Temperature Blanket

About the Project Planner

The Project Planner at temperature-blanket.com is a tool for planning a crocheted or knitted project which incorporates weather data into its design. If you don’t know what a temperature blanket is, you can learn more here: What is a Temperature Blanket?

If you are only looking to search for or match yarn colorways, use the stand-alone tool at temperature-blanket.com/yarn-colorway-finder.

Save Project

When you save a project, a shareable URL is created, and the project is saved in your browser's local storage. This web app does not store your project in a backend database. This means:

• There’s no need to set up an account in order to save your project
• You must save the project’s URL somewhere if you want to share the project or open it in a different browser.

To save your project, press the Save button at the top of the page. The project will be saved in your browser, and the project’s URL will be shown. Press Copy URL to copy the URL to your clipboard. If you want to share your project or open it in a different browser, make sure to save the URL in a place you can find it again later. You can also use the following keyboard shortcut to save your project:

If you create a Project Gallery Page, your project is saved to a backend database, and you can re-open your project from its Project Gallery Page.

Open Project

Recently saved projects are stored in your browser’s local storage. Open the menu and select a project to load it’s settings and weather data.

You can also open any project by pasting the project’s URL in your browser’s address bar and opening the webpage. Press Search, and the project settings and weather data will be loaded.

Change Units

To change your project’s units between metric and imperial, from the top bar select °C / mm or °F / in. On smaller screens, press the three-dot menu icon, then choose your Units selection. On the Project Planner you can also use the following keyboard shortcut:

Change Theme

To choose a theme for this site, press the Theme Switcher Icon, then select a theme in Light, Dark, or System mode. The System option will follow the light or dark preference of your device. On smaller screens, press the menu icon, then select the Theme Switcher button to change the theme. In the Project Planner, you can also use the following keyboard shortcut:

Navigation

To quickly jump between different sections of the page, press the name of the section at the bottom of the page. You can also use the following keyboard shortcuts:

Undo/Redo

To undo or redo any previous edit to your project, press the Undo or Redo buttons at the top of the page. You can also use the following keyboard shortcuts:

Choose a Location

Type a city, place, region, or landmark in the Location search box, then select a result from the autocomplete list.

Select Dates

For your location’s Duration, select either One Year or Custom.

• One Year – Select a Year, Month, and Day. The location’s weather data will start from that date and end one year later.
• Custom – Choose any From and To dates for the location’s weather data.

Multiple Locations

If you want to include weather data from multiple locations, press the Add Location button.

To remove a location, press the Remove Location icon.

Location Errors

When you type your location in the search box, you might get a message saying:

“Whoah! There’s been a problem. It appears the location-fetching service is experiencing technical difficulties. You can refresh this webpage to see if the error has been resolved. If that doesn’t work, try again later. Sorry for the inconvenience.

This issue is caused when temperature-blanket.com can’t get location suggestion results from geonames.org. You can try refreshing the page, and if the error keeps occurring, try again later.

Weather Sources

Sometimes one weather service may not have data for your location. Changing weather sources can let you see different weather data. Often the differences are minimal, but because of the particular ways weather services collect and interpret data, sometimes there are significant differences.

• Meteostat – The Meteostat platform provides access to open data from thousands of weather stations world-wide. Measurements from the nearest stations are combined to produce an interpolated result. Weather data from Meteostat is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0, with raw data provided by NOAA, DWD and others.
• Open-Meteo – The Open-Meteo database contains more than 60 years of weather data from a variety of open sources, including data from the Copernicus Program. Weather data from Open-Meteo is licensed under Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), and includes data from the Copernicus Program.

Daytime length calculations are by SunCalc licensed under BSD 2.

If your project has missing or incorrect weather data, you can also edit the weather data.

Get Weather Data

Once you’ve selected a location and dates, press the Search button to get weather data for your project. A request will be made to the weather source, and if there’s weather data available, it will be shown to you.

