Temperature Blanket – Tips for Join As You Go Technique

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!