April 30, 2023

I’m using the Dynalist app on my phone to keep track of daily temps instead of the original tables that looked like a calendar here on this project page. The tables were rather finicky. (For instance, if I put an apostrophe in this note, the tables above would disappear.)

April had a lot of Spring greens with a warm spell just to foreshadow the coming late Spring.

October 7, 2023

I am almost caught up! I just finished the September pattern.

Work got busy over the summer, and it was hot, so I switched to jigsaw puzzling most evenings and got very behind on the temperature blanket. I never stopped making progress entirely, but did not keep up even though it was the only crochet I worked on. My Zuri Tunisian CAL and Multivalence CAL are both 4 months behind.

Tomorrow is Sunday and I should be able to get up-to-date so I will only have 1 row to do per night, which means I will get back to squares 12+ on the Zuri. Not much chance of catching up with that before the end of the year, though, but I can try!

I have found some really cool temperature blanket labels on Etsy where I can list the year and the location, as well as the temperature ranges and what yarn corresponds to each. I am going to order one of those tomorrow, along with some Handmade by Maria rivet labels to round out the order. This blanket is rather hideous in the end and I will never do another one, but I might as well finish it off with style after all this work.

October 29, 2023

I’ve been caught up on the blanket for a few weeks now and it’s nice to be back to one row per night. Especially on crazy weather days like yesterday and today, when it was a high of 80 and 58 degrees respectively!

I briefly flirted with the idea of doing a Linen Stitch Squares 2024 Temperature Blanket but came to my senses. This was a fun experiment, but I have too many blankets in my queue and too much yarn in my stash (but not enough of a great palette of colors for a temperature blanket). This year I’ll focus on finishing WIPs and getting started on some of the blanket kits I’ve purchased. I’m not saying no forever to another temperature blanket, but not like this one ever again.

In fact, in 2024 I’m going to say no to all year-long projects. Having 3 on the go this year was too much. I need more variety in my making life.

December 26, 2023

Only 6 days left of the year! I am toying with the idea of finishing off the rows based on the forecast so that I can use my time off between Christmas and New Year to do the envelope border and finish this off. (It would be the 10th blanket of this year.)

Speaking of the border, I’m going to re-watch the “Easier envelope border” tutorial that I prepped for by adding the sc/ch1 on the sides. I think I’ll do sc in the back loops to mimic the body fabric. I don’t feel the need to do mosaic in the border though.

The blanket is getting absolutely huge. Even with sport weight yarn (which is more like DK, actually) and a 3.25mm hook, all those rows add up. At least it is a rectangle with good proportions. I’ll have to weigh it when it’s done.

December 31, 2023

And she’s done! The blanket ended up being 6’ 4” x 5’. I will put this on the futon in the basement where we watch movies together -- it will be perfect because several people can cuddle up under it at the same time.

The border took forever! 12 rounds of SC in the back loop, followed by a slip stitch round. At least I didn’t have to do the initial surface slip stitch round since I used the Rosina Crochets chain space method this time. Definitely will be using that for all my mosaic patterns going forward!

I’m glad I made one of these; I wish I had chosen a more pleasing color palette; I will never do one again.