Grouping Weather Data

You can use daily weather data, or group it into weeks. Using weekly weather data can make your project shorter.

• Daily – Each day shows its own individual temperature, rain, snow, and daytime values.
• Weekly – Days are grouped into weeks which start on the day set from the Weeks Start On setting. The weather data for each week is calculated according to the following:
  • High Temperature – The highest temperature of the week
  • Average Temperature – The average temperature of the days in the week
  • Low Temperature – The lowest temperature of the week
  • Rain – The sum of rainfall of the days in the week
  • Snow – The sum of snowfall of the days in the week
  • Sun – The average daytime of the days in the week

View Weather Data

An overview of your project’s weather data is shown in a chart.

To view an individual day’s weather data, select Table or Details below the weather chart.

• Table – Browse a table of weather data. Press a header label to sort the results.
• Details – Press the Previous or Next arrow icons, move the range slider, or press a point on the weather chart to navigate to a date and view its weather data and color details.

Edit Weather Data

To edit weather data, your project’s weather grouping must be Daily, not Weekly. To edit weather data, press the value you want to change in the table under the weather chart. A modal will open where you can save the new value.

If you want to edit many values, it may be easier to work with the data in a spreadsheet:

• - Download your project’s weather data CSV file
• - Open the CSV file with a spreadsheet program (for example Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers, or Google Sheets).
• - Edit the weather data you want to change, then export the document as a CSV file
• - Import the new CSV file into your project

Edited weather data is saved to your browser when you save your project. If you want to open your project in another browser, make sure to download your project’s weather data CSV file so you can import the CSV file to your project in that browser.

Import Weather Data

To import weather data, press the Import Weather Data button; a modal will open where you can upload the CSV weather data file, then press Import to load the weather data into your project. Note that your project’s weather grouping must be Daily, not Weekly.

CSV File Requirements

It’s simplest to download your project’s weather data CSV file and use that as a starting point for editing weather data.

But you can also import any CSV file with custom weather data (for example data from another weather source) as long as the file conforms to the following requirements:

Row 1 must contain the following two column headings:

• Date – Values in the Date column should be in the format of YYYY-MM-DD for best results, and must be in the range of dates selected for your project. Dates in the CSV file which are not dates selected for your project will be ignored.
• Location Index – Values in the Location Index column should be“0” (that’s a zero without the quotation marks) unless your project has more than one location. If your project has more than one location, the value should be the number of the location for which the date corresponds (0 is the first location, 1 is the second location, 2 is the third location, and so on).

Row 1 must contain any or all of the following weather data column headings. Use only column headings corresponding to your chosen units. Only columns with headings matching the following will be changed; other existing weather data will not be changed. Note the parentheses, spaces, symbols, and units.

• High Temperature (°F) or High Temperature (°C)
• Average Temperature (°F) or Average Temperature (°C)
• Low Temperature (°F) or Low Temperature (°C)
• Rain (in) or Rain (mm)
• Snow (in) or Snow (in)
• Daytime (h:m)

Values in the Daytime (h:m) column must be in the format of hours:minutes. For example, 08:12 means eight hours and twelve minutes..

For best results, save the CSV file with UTF-8 encoding.

Weather Errors

When you press the Search button, you might get a message saying:

Weather data not found. Please try a different location or dates.

If so, you’ll have to try to search again with a different location and/or selected dates.

• - Make sure your selected dates are in the past, not the future.
• - If your selected dates are from before about 1980, try more recent dates.
• - Try a different nearby location

Mixed Snow Parameters

Sometimes there might be a label below the Total Snowfall weather data which says Error: Mixed Parameters. This happens when there are multiple locations and multiple weather sources (Meteostat and Open-Meteo). The snow parameter from Meteostat measures the highest snow depth, and the snow parameter from Open-Meteo measures the total snowfall. When this data is combined—as happens in some cases when there are multiple locations and mixed weather sources—the Meteostat snow depth data gets treated as snowfall data instead, so the total snowfall amount will not be accurate. To get rid of the error message, make sure the weather source is Open-Meteo for all locations by changing the Weather Source to Open-Meteo (and optionally disabling the use of other weather sources if no data is found). There is currently no other way to prevent this issue. You can make projects with mixed snow parameters, just know that the snow data types will not be consistent.

