Back in October, I mentioned the discovery of a Temperature Blanket group on Facebook, and some related ideas, like a Temperature Tree embroidery kit. Since my embroidery skills are not at the same level as my crochet skills, I went ahead and bought a kit, which has the tree pre-printed on the canvas. As this is strictly a calendar year project, I went ahead and started it, despite not having finished my blanket, which is running from mid-February to mid-February. One of my New Year’s Day activities was to organize my embroidery floss colors for the tree, grouped in 5 degree temperature changes. I have a second organizer – also labeled with the temperature ranges – for the section of thread I’ve cut off for use.
The second photo above shows the 2025 temperature blanket as of late December, with Arwen walking on it and showing how large it is. There are three more rows – another 45 days – to be added after that photo.
A sensible person probably wouldn’t start yet another crochet project while still working on a project that size. But as people were posting their year end blanket photos, I saw one that jumped out as a pattern I wanted to try, and it will be significantly smaller than the 2025 sofa-encompassing blanket. The pattern links crocheted circles together in lines, connecting them again with a border, so I decided it would be a fun way to track the 2026 temperatures. The third photo above shows my progress so far.
Why is that the Scavenger Edition? Like many practitioners of yarn crafts, I have what some (particularly those who don’t partake) might describe as an excessive quantity of yarn, and as it happens, I just reorganized my collection after purchasing a yarn organizer that hangs over an inside door. (This does not hold all of my yarn; only my current projects’ yarn.) Rather than buying more yarn, I decided to use only yarn I already own, with the understanding that the selected yarn needed to be similar in size and texture for this to work. Like last year’s blanket and the temperature tree, I set up a spreadsheet to track the daily temperature and the color ranges to track what I need to do and mark when I’ve completed it. Yes, that does mean that I’m currently updating three spreadsheets daily as I complete each task. In a month, that will drop to two!
If you’ll excuse me, I need to go work on the dragon I’m crocheting with yarn that was gifted to me at the holidays. It’s a side project.