl. Fox and Pine Stitches has a tutorial on how to work a scarf in the round using the colors of your choice for the temperature data for where you live.

The benefit of doing a scarf is that it will use a lot less yarn, and it will also be faster to knit. This is a great way to do a project with temperature data from a year that has already passed, because you’ll be able to knit it quickly.

You can leave it as a scarf or sew the ends together and make a giant circular cowl if you’d rather.

If you do want to make a temperature blanket, there are lots of resources available to help. Craft Warehouse has a printable you can use to keep track of your range of temperatures and the colors you choose for each one.

Noble Knits has a nice guide to temperature blankets that talks about how to pick yarns, how much of each yarn you might need and links to some knit and crochet patterns you can use to make your own temperature blanket or other project.

You can work your blanket in garter stitch, stockinette, moss stitch or any other pattern that you like, and you can do one or two rows of each color, depending on the stitch pattern you are using. The circular scarf is worked in stockinette, which makes it really easy, but you could do a project like that in any stitch pattern worked in the round as well.

Have you ever made a temperature project? Did you actually finish? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Fox and Pine Stitches.]

Next Pattern:

I know plaid or tartan patterns are really Scottish, not Irish, but there’s something about this time of year (almost St. Patrick’s Day as I write this) that gets me thinking about plaid knitting patterns.

Plaid is fun to knit any time of year, of course, and can be a fun way to combine colors you wouldn’t normally use, or wouldn’t normally put together. Let’s check out some fun plaid knitting patterns!

This plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore on Etsy is a great one for dipping your toes into plaid as a technique or a design feature in your home. It makes plaid as easy as it can get but having you knit stripes horizontally but the vertical stripes are added with duplicate stitch.

I still miss a plaid sweater I had when I was in high school, but the Lumber Sweater pattern from The Knit is On // Mette Christensen is probably the closest I’ve seen to being able to re-create it without writing my own pattern. This design uses two strands of lace weight held together to make a sport weight yarn, which makes mixing the colors that much easier. It comes in six sizes and is available on Ravelry.

I love plaid for accessories like scarves and cowls, and I found a couple of great plaid cowl knitting patterns for you. The first is the Handy Ma’am Cowl from Catherine Clark, which is worked flat and seamed. It uses five colors of light fingering weight yarn and is fully lined in a solid color to make it super cozy to wear. Get the pattern on Ravelry.

Then there’s the Thegither Cowl from Amy Palko, which uses stripes and stranded colorwork to make the plaid design in three colors of fingering weight yarn. The pattern is worked in sections; for a longer cowl work three sections instead of two. There’s also a scarf version where the colors stay consistent if you want a mellower project. Check it out on Ravelry.

The Buffalo Plaid Baby Blanket from Little Barn Owl Store is a classic two color plaid that’s easy to knit and looks adorable. This one is worked in classic red and white but you can change it up to suit the baby’s room.

Speaking of blankets, I love this vintage plaid throw pattern from Chickie by the Sea. The original pattern actually called for Red Heart knitting worsted, which looks similar to Super Saver, but you can use any worsted weight yarn you like to complete this retro look.

Next Pattern:

Have you read?

Leave a Reply