Temperature Afghan. Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday blue 54 - blue-green

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1 Temperature Afghan Basic Details Yarn: Cascade Yarns Ultra Pima (DK weight), 100% cotton, 220 yds./hank (see below for color info) Hook: G/6 hook (4.0 mm) Other Supplies: yarn needle (to weave in ends and join the pieces), stitch markers (optional but useful), scissors Finished dimensions: approx. 70 W x 100 L A temperature afghan is created by letting the high temperatures of a series of days (usually a calendar year) determine the colors used. The usual way to create one is to do 365 rows that are the width of a lap blanket or twin-sized blanket, but there are a lot of patterns out there for how to do one. The Crochet Crowd has the basics on their website, which you can find easily with Google. Keeping Track of Temperatures Color/Temperature Range Pansy (purple)/19 F and below Cobalt (blue-purple)/20 F to 29 F Armada (navy blue)/30 F to 39 F Major teal (blue)/40 F to 49 F Teal (blue-green)/50 F to 59 F Spring green (green)/60 F to 69 F Yellow rose (yellow)/70 F to 79 F Deep Coral (orange)/80 F to 89 F Wine (red)/90 F and above This is the color/temperature range plan that I used. You can use whatever you want. If you don t want to make up your own plan, you can find other examples of them online. I live in Massachusetts in the U.S., which has four very distinct seasons, so I used all of the colors in this scheme. If you live in a more temperate area, you may want to have narrower temperature ranges in order to get more colors in. I kept track of temperatures in a Google doc so I would have access when I traveled or otherwise didn t have my laptop, using a table for each month. I used weather.com s Monthly page for my town to find out what the high temperatures were each day. I always kept track of the temperatures at home, and when I traveled, I also kept track of the temperatures where I was in order to incorporate them into the borders. The temperatures at home were in black text in the Google doc, and the traveling temps were in red. As I stitched each day s color into the afghan, I bolded it in the table to keep track of what I had completed. Here s an example: April Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 76 - yellow 55 - blue-green 38 - navy 26 - blue-purple 72 - yellow 36 - navy 44 - blue 42 - blue 54 - blue-green 55 - blue-green 61 - green 50 - blue-green 52 - blue-green 49 - blue 49 - blue 49 - blue 61 - green 58 - blue-green 56 - blue-green 59 - blue-green 61 - green 74 - yellow 63 - green 78 - yellow 72 - yellow 86 - orange 76 - yellow 80 - orange 63 - green 80 - orange 63 - green 78 - yellow 79 - yellow 66 - green 61 - green 62 - green 53 - blue-green 63 - green 63 - green 60 - green 66 - green

2 Note that I did my afghan in 2016, which was a leap year, so there was an extra day in February. Make sure you do the math correctly for the year that you are doing so that each piece of your afghan (see the table below) has the same number of stripes. More detail on yarn: I used 1-3 skeins of each temperature color (which will vary for you depending on what you choose for color/temperature correspondence and what the weather ends up being) and 13 skeins of black. I expected the extreme colors (purple and red for me) to be used least, but it was a warm year, and I ended up using a lot more red than I expected to. Terms I use: Piece: Each piece of this afghan (9 of them, each corresponding to a row of the table below) is constructed separately, and then the pieces are sewn together. Stripe: Each stripe is two rows of single crochet. : Solid black single crochet that surrounds all of the temperature colors. The Plan for the Afghan (each piece is crocheted left to right ) 1 Top border black, January 1 through March 31 (various colors, rows in a leap year) 3 Middle (black with travel colors, April 1 through June 30 (various colors, Middle (black with travel colors, July 1 through September 30 (various colors, Middle (black with travel colors, October 1 through December 31 (various colors, Bottom (black with travel colors, black, black, 23 46

