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Book Review: Knitting the National Parks

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America’s National Parks have inspired artists and regular folks as long as they have existed, and Nancy Bates found inspiration from the parks for her knit hat collection Knitting the National Parks.

The book includes mostly colorwork hat patterns for each of 63 national parks, from the well known (Yosemite, Arches, the Petrified Forest) to the obscure (Isle Royale, Kobuk Valley, Voyageurs).

Each hat includes design elements drawn from the park itself, such as the pink bands of pegmatite found amid the darker rocks of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, or the ancient bristlecone pine tress of Great Basin.

Embellishments like bobbles, textured stitches and surface embroidery add more details to many of the hats.

These patterns are best for intermediate knitters because of all the colorwork and the fact that all patterns are charted. Almost all of the hats call for worsted weight yarn, and while many of the hats use between two and four colors, there are several that use more. (You can see many of the patterns on her website.)

The notes for each pattern explain what inspired it. Out of the context of the book, though, these are just nice hat patterns that don’t always read like they were inspired by a park. Acadia’s birch-patterned hat could be a blue sky with clouds if worked in another colorway, for example, while Wind Cave’s calcite formations look like animal print.

These hats are a great opportunity to plan with colorwork and other design elements even if the hat you like isn’t tied to a park you’ve been to. And learning more about the parks might just inspire a bit of wanderlust as you plan your next national park outing. Just don’t forget to pack your knitting!

About the Book: 272 pages, hardcover, 63 patterns. Published August 2022, Weldon Owen. Retail price $35.

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Comments

  1. This is the first book I’ve paid RETAIL for in years. I love it. So many choices, such pretty patterns. Most of the kits [and there are not kits for every park yet] are sold out, which is too bad. Kits are $36/each. I plan on making some for various friends/family over the years.

Have you read?

Krampus Sweater Knitting Pattern

Santa and Saint Nicholas generally get all the good press, but Central European kids know you don’t want to just be good so you get presents from St. Nicholas; you also want to avoid the ire of Krampus. (He’s depicted as a human-like figure with horns and usually hairy or furry who gives birch rods instead of gifts to kids who are bad.)

If you’re the type to embrace the naughty side (or you just want to scare the children into good behavior over the holidays), maybe you’ll want to knit a Krampus sweater.  

This one, from Sofie Amalie Laulund, is a top down circular yoke sweater with Krampus faces at the top and cavorting Krampuses further down the body, with some traditional Scandinavian snowflakes thrown in for fun. 

Because of the large motifs there’s not a lot of room for adjusting the fit, but it is available in five sizes (the Ravelry page doesn’t say what the sizing is, and it says its worked with no ease but the photo looks like the sweater has a bit of positive ease, so if you decide to make this one just check the measurements and your own comfort level for ease when picking a size). 

It also uses five colors, but there’s very little red and brown so you can probably use scrap yarn for those parts. It calls for DK weight yarn. You’ll want a background color that helps the creatures stand out. You could also work the snowflake bands in different colors if you want to mix it up. 

The pattern is available in both English and Danish, and you can find it on Ravelry. This is the designer’s first pattern, which kudos to them because it’s such an ambitious (and fun!) project I’m happy to add to my collection of whimsy-filled knits. 

[Photo: Sofie Amalie Laulund]