Reality and Rebirth
Temperature Blanket Alternatives
Temperature blankets are crochet/knit blankets (among other projects) that track the temperature over a year using a range of yarn colors. There are many variations, but, typically, a temperature blanket will look like a gradient of stripes. I like the explanation given on this temperature blanket planning tool!
I've wanted to make a temperature blanket for a while now… except I don't want to commit to a year of daily knitting, and I haven't actually knit in years, and I don't really do any other crafts that are appropriate for a year-long daily project, and tracking the temperature stresses me out…
This page is for me, and people like me, who like the idea of tracking data through an art project, but don't want to make a temperature blanket specifically. Here, I've come up with as many alternatives and variations as I can think of, while giving you ideas to come up with your own.
Part of my inspiration for this page was this article about a woman who knit a scarf tracking how late her train was during her commute
So! You want to make a "temperature blanket", but…
…"I don't want to make a blanket."
If you're still interested in a crochet or knit project, and you still want to track the temperature, you can make a sweater, scarves, a shawl, socks… you might have to shorten the timeframe, though. A year of daily temperature might be a little much for a hat; what about a hat that tracks a month?
Most of the ideas I cover in this page are for items that are not blankets, as I cover a multitude of craft and other art mediums that might not be suitable for making a blanket. So if you don't want to make a blanket, you're in luck–there's a whole world of possibilities out there!
…"I don't want to commit to a year."
Track the temperature–or whatever data you're tracking–for a month, or two months, or any span of time you want, just choose a project that doesn't need a year of work on it. You can make something small that covers the temperature over a week!
…"I don't want to work on it daily."
Totally fine; it's very difficult to commit to doing something every day, and, frankly, most of us don't have the time for that. Maybe you only knit a row if the temperature hits a certain threshold. Maybe you knit a week's worth of daily temperature at once. Maybe you're tracking something that doesn't happen every day. Lots of options here.
…"I don't want to track temperature."
Here's what I'm excited to write about: tracking data that isn't temperature.
Like I said, tracking temperature stresses me out. It's bad enough that I have to live through an unreasonably hot day, much less create a permanent record of it. So I've spent a lot of time thinking about data to track that doesn't stress me out as much. Here are some ideas:
Natural phenomena! You can track the weather, from clear to cloudy to rain. You can track pollen levels, the air quality index, or something else that might be on your weather app. You can track global seismic activity. You can track solar eclipses! Not all of these happen daily, so adjust your project as necessary.
Sports statistics! You can track the win/loss record of your favorite sports team, or the performance of a specific player. Again, I'm pretty sure most sports don't happen daily, so adjust your project to account for that, but if you're into sports, or are making a gift for someone who is, this is a pretty good option.
Your own statistics! Your mood log can be tracked through a project like this. You can track how many words you've written in a day, how many art pieces you've drawn in a month, or anything else related to your creative output, though it might get complicated if it becomes self-referential. Or a physical goal; could you track how many steps you take in a day/week/etc?
You probably want something with a degree of randomness or fluctuation; tracking global solar eclipses is a fun idea, but you might not want to make the same thing for each solar eclipse, right? Like the fluctuations of temperature, you can use different colors/patterns/styles/etc. depending on the type or duration of solar eclipse. Keep this in mind; while I'm sure you can make something work by tracking a binary on/off switch, that might not be what drew you to temperature blanket alternatives in the first place.
There's a handful of example project ideas at the bottom of this page, so take a look through them and see what appeals to you.
…"I don't want to crochet or knit."
Another part I'm excited to write about! I haven't knit in years, and my other habits have made it so I'm afraid to start again in case I damage my wrists. My craft of choice is fuse beads, but fuse bead projects aren't really suitable for something worked on daily in small increments. So I try to choose something to track that's more suitable for something assembled from larger "blocks," of a sort. Here's a quick overview of some mediums I've thought of, and what you can track with them.
Quilting is a fun medium to create in; one quilted block can represent one event or chunk of time. Or you can have blocks made up of squares, each representing one day, for something you track daily.
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…"I don't want to do a physical craft."
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Examples
Make a quilt block for the solar eclipses that occur globally within a decade (or shorter? Longer?), then assemble them into a full quilt. The good news is that you don't have to wait a decade to finish this project, as past, present, and future eclipses are tracked on Nasa's website. A quilt to track the number and type of solar eclipses within a person's lifetime could be a fun gift to make for someone!