National Parks

Projects continue on the edge between success and failure.  A hat came out slightly too small.  A poof (something like a little beanbag chair)  needs more stuffing.  The monthly Sherlock Holmes blanket square was meant to use up leftover worsted weight yarn.  To my surprise, I didn’t have anywhere near enough for the project.  The hooded vest is going okay, but it is almost too warm to think of wearing it.  Ditto the stripey hat whose yarn arrived this week.  The sweater I was avoiding working on continues to be avoided.

This created a space for a new project to appear.  I watch a lot of PBS.  I’m old and it is the law.  Part of this old stuff is that I am much better at sitting down than I am at walking around.  I had hoped I would get to visit a bunch of National Parks after retirement.  It really wouldn’t be a good idea to try a lot of walking around, so I needed a way to do it sitting down.  PBS is doing one of their fund raving things.  Among donation gifts was Ken Burns’ National Park documentary. Donation made, DVDs on the way. I have some more National Parks videos to watch in the meantime.  They are on this old stuff called videotape.  I actually have a machine that will play them.

Now the knitting portion of the project.  Knitted Wit has been doing a series of yarns inspired by the Parks.  I have a few and ordered a couple more.  A quick Google of national park yarns came up with a few things.   Lion Brand has some yarns in their Heartland line that fit the theme.  The big surprise was Indie Untangled’s Knitting Our National Parks.  This is something that has been going on for nearly two years.  Independent dyers use gorgeous photographs from the Park Service as inspiration for colorways.  I am on the mailing list for notifications of upcoming colorways.

Looks like this is all good except for more socks.  Maybe I can use some old socks for poof stuffing.