New Year, new challenges. This year, among other things, I found this super challenge for myself: I will make my own Temperature Blanket copy, i.e. a temperature blanket. THE in my Facebook group I asked the members if anyone would be willing to join me in such a big challenge, since I had been eyeing him for a long time, but because of the challenge and the length of the blanket, I didn't dare to take part. As it turned out, many of us were like this, so I caught myself and I created a Facebook group for the challenge, the Temperature Blanket challenge 2024 under the name At first, I thought that it would be good if twenty of us started the projects with myself and if half of them completed the project, we made it a success. It is a great pleasure and honor for me that the group swelled nicely in the first days of the year and that they are constantly joining this common challenge.
Photo: Own (Rebeka Novák-Szabó ev)
The Temperature Blanket
The the first Temperature Blanket was made in the United States in 2016, and thanks to social media, this kind of art has already traveled the whole world. It is translated into Hungarian as "hőmérséklet takaró", but it sounds very strange to me, which is why I stayed with the original English expression.
The history of Temperature Blanket is closely related to climate change and its illustration. Read more Tempestry Project I found information about him under the name! As a geographer, I find a lot of pleasure in being able to connect my hobby to the profession I studied, and at the same time to my own principles. Since starting my studies, when Teacher Dr. Klára Hajnal introduced me to the secrets of sustainable development, fair trade and the blue economy, I immediately felt these thoughts as my own. I remember the feeling after his first class, when I thought that yes, this is what the world should do, we must unite for a common good and push our own, selfish interests into the background, often giving up certain habits and desires. After that, my knowledge was only enriched by the film club organized by Dr. Klára Hajnal, in which I could encounter criticism of the current economy and the possibility or possibilities of a new economic system. For those who have not studied this, or are not so well-informed on the subject, in short, the consumer society is responsible for a part of global problems, including climate change. I don't want to explain this in more detail now, those who are interested can find information from the many authentic materials that can be found on the Internet and in books.
Eand how is a crocheted blanket connected to climate change? In order to understand how a crocheted blanket is related to climate change, let's first look at how such a blanket can be made. This is a blanket that you make all year/or for a whole year. To make the blanket, you need to create temperature ranges to which you assign colors. One row/large square/hexagon must be crocheted every day, according to how the daily temperature (average/average, maximum, minimum) developed in the selected settlement. By the end of the year, after each row or element has been crocheted, the maker can see the year's temperature change. By the end of the year - hopefully - the crocheter will be richer with a beautiful, gradient blanket and with meteorological data that can confirm climate change and global warming. This year (at least I) will make a 2024 temperature blanket, but maybe next year I will make my own birth year, with the same colors and yarn. In my opinion, there will be many more cold months in the year of my birth and less hot temperature streaks than this year, although as we know there is El Nino, so this will also affect the look of our blanket (especially those who want to illustrate the precipitation on their own). . So this can be a particularly exciting project for geography graduates! If you want to make your blanket according to the original Tempestry Project, visit their official site, use their temperature ranges and colors!
How to make your own blanket?
The Tempestry Project had a big impact on people, and since then many people have made blankets in many different ways. Although there are differences in the new blankets, so the data cannot be used from the point of view of the project (since it cannot be compared), people have added their creativity and taste, making not only our crochet world more beautiful. To create your own, you only need to answer 5 questions, and you are almost ready to start the challenge!
The questions:
- Which form do you choose?
You crochet in rows, in granny squares, with the C2C technique, in hexagons, etc. Today, there are many crocheting and knitting forms available that can be used to make temperature blankets. - Which yarn do you choose?
The choice of yarn is very decisive when making your blanket, as its thickness determines what size needle you should use, and based on that you can calculate the number of stitches after a knitting test, and how big your 365 or 366 row blanket will be at the end. - What crochet pattern do you choose?
This is somewhat related to question #1. There are many options available for blanket crocheters, and the crochet pattern is an important question because of the blanket size, as well as the knitting test. - What colors do you choose?
Basically, the blanket is crocheted in a wide range of colors - just like the original - so that the individual temperature ranges can be clearly separated and the data can be compared. Today, however, everyone has shaped the colors of their own blanket to their own taste. You can make it either with a different shade of the original colors (e.g. only pastels or only bright colors), or with only one color shade, or you have the option of making it with only one color type (cold/warm). These are the only ones that came to mind, but it is possible that there are other options! - Which settlement do you choose?
That is, based on the average daily temperature, daily maximum or minimum temperature, or extreme values of which settlement (i.e. the hottest day or the coldest day below 0 degrees) you crochet your own blanket.
Photo: Own (Rebeka Novák-Szabó ev)
My, i.e. bunnymoonHU, 2024 temperature blanket
As the organizer of the challenge, I will share what I ended up with in designing my own blanket. I was so excited after buying the yarn that I immediately went into the details because I wanted to know how it would turn out. bunnymoonHU 2024 temperature blanket.
With my own blanket, there was no question, the first attempt line by line I wanted to crochet with some kind of plush yarn. Let's say I had a problem with the plush yarn, my dilemma was about which one to choose. I wanted thin chenille yarn, but they are so hard to find that I discarded what I looked for, and finally the Wolan's Bunny BabyI chose This is a little thinner than the Himalayan and has gorgeous colors. I chose my size 4 Prym needle for crocheting.
I also hesitated when choosing the colors. I originally wanted one color, in a nice gradient, but then I liked this transition between green and pink so much, that's why I chose the colors this way today fonalam.hu at your local store. By the way, I always go to them when it comes to plushies and I only need to buy a few pieces, because they always have a large selection and many different colors. This was also an argument for Wolans Bunny Baby because I can get it locally and easily, not to mention at a great price.
In choosing the sample, when is the Pinterest board I compiled it to the challenge's Facebook group, I chose it and the group really liked it Wash stitch (in Hungarian moss pattern). You can see the separation of the colors so well, yet it's as if the days are clinging to each other, and that really caught my attention.
KI gave it a quick knitting (/crochet) test after purchaset how big the blanket will be like this. Well, as expected. If each row is 1 day, then the blanket would be 3 m long and for this a width of at least 1.5 would have to be crocheted, but due to expediency (so that I can use it for something) it would be 2 m, which according to my calculations would have come to 334 basic stitches. When this became clear, I spent hours dividing and multiplying what should happen. It's one thing that it would take at least half an hour to crochet a row, even with this easy little pattern, but it would be a huge success and a lot of yarn would be eaten up by this temperature blanket monster. so in order to be successful, 2 days will be included in 1 row, so 1 day will be 175 stitches (I increased the number of stitches a little), 1 row of 350 stitches. I complete each odd month with a gray half-row so that I can also crochet the month selector in white. As I calculated I will crochet 199 rows, plus the border (but it is still questionable whether I want to, I will see it on the way). According to my calculations, my blanket is approx. It will be 210 cm long and 160 cm wide, which is ideal for us.
The settlement was not even a question, since I have been living in Pécs for 15 years now, so even if I'm not from Pécs, I consider myself a resident of Pécs. And as the challenge says, I'm crocheting 2024 and the average daily temperature. For this, I will create an excel table, record the data in it, and probably crochet the weekly portion every week, not the daily portion.
And below you can see some pictures of the purchase, my yarns and me, when I left happy after the purchase!
Others are temperature blankets
If you are interested in the challenge or just want to see what kind of blankets are being made in the Temperature Blanket challenge 2024, join the challenge's Facebook group. In addition, it is a special pleasure to several of my fellow designers are crocheting with me in the next year, and took on this considerable challenge, such as Zsuzsa Mályár, the Yarn forest also a designer behind the name.
