Quick Guide to Starting a Temperature Project
Are you thinking of starting a temperature project this year? Maybe you’ve seen some amazing projects floating around the internet and want to know what all the hype is about. Awesome! I’m glad you’re here! There’s a LOT to consider when starting this kind of project and you might be feeling a little overwhelmed already, but don’t worry. In this quick guide to starting a temperature project, we’ll cover everything you need to get started!
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Quick Guide to Starting a Temperature Project
1. Pick your project
Before we delve into all the planning, you need to know what you want to make. Most typically people think of blankets, but there’s TONS of different options and variations.
You need to pick a project you won’t get bored with. I cannot stress how important this is. The goal is to have fun and finish so if you know you hate working the same stitch over and over, maybe a single crochet blanket isn’t the way to go.
If you’re not sure what you want to make, check out this article: 5 Non-Traditional Temperature Project Ideas (That You Can Actually Finish)
2. Pick Your Colors / Pick Your Yarn
While there’s a ton of rainbow temp projects floating around the internet, you definitely don’t have to use rainbow colors. I chose a palette of blues and greens for my 2022 temp snake since I happen to love all those colors.
If you’re not good at picking colors, I highly recommend going on Pinterest and searching ‘color palettes.’ You can even narrow it down if you have a particular aesthetic you like. For example, ‘winter color palettes’ or ‘bold color palettes.’
For my 2023 temp snake project, I found this palette on Pinterest and used it as inspiration to pick out similar yarn colors.
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Pick between 7 and 10 colors, but keep in mind we might narrow these down later.
Once you have an idea of what colors you want, now comes the hard part. Picking yarn.
Ideally, you want to choose a yarn line you (1) love, (2) have easy/affordable access to, (3) comes in the colors you want.
This doesn’t sound hard, but you’d be surprised how many popular yarn lines only come in a few colors or aren’t available half the time.
I used We Crochet’s Wool of the Andes Worsted (affiliate link) which has 100 different colors. My only gripe with this yarn is that each skein only has 110yds. Which was fine for my snake, but if you’re doing a larger project, you need to make sure to get a few of each color you’re using.
And I HIGHLY recommend buying extras of each color because you never know when a yarn line (or color) will be discontinued and dye lots can differ drastically.
But before you click ‘Buy’ on that yarn, make sure you’re getting what you actually need.
3. Assign each color a temperature range
Once you have a general idea of which colors and yarns you’ll be using, it’s time to check the weather.
If you’ve lived in your area for a while, you probably have a good idea of the general weather trends, but if not, you’ll have to look it up.
Save this website: wunderground.com
At the top, click on the ‘More’ tab and click ‘Historical Weather.’ It’ll take you to a page where you can enter your location and the date you want.
From there you can check out date ranges and find out the general weather trends of your area.
If you live in an area that stays in a generally small temperature range (always hot or cold), you might break your colors into 3-5 degree increments.
If you live in a place with wildly fluctuating temperature ranges (*cough* Texas *cough*), you might want to do 5-8 degree increments (and possibly more colors).
I did 10 degree increments with my 2022 temp snake and I think it was too broad of a range because I have several long sections of the same color. But this whole thing is a learning process, so try not to get bogged down in picking the ‘perfect’ range.
I recommend using a notebook or note card to write down your ranges and then assigning each color to a range.
Once you have all this ironed out, click ‘buy’ and gather the yarn you’ll be using.
4. Stay Organized
Everyone has their own method of organization, but I HIGHLY recommend getting a project bag or small bin that you can dedicate solely to this project.
By keeping all your yarn, your note card and your hook together all the time, you won’t accidentally use these for another project. You won’t forget what size hook you were using, etc…
I just used this cheap plastic storage bin from the dollar store, but if you have pets or toddlers, you might want to get a container with a lid. Make sure it’s a container that can fit your as it gets bigger and bigger.
5. Stay motivated with a plan
Here’s where I think a LOT of us struggle. A year is a long time to work on a single project and it can seem pretty overwhelming. You might be wondering how the heck you’ll keep up or remember to check the weather every day.
And yeah, looking at it that way, it IS overwhelming. So let’s take a different approach.
- 1 month at a time: this is a long project, so break it into smaller chunks and only worry about 1 month at a time.
- You don’t have to check the weather every day: the absolutely beautiful thing about wunderground.com is that you can check the high, low, & average temp of any day. So when you’re ready to work, just look up the days you missed!
- Batch your rows: instead of working 1 row a day, why not wait until the end of the week or month, look up all your temps, and then spend an afternoon working them all at once. (This is GREAT for projects with short rows like my snake, but not so great for projects with long rows like a blanket. For long rows, I suggest batching once a week.)
With all these things in mind, figure out what kind of system will work best for you.
And remember it’s OKAY if you get behind. It happens. Do your best to catch up without overwhelming yourself.
For example, I was 3 months behind on my temp snake, so instead of trying to do like 90 rows in one weekend, I worked on 1 month at a time over the course of a few weekends.
Wrap Up
Are you itching to get started on your temperature project this year? I hope so! If you enjoyed this article, be sure to Pin it for later and share it with your crafty friends!
Remember that this kind of project is all about you and how you want to make it. It’ll be as unique and awesome as you are! If you want to share your project with me on social media, I’d love to see it! Tag me @cbfiberworks on Facebook or Instagram.