Add a Gauge

By default, every project has a Temperature Gauge, but you can also add other types of gauges in order to incorporate different types of weather data in your project. To add a gauge, press Select a Gauge, then select one of the available options.

Gauges you can create are:

• Temperature gauge (required)
• Rain gauge
• Snow gauge
• Daytime gauge

Gauge Direction

To change the direction of a gauge, press the Settings button, choose High to Low or Low to High, then press Save Settings.

• High to Low – Starting from the highest value, ranges decrease in value for each subsequent color.
• Low to High – Starting from the lowest value, ranges increase in value for each subsequent color.

Range Calculation Methods

There are four possible options used to determine which range a day’s weather value gets assigned to. Each method handles the inclusion or exclusion of specific temperature values differently.

1. Include From, don’t include To (default): This method considers the temperature values starting from the specified From value, up to, but excluding, the specified To value. For example, if you set the range from 30 to 20 degrees, the range will include temperatures equal to or greater than 20 degrees, but not temperatures equal to or greater than 30 degrees. Ranges in a gauge using this method could look like this: 30 to 20, 20 to 10, 10 to 0…
2. Include To, don’t include From: In contrast to the previous method, this approach includes temperature values up to and including the specified To value, but excludes temperatures equal to or less than the specified From value. For instance, if you set the range from 30 to 20 degrees, the calculation will include temperatures less than or equal to 30 degrees, but not temperatures less than or equal to 20 degrees. Ranges in a gauge using this method could look like this: 30 to 20, 20 to 10, 10 to 0…
3. Include both From and To: This method includes temperature values starting from the specified From value and includes temperatures up to and including the specified To value. If you set the range from 30 to 20 degrees, the calculation will include temperatures equal to or greater than 20 degrees and temperatures equal to or less than 30 degrees. Ranges in a gauge using this method could look like this: 30 to 20.01, 20 to 10.01, 10 to 0.01…
4. Don’t include From and To: As the name suggests, this method excludes both the specified From and To values from the calculation. If you set the range from 20 to 30 degrees, the calculation will exclude temperatures equal to or less than 20 degrees and temperatures equal to or greater than 30 degrees. Ranges in a gauge using this method could look like this: 30.01 to 20, 20.01 to 10, 10.01 to 0…

Here’s a table showing which values would be included in an example range from 13 degrees to 12 degrees.

Increment Modes

A range increment is the difference between the highest and lowest values in a range.

• Automatic – Each range’s increment is automatically chosen based on your weather data. The maximum and minimum weather data values for the gauge are used to calculate increments which fit the number of colors.
  • Round Increment – This option is available if an auto-calculated increment has decimals. Choose this option to avoid decimals in ranges’ From and To values.
• Manual – Set an increment value and a start value. Based on the Direction and the number of colors in your gauge, each range will be set using your increment value.

Adjust Ranges

To adjust an individual color’s range: select the Range; adjust the From and To values using the input fields, plus and minus buttons, or the range sliders; then press Save Range.

Preset Colors

To browse collection of preset colors to use in your project, press Browse Palettes. Then select a Category and change the filters to see different color combinations. Select the palette to use it in your project. The categories are as follows:

• All – User-made color palettes
• Featured – Popular user-made color palettes
• Schemes – Color schemes based on ColorBrewer2.org by Cynthia A. Brewer, Geography, Pennsylvania State University, licenced under Apache 2. 

Image Palette

To create a palette of colors from an image, press the Image Palette button. Use a random image (from unsplash.com), or upload your own image. Click or tap the picture to select colors. Rearrange them or remove unwanted colors, then press Save to use the palette in your project.

Import/Export

To import a color palette, press Import / Export, type color names or paste a valid code or URL, then press Use These Colors.

