Hello out there!
Yesterday I published the Jagged Stripes pattern – a pattern for both a shawl and a blanket, which can be made as a temperature registration piece. Never heard of temperature registration? Well, in this case it is a knitting (or crochet) project where one row is done for each day, using a yarn color designated to that day’s temperature. After 365 days you can get something like this:
These are the temperatures I registered for Copenhagen (Denmark) during 2017 – the highest temperature of the day (left), the lowest temperature (center), and the average values (right). See how different it comes out depending on which range you choose?
For illustrating the Jagged Stripes blanket, I used the highest temperatures range (rainbows are so pretty):
A bit of background to mention here: When you search on Ravelry for “temperature”, you get all kinds of patterns (and projects!) for temperature items. However, most of them are plain, straight garter stitch items, nothing fancy. That might be great for some, but for me… I wanted something else! So I designed this one, garter stitch with a little twist.
I added a “neutral” color at the beginning and end of the item, as I do want the edges to be straight. This means there is a bit of short row shaping going on at the beginning and the end of the year – but don’t fret, it can also easily be made without those edges! You’ll then just have the raw zig-zag edge.
I have added an Excel spreadsheet where you can track your local temperatures, see what the blanket looks like after a while, and even customize the size you want based on your own gauge. I have based it on the values I would use myself, using degrees Celsius to record temperatures and using the colors I want to use. I have added a cheat sheet for looking up the degrees Celsius if you’re usually working with Fahrenheit though!
If you’re familiar with Excel and want to change colors or temperature ranges, see below for a tutorial.
There is a lot more information on the Ravelry pattern page, which can be found here: Jagged Stripes
Note that this pattern is free – and I hope to keep it so indefinitely.
How can I modify the Excel spreadsheet for my Temperature Blanket/Shawl?
If you want to change either the colors used or the temperature ranges used in the spreadsheet, AND you more or less know your way around in Excel, here is a video tutorial on how to do so. I would however only recommend it if you’re an Excel user already – it can be easy to accidentally mess it up completely!
Please note that I’m using Microsoft Office 2013 on a Windows computer.