Yarn Line Celebrates the National Parks

I received word recently about an interesting project that I thought some of you might be interested in.

Knitting Our National Parks, a project at Indie Untangled, is bringing together indie dyers to create colorways inspired by photos of the national parks from the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Instagram feed, with 10 perecent of sales donated to the National Park Foundation.

A new color will launch every other month. The project kicked off with yarn dyed by Alice O’Reilly of Backyard Fiberworks inspired by a photo of North Cascades National Park in Washington State. Preorders for the first colorway run through June 30, with the next color by Pigeonroof Studios released at the beginning of August. Other dyers signed on include Jill Draper Makes Stuff, Duck Duck Wool and Canon Hand Dyes.

The yarn is a 100 percent Merino superwash sportweight yarn and runs 328 yards. It retails (this month, anyway) for $26.

It’s a beautiful project for a great cause, so check it out if you’re a nature-loving knitter!

[Photo: Indie Untangled.]

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Sometimes I feel like knitters get intimidated to try new things because they think they need to start with a big project. Your first time working in the round doesn’t need to be a sock, and your first colorwork doesn’t need to be a sweater, for example. You can find little projects that use the skills you want to learn to build your confidence before you move on to something that requires more time commitment.

This adorable knit bunny, for example.

The colorwork bunny from Knit Picks was designed by Amy Munson and is a kind of bowling pin shaped bunny complete with a knit hat, contrasting inner ears and a little stranded colorwork on its body. Note that the ears are attached the the hat not the bunny, but you could stitch them to the bunny if you’d rather.

It’s worked from the bottom up and also has a tiny pompom tail you can’t see in the picture but it’s a really cute touch. There are a variety of little fair isle patterns to choose from to make the best bunny for you.

The bunny comes out about 8 inches tall (or just over 20 cm) and use several colors to complete the colorwork, depending on the design you choose.

You can purchase the pattern by itself from Knit Picks, or make a kit that includes sport weight yarn in all the colors you need for your creation. There are gray and brown options for the main body of the bunny, but of course if you’re using your own yarn you can make it whatever color you like.

Once you’ve tried colorwork (maybe also working in the round and shaping if those are skills you haven’t used before) in a little project like this you’ll be ready to take on something bigger in no time.

Check out the pattern on Knit Picks.

[Photo: Knit Picks]

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