3 <- January through March, with borders (row 2 of the table) <- with Jan.-Mar. travel colors (row 3) <- April through June, without right border (row 4) <- with Apr.-June travel colors, partially finished (row 5) The entire afghan is single crochet with one chain stitch at the end of each row serving as a turning chain. Each stripe referred to in the chart above is two rows of single crochet back and forth so 24 stripes is 48 rows of single crochet. (Each day s temperature color is one stripe.) I kept track of the number of stripes using stitch markers when needed. I crocheted the afghan in 9 pieces which correspond to the rows of the table above. Each piece has a total of 139 stripes laid out as indicated in the table. Start on the left and work your way to the right as you add stripes for each day. I didn t actually work on it every day I d let a week or two pass and then add a bunch of stripes all at once. Crocheting the main temperature color pieces (rows 2, 4, 6, and 8 in the table): To start, chain 61. Start in the second chain from the hook and single crochet across, for 60 stitches. (In reality, you can make this any size you want. Just write down what you do so you can repeat it 3 months later for the next piece.) The first 24 stripes are solid black, then each stripe is added according to that day s temperature, then the piece is finished with either 23 or 24 stripes depending on the number of days in the three months in that piece. When switching colors, I let the yarn travel up the piece if I knew I would be using it again within 4-5 stripes if not, I cut it and wove in the end. If I were going to do this again, I d make the black border smaller, but if you like the picture of what I did, use the stitch count and number of stripes above. Crocheting the top border (row 1 in the table): The piece is 30 stitches across (start by chaining 31) and is solid black for 139 stripes. Crocheting the middle borders (rows 3, 5, and 7 in the table): Each piece is 18 stitches across (start by chaining 19). The piece is solid black for the first 24 stripes then is either solid black (for days when I was home) or 6 stitches black, 6 stitches of the travel temperature color, and 6 stitches black (for days when I was traveling). For example, in the piece of my afghan that corresponds to row 5 in the table (the middle border below months April to June) which uses the calendar on page 1 of this pattern, I have 24 stripes of black for the border, 3 stripes of black for the first three days of April, 6 stripes that use travel temperature colors for the middle 6 stitches, 5 stripes of black, and so on. (This is the bottom row in the in progress picture above.) I cut the black yarn each time I changed to a different color so that I wouldn t have an obvious wrong

4 side. It made for a lot of ends to weave in, but the end result is worth it. You can let the black yarn go behind the colors if you d like, but make sure that they are all on the same side of the afghan. This is an example of travel colors within a middle border. For these pieces, I divided the piece into five chunks in my head the left border, each of the three months, and the right border and kept track of the number of stripes in each chunk until I had the correct number for that chunk, rather than trying to count 139 stripes and figure out which ones needed travel colors. For example, for the middle border under January through March (row 3 in the table), I counted up to 24 stripes and kept a marker at the end of the 24 th stripe, then counted 31 stripes that corresponded to January and kept a marker at the end of the 31 st stripe, and so on. This made it much easier to figure out when to add traveling temperature colors because each stripe of the border piece corresponds to a stripe on the main temperature color pieces. Also, leaving a lockable stitch marker in the piece on the last day of each month helps when aligning stripes as you join the pieces together. Crocheting the bottom border The bottom border is probably the most difficult piece to explain, so bear with me. The idea was to combine the middle border pieces (with traveling temperatures) with the larger border piece at the top. The piece is 42 stitches wide start by chaining 43. As you build it from the left side of the afghan, the travel colors will be on the left side of it. It may be best for me to show you with a table: (right side of the afghan, top of the piece) 42 stitches, black (border) for 23 stripes 6 stitches, always black 6 stitches, black or travel color (Oct. through Dec.) 30 stitches, always black ( stripes) 42 stitches, black (border) for 24 stripes (left side of the afghan, bottom of the piece)

5 I wanted to add the year in stitches in the bottom border, but I couldn t figure out how to do it without extreme amounts of cutting yarn and weaving in ends. If you figure out a way to do it, let me know and I d be happy to add it to the pattern. Joining the pieces I used an invisible seam stitch that can be found here: Once the pieces are joined, a row or two of single crochet, or whatever your favorite border is, around the entire afghan will finish it off nicely. (Please note: As I post this on Ravelry in late December 2016, I have not yet finished my afghan I got caught up in Christmas and other presents and am still working on November s temperature stripes. I ll continue to update this pattern with additional pictures as I get more of it done.)