Hello, Gemma here, bringing you the April temperature recording chart (you can find a link to it below) and confessing to have fallen behind with my blanket! Something had to give over the last month and prioritising my Bohemian Blooms blanket after having neglected it for quite a while seemed like the right thing to do. My poor old hands can't crochet for hours on end these days. The school holidays are approaching though, so I'm hoping for lots of extra time to work on my squares. 

You can download the April temperature chart here.

We've had some crazy fluctuations in temperature this month here in North London, reaching the dizzying heights of 17 degrees celcius back in the second week of March, before dropping back to 7 degrees a few days later.  I'm a couple of weeks behind now on my squares but have been diligently recording the daily temperatures. There's definitely going to be an interesting 'blip' in the colours on the blanket, showing that unusually warm week in the early part of the month. 

If you have been doing the join as you go method with your squares you should now be getting a sense of how large the blanket is going to be as you will be well along your second strip of motifs now (assuming of course, you are keeping up, unlike me!). Here are a couple of progress pics of my blanket so far. I'm a couple of weeks behind, although that only translates into two squares, so when I look at it like that, it's not really a big deal is it?

It's a glorious day today, I have washing blowing on the line outside. It's slightly too windy to be comfortable for working in the garden but the sky is clear and blue, just lovely. I wonder if Emma has her washing out... She mentioned she was looking forward to that in last month's blog. I feel very middle-aged saying it but there's nothing quite like washing that's had a good blow on the line! I think April is one of my favourite months.

Do share pics of your progress on our social media channels and don't forget to use the hashtag #janiecrowtempblanket25 so we can easily find your posts. 

Until next month, happy hooking! 

 
Just blowing in, like a March wind, to say hello, ask how you’re getting on with your temperature blankets and share the March temperature chart download with you.
 
You can find it by clicking here.
 
We love to see your progress - here is a little parade of lovelies that we've collected from facebook and instagram - if you do post on social media, don't forget to tag us in with ##janiecrowtempblanket25

Aren't they just fab?  I love the colour schemes.  

I am hoping I get to use at least Apple Green more in March and maybe even Meadow!  This would mean temperatures up to 13 degrees celsius but more than that would mean I might be able to get some washing dry outside!  That's my first real notion that spring is coming!  

Hello lovelies – how are you getting on with your blanket?  I have to say, a month in, I’m absolutely loving it.  I have been super excited to be able to use a new colour (no, I don’t get out much), French Blue and I too have picked up the join as you go method.  Honestly, if Gemma does it, I want to.  I am annoying like that but also, she is EXCELLENT at crochet.  
 
You’ll need to plan your layout early if you join as you go, so you know which blocks to join where.  Here’s our suggested layout (and “our” is a bit of a stretch – this was ALL Gemma!) 

If you'd like to download the image, just click on it and you can print a version off.

​What you’ll possibly notice first off is that your first “Monthly Average” block – the one with the flower on – gets attached to the 4th block.  In fact, you’ll need ALL of January’s temperatures to make that and so you’ll be part way through making your 5th block before you can make it and attach it.  It all works out, honest!
 
For our sample blanket, we made all the blocks and joined them at the end using double crochet. We used one colour throughout and it makes the join part of the design of the blanket, giving a raised sashing effect. Our yarn usage was based on this method.

​The join with JAYG (look at that, an acronym) is a little different: it has a lovely sort of braided appearance, and each join uses the colour used in the final round of that block so there is no “sashing” effect.  We don’t really know what this will do to yarn usage yet – we’ll keep you posted.

As we mentioned in our last post, we have made some nice videos with join as you go techniques but we have also just made a quick one, especially for our Temperature Blanket team!
 
You can watch that here:

So there we have it, a little bit of a curve ball perhaps but it's always good to have options isn't it?

Have you made plans for your joining yet?  Do you think you'll give this a try?  Let us know!  For now, we hope you're enjoying the project!

We are now officially at the end of the third week of the temperature blanket: it is early days and Gemma and I have had a bit of a chat about how we’re settling into the project.  As it turns out, we have both GONE ROGUE!  What does this mean?  Well it means we’ve made some adjustments to how we are working the project and if we’ve done it we bet you have too!

Emma’s Change
 
I have decided to leave out the increases in Rounds 1, 3 and 5.  Why?  Well, I am not a neat crocheter.  Things do not come from my hook looking attractive and the more stitches I cram in, the less neat things get.  Reader, I found my wavy squares distressing.  Which is of course ridiculous since they block perfectly flat (and we have a lovely tip on blocking in a later blog post – watch this space) but well, why not?  As you know, these blocks are the plain blocks used in the Spirit of Flora project and in order for them to fit the stitch count of the beautiful floral blocks from that project, Jane designed them so that the size and stitch count were the same.  Since we are only using these blocks, we don’t have to worry about stitch count, so long as all blocks are the same, so we can quite happily leave out the increases if we want.  And I want. So that’s that!

​Gemma’s Change
 
Gemma’s is RADICAL!  She has chosen to use the Join As You Go method on her blocks!  If you’re not familiar with this, it’s exactly as the name suggests: you join your blocks together as you go along.  This means you don’t have a big pile of blocks to join together at the end of the year.  So a little bit more work along the way but not too much and no big joining exercise at the end. 