To export a color palette, press Import / Export, then press Copy Palette Code. Share or paste the copied text somewhere you can find it later.

Sort Colors

To move a color in a palette, press the drag icon on the color and drag it to a new position in your gauge. You can also sort colors by pressing the Sort button, then choosing an option to sort all the colors by lightness or name. You can also reverse all the colors by pressing Reverse.

Getting Yarn Colorway Data

This web app uses color approximations of real yarn colorways in order to display them as colors on your screen.

The process used to convert a real yarn colorway into a color on your screen is as follows:

1. - An image of the colorway is found (usually from the brand or manufacture’s website).
2. - A unobstructed area of the image showing as much color-variance as possible within that yarn colorway is chosen.
3. - From the selected part of the image, the average color is generated as an HTML color code.
4. - The HTML color code, colorway name, and link to the colorway’s webpage is saved in a database which this web apps uses to display the colorway data.

Choose Yarn Colorways

To pick yarn colorways to use in your project, press the Choose Colorways button. Select the colorways you want to use, choose to add them to your existing palette or to create a new palette, then press Use These Colorways.

Link Unavailable

A yarn that says Link Unavailable means the webpage from which the colorways were accessed is no longer available. Yarns whos links are unavailable will remain on this web app for legacy purposes, but links to the yarn and its colorways will not work.

A yarn with unavailable links could mean:

• - The yarn has been discontinued
• - The yarn has been renamed
• - The yarn’s website has been re-designed and old links no longer exist

Create a Preview

To view and customize what your project might look like, select a Pattern Type and adjust the settings. These are the different pattern types which you can use to customize your preview:

• Calendar – Squares are arranged in a calendar-like grid, grouped by month.
• Chevrons – Zig-zag rows of stitches
• Continuous Square – Starting from the center, stitches are added in a clockwise square pattern. Possible crochet patterns: Granny Square, Moss Stitch/Linen Stitch Square.
• Corner to Corner – Lines are added in a back-and-forth pattern starting from the bottom right.
• Daytime Rows – Each row is split according to the duration of sunlight that day. Daytime stitches = d × r ∕ 24. Night stitches = r − Daytime stitches. d = Daytime (time from the day’s sunrise to sunset in hours). r is the total stitches per row. 24 is the number of hours in a day.
• Month Rows – Rows are grouped by month from top to bottom or left to right. Months with fewer days have extra rows added, so that each month has the same number of rows.
• Month Squares – Each square represents one month. Each round in a square represents one day, starting with the first of the month in the center of the square. Months with fewer days have extra rounds added, so that each square has the same number of rounds.
• Rows – Straight rows of stitches
• Split Month Squares – Each square represents one month. Each round in a square represents one day, starting with the first of the month in the center of the square. Each round is split in half to represent two different weather parameters. Months with fewer days have extra rounds added, so that each square has the same number of rounds.
• Squares – Each square represents one day.

Share to Gallery

If you choose, you can share your project in the Project Gallery. Press the Share to Gallery button, and wait for your project to be sent.

When you create a Project Gallery Page:

• - You can find and re-open your project later without having to remember to store the project URL somewhere
• - Your project gets it’s own shareable overview page
• - Other people can find your project and create their own variations
• - If you created a custom color palette, the palette will be available for others to use

Download Gauges and Weather Data (PDF)

To download your color charts and weather data as a PDF file, press the three-dot menu icon, press the Download button, then press the Color Charts and Weather Data (PDF) button. You can also open the download menu by using the following keyboard shortcut:

Download Weather Data (CSV)

To download a CSV file with your project’s weather data, press the three-dot menu icon, press Download, then press Weather Data (CSV). You can also open the download menu by using the following keyboard shortcut:

Download Preview Image (PNG)

To download a PNG file of your project’s preview image, press the three-dot menu icon, press Download, then press Preview Image (PNG). You can also open the download menu by using the following keyboard shortcut: