Liz Makes Stuff: Temperature Afghan

I’m working on a new project. This one is guaranteed to take me an entire year.

Last year, I began crocheting and knitting in earnest. It’s what kept me (mostly) sane through pandemic, divorce, finding new love, debt, blah blah blah. There’s something zen-like about taking a crochet hook and moving it methodically through your project, creating patterns where there was previously only a strand of yarn. You already know that I make blankets like it’s my job. It’s something I do to comfort myself. The act of making the blanket and then using it afterward — the calming effect these activities have is unparalleled for me.

I finished one blanket recently, so naturally I was itching to start another. I had seen this tweet about a scarf dedicated to the weather and temperature of every day in 2020 (several people sent it to me — if nothing else, my self-branding is on point) and knew I had to make one — in blanket format, of course.

And so, my 2021 Temperature Afghan.

Crochet hook looking very much like Excalibur here.

I am using yarn colors that I had at hand (which isn’t difficult; I have a LOT of yarn at this point) and following a similar pattern as some I found on the internet. Each color represents a degree interval (in Fahrenheit). Every day, I mark the high temperature for that day, and then add a row corresponding to that color. There will eventually be 365 rows on this blanket — a snapshot of the year and my journey through it.

My partner (who hates the cold) took one look at this chart and said: “I hope there’s no white on that blanket.”

So far, the year is pretty mellow — we’re mostly in the “green” range, so much so that I am worried I will have to purchase another skein soon. Out of 23 rows up until this point (since today is January 23), 17 of them have been green, and six have been yellow.

This photo is from back when there were still only five yellow rows.

It took a while to decide which stitch to use for this blanket. After searching around on the internet for some time, I settled on single crochet with a 5.75mm hook. This stitch is easy, methodical. Plus, after 365 rows, it’s probably going to be a long enough blanket — no sense in doing double crochet or even half double crochet.