A blanket that you knit in blocks is always my favourite as it means it is portable, and I love having my knitting with me at all times. These blocks are mitred squares, and the stitch count decreases as you work (something that I always find motivating!). There are a total of 12 blocks, one for each month of the year.

My temperature blanket was started in 2020, and for reasons that I am sure don’t need explaining, wasn’t finished until 2021! I began it planning to track the highest temperature of each day of the year, and completed it having watched the pandemic take hold. The blanket is now a reminder of a very strange couple of years, and it brings me comfort to see those months knitted in soft wool that keeps me warm in the evenings.

I used the website https://www.timeanddate.com to keep track of the highest temperature each day, and I simply used a notebook for keeping track of where I was up to with my knitting, and what colour was needed for each day. Each block is finished with a ‘neutral’ colour that creates a graphic ‘square’ of colour that finishes each months knitting.

The pattern walks you through the process of choosing and assigning yarn for your temperatures, and photos guide you through any of the fiddlier bits.

The blocks are joined with crochet seams for strength and speed. The border is also done with crochet stitches. Because 2 sides of each block are ‘loose’ (not a cast on or cast off edge) there can be little ripples where you seam. I have now used and washed my temperature blanket multiple times and these little ripples have disappeared as the knitting and crochet stitches relaxed over time.