Using Red Heart so that I can machine wash it and then also I won’t get upset if the cats get on it.

I’ll going to use the high for each day. My temperature range for Columbia, South Carolina (“Famously Hot”, more like disgustingly hot):

+100 Burgundy
90-99 Cherry Red
80-89 Bright Orange
70-79 Bright Yellow
60-69 Spring Green
50-59 Real Teal
40-49 Blue
30-39 Medium Purple
20-29 Dark Orchid

If the high is ever in the teens (extremely unlikely), then I’ll use Dark Orchid for that too. I’m expecting a very red/orange blanket. My mom is doing one in Charleston, so this’ll be fun to knit along with her.

Casting on 270 stitches for a full size blanket. Using size 8 needles, yarn label says ~4.25 st/in, resulting in a 63 inch wide blanket for 270 stitches. Knitting two knit rows per day to complete “one garter row” should give 365x2=730 rows, and with label estimate of 5.75 rows/inch, a length of ~127 inches, or ~10.5 ft.

I’m starting on Jan. 13th, but using accuweather.com’s calendar feature to easily get the high temps from the last two weeks.

UPDATE:
I cast off the blanket on January 1, 2019 and single crocheted a border in black yarn around it. I am so pleased with how it turned out. When we leave Columbia in 2020, it’ll be a nice memento of living in this incredibly hot city.

It is surprisingly soft for being Red Heart and ended up fitting on my queen size bed very well end though I did the gauge calculations for a full size, maybe that’s just the drape of garter stitch.

I don’t have the total number of skeins used. I bought one of each of the colors listed above initially, but clearly I went through way more red and orange than any other color. I’m not a fan of synthetic yarn and didn’t want to end up with unused skeins, so I replenished them one at a time from my local Jo-Ann as needed. I “think” I used 3 or 4 red skeins total.

An afterthought on finishing that might be helpful:
I carried the colors along the edge to avoid having to weave in any ends. I did cut the yarn if I hadn’t used the color in a long time (for example, during our extremely long summer which goes from April to October, LOL). This made it very easy to finish the blanket when I crocheted the border on, as I just crocheted over the edge, laying any cut yarn strands flat. It was really great to cast off and just crochet the border and I was DONE. I know people that cut every time they changed color and the actual torture of dealing with the fringe after can turn you into a maniac. Don’t do this to yourself. Just carry the yarn along the edge. I kept the blanket and attached yarn balls in a very large canvas tote bag and it was not a hassle.