Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/06/08/these-temperature-blankets.html
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Wow, weeeee.
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Interesting idea! Might just start one of those. Or maybe a precipitation blanket, to visualize just how rainy Portland really is.
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Most people start them at the beginning of the year, but you seem like a rebel to me.
[checks that my webcam is turned off]
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where I live, one of those would end up being rather boring on temperature. High of 86, low of 77…
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A stitch in time…
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I like data-driven crochet, but I see a number of flaws with this. First of all, to crochet a blanket with 365 rows and not make it absurdly long, you’d have to do it as simple single crochet rows (“double crochet” for UK readers). That doesn’t make for a very good blanket, as it will be heavy and stiff and use an insane amount of yarn, which in turn means you won’t want to use nice yarn.
(It does make sense for knitting – maybe knit 4 / purl 4 ribs in a medium weight cotton – though IMO it doesn’t sound like it’d be worth the RSI and backache)
The obvious way to do a crochet blanket would be granny squares. If you did a square per week for 56 weeks, you’d get a 7x8 blanket. Granny squares of 7 rounds would come to something like [uses ruler] 8 inches in a DK yarn, so the blanket would be about 56x64", which is reasonable. Maybe you could make each square 8 rounds, with the biggest / outside round representing the mean weather for the whole week, to help visualize the broader trend.
You don’t want to use too many colors because it will cramp your design freedom. I’d pick maybe three hues for cold, OK and warm, and for each hue use a darker shade for rainy days (or a lighter shade for sunny days). If you live somewhere where hot rainy days and/or cold sunny days are rare, you might choose particularly vivid yarns for those combinations.
Hmm this is giving me ideas, I think umma make one of these.
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Your webcam being off is how they knew you were a rebel.
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Slap my damn head; I can’t believe these words have been put in this order!
The implications leave me reeling…
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Knee-jerk reactions are fun, but if you read the rest of the paragraph, it becomes much less salacious. Emphasis mine:
When I first came across one on Instagram, I thought it was something pregnant women did to kill time while waiting for baby to arrive. I thought these soon-to-be-moms were measuring their internal body temperature not the one outside.
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Since I’ve actually made one of these things (though it was a scarf, so narrower than a blanket), I guess I should say something.
Mine was knitted, which eliminated the texture density issue entirely, because knitting used 2/3 the yarn per row as the regular crochet stitches you’re comparing it to.
However, if fabric flexibility in crochet is a concern, there’s always granite stitch aka seed stitch aka blanket stitch for crochet, which has a low row height and less density than just motoring across with sc/dc. It’s sc/dc, ch1 across in case there’s a fourth name out there for it. Each row interlocks with the row below it, creating a subtle wiggly line which would be lovely for this type of project, suggesting gradual transitions rather than harsh lines.
I’m not sure your row math is so absolute either. A hip-length jumper/sweater in worsted weight yarn is about 100 rows in knitting. That’s about 28"/70cm.
Worsted weight yarn is on the heavy side for a bed-sized blanket. DK or sport would be better choices. Going with DK since it’s the most popular, that’s about 100 rows for 22"/55cm. So 365 rows would be in the neighbourhood of 78"/185cm. That’s about how long I make my blankets anyhow.
A blanket-width temperature blanket would be a great way to use up yarn. I’ll have to add it to the project ideas list.
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Going to have to look up the granite stitch. Sounds very useful.
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It is! I find it more hypnotic than just doing plain sc or dc… There’s a lot of “right, I’ll stop in the middle of the row” and then you realise that was three rows ago.
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I gave that a go:
The test square is 20st x 19 rows (11x11cm) in this yarn and the green blanket in the background is the same stuff. I dunno. I think a 6’ blanket in the granite stitch would still be nice – it’s rougher to the touch but it would be super-heavy, which I like – but I can’t see it being worth using twice as much yarn (the green blanket was already pretty expensive, I think I used maybe 2 dozen skeins).
That’s what I mean when I say that if you’re making a solid blanket, knitting makes more sense than crochet. Personally I much prefer to crochet, but I’d find a way to record the data in a more open stitch (e.g. the granny squares idea above).
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The instagram link in the original post has a bunch of good inspiration. It looks like someone did the square idea you mention, but they did a circle in the middle of each. I’m guessing they recorded high and low temps for each day, but you could add something for precipitation, too.
I know knitters who’ve made these, not for the current year but to commemorate a significant year to them - the year a grandchild was born or some other big life event.
So many possibilities! I hope you’ll show us what you make. It’ll be ready before the topic closes in 5 days, right?
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Interesting that no one at BB has taken credit for the piece. At some level they must realize how blatantly prejudiced that was.
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The byline says Rusty Blazenhoff. Someone new?
As for the prejudice: it’s both tired and wrong. I’ve actually written newspaper journalists when they’ve trotted out the old, “knitting! It’s not just for grannies anymore!” line, given that I’ve seen newspaper articles from the 19th century saying exactly the same thing.
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It must be. Rusty has posted a slew of items today, from Barney to Magnet Fishing.
ETA: There’s speculation on the realistic animal foot sock page (Another of Rusty’s posts) that it’s a secret identity for Rob Beschizza.
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Sounds like a made up local TV broadcaster kind of name. On Detroit TV, there used to be a woman with the improbable last name of Makeupson. Like they told her “go make up some fake name” and she just ran with the first part of that instruction. That, or maybe I just haven’t come across any Swedish men named Makeup yet.
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You’re making an assumption here…
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