If this is a thing you’re interested in, we are going to focus on that in our next blog post.  If you’d like to continue making your blocks, just make them up to the last round:  don’t complete the final round and you’ll not need to undo anything.  If you’ve already made your blocks but also think that Join as you go is the technique for you, don’t worry, you’ll only need to make minor adjustments on the ones you’ve already made and we’ll cover that in the next post. You can fully complete block number 1 – you always start with one completed block.
 
We’ve made some videos with Join As You Go techniques on our YouTube channel here but again, we plan to make a quick video to show you the exact method Gemma is using and that will be available in a week or so.

So we’ve both made some changes already to make these projects work for us.  We found we’d also got some other little differences:
 
We live relatively close together – less than 80 miles as the crow flies – but our blocks are already different despite using the same colours for the same temperature ranges.  We discussed how we are collecting our temperatures and found those to be different:
 
Emma: using data from the week before and choosing the highest temperature for each day
 
Gemma: recording her temperature in real time at the mid-point of the day
 
The way we are making our blocks is different too: I am making my block at the end of each week.  Sitting and getting it all done in one go.  It’s lovely.

​Gemma is making a round a day – she leaves her yarn attached at the end of each day in case the following day uses the same colour too.   She explained that she likes that little hit of crochet each day as it’s her down time and is so effective in relaxing and grounding her.  So true!  We explore this theme a lot on social media actually and we know that many of us feel just like this.
 
The final thing we discussed was the temperature chart itself – compare and contrast:

​I started mine with every good intention, neatly and ordered.  I feel like this is how I approach all my resolutions.  As you can see, it very quickly went downhill, and now, only 3 weeks in it’s torn and crumpled and the writing is awful!
 
Gemma’s chart is – in her words “my oasis of calm on the chaos of my desk”. It’s truly a thing of beauty: neat and perfect and with (get this) A SPECIAL PEN.  I have such envy.

By the way, for those of you who are super organised you can find the February chart here

Finally, ends.  Now this we agreed on.  We agreed to not pass comment because we are terrible role models and should not be consulted since we have nothing good to tell you about our habits....

​We’d love to hear how you’re getting on – what changes have you made, if any?  How are you collecting your temperatures?  How many colours are you using?  Tell us everything – we are still very open to change, we’re only 3 weeks in after all!

​Happy New Year! Welcome to 2025 and the very first day of the Janie Crow Temperature Blanket project. Lots of you have said you will be joining in with us so we thought we'd pop a quick reminder of what you'll need to begin your own, unique blanket.

Next, you'll need to start recording the daily temperatures for where you are in the world. It doesn't matter particularly how you do this but doing it the same way every day is the main thing. We are using the weather app on our phones to check what the maximum temperature will be for the day. You can log these temperatures any way you prefer but we will be creating a temperature recording chart for each month if you'd like to use it: you can find January's ​here. 

Once you have your yarn organised and your first temperature recorded you are ready to start crocheting! You'll need your 4mm hook (unless the yarn you are using isn't DK, in which case you'll need to use the most appropriate size for your yarn choice) and the patterns, of course!  

We used the free plain motif patterns that were released as part of the Spirit of Flora crochet along and you can find them over on the main Spirit of Flora page on the website here. You'll need to scroll about halfway down the page and you'll find the links for the written patterns under the photos of the third set of Spirit of Flora motifs. The patterns are in UK terms only but there are charts available too, with the key in both UK and US terms. 

​For the weekly blocks we used the pattern for the completely plain square and made the Foundation Round and Round 1 on Day 1 and then worked a single further round on each of the following 6 days.

​The (monthly) floral blocks were made using Saffron for the centre and the petals were made using the yarn shades that represented the lowest and highest temperatures for the month. The rest of the square was made in the colour representing the average monthly temperature. See the image below for guidance:

You might choose to record a week's temperatures and then make your block in one go, or you may decide to work a round every day. It is all about completing the project in a way that works for you! Remember to work out the highest and lowest and average temperatures at the end of the month as you will need these for your floral squares. You'll also need to label your squares as you make them, so you can keep them in the order in which they are made. Small pieces of paper attached to the squares with a safety pin would do the job just fine! 

Later in the year we'll share more on our suggested layout and possible joining methods but in the meantime we hope you'll enjoy making a start on your blanket. Do share your progress on social media using the hashtag #janiecrowtempblanket25 and if you have any questions just ask, we'll be more than happy to help! 

Now all that remains is for you to get started! 
​
Bye for now! 
​
Emma & Gemma xx

​How to allocate days to the rounds: 

For the weekly blocks we used the pattern for the completely plain square and made the Foundation Round and Round 1 on Day 1 and then worked a single further round on each of the following 6 days.

​The (monthly) floral blocks were made using Saffron for the centre and the petals were made using the yarn shades that represented the lowest and highest temperatures for the month. The rest of the square was made in the colour representing the average monthly temperature. See the image below for guidance:

Get started! 
If you fancy making your own temperature blanket next year we will be posting regular help and advice here on the blog and on our social media channels.

If you would like to join in, remember to start recording your temperatures from the 1st January 2025. You might choose to record a week's temperatures and then make your block in one go, or you may decide to work a round every day. It is all about completing the project in a way that works for you!

We will be posting more as new temperature blankets take shape and we'd love to share some of your progress too, so please post your photos on social media and remember to tag them with #janiecrowtempblanket25

So what do you think?  Are you in? Drop us a comment below if you plan to take part and of course, do ask any questions as we'd love to get them all answered before we start!

HAVE FUN!

Emma & Gemma
xx