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.]

If your family is the sort to do a turkey trot for Thanksgiving, or even just to take family pictures, you’ll want to get started knitting up some Turkey Sack Hats with this pattern from Underground Crafter.

The pattern uses super bulky yarn and is rated easy. It’s knit flat but there are a few skills in here around the shaping of the eyes, which includes changing colors, working bobbles and doing a wicked purl 3 together decrease. Twice.

But that’s all in one row, and the rest of it is pretty simple. The beak is worked separately and sewn on, and the side of the hat is stitched up to make it into a hat.

What’s great about this one is that it comes in 10 sizes, ranging from newborn to adult large, so you really can make one for everyone in the family. And because it uses super bulky yarn you can knit a bunch pretty quickly if that’s a thing you’d like to do.

It’s also fun because you could use this base pattern to make different animals or for different holidays. Make it all in orange and stitch on a jack o’lantern face for Halloween, or make a white one that’s a snowman, for example.

In any style this would also be a fun gag gift for that person in your life who has everything or doesn’t want gifts, or if you do a secret Santa or white elephant gift exchange at work or elsewhere.

And make sure whether you’re making it a turkey or some other character that you include the pom poms at the top! They’re just so cure and a great way to add a bit more color to the project, and they’re easy to make. (See also: ways to make a pompom with yarn.)

You can grab the free pattern at the Underground Crafter website.

[Photo: Underground Crafter]

Comments

Have you read?