The National Park Hats Collection
I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to write a blog post about this, but all in good time I guess…
Since I just released the full E-Book of the 2020 National Park Hats Collection, I figured this would be a good time to talk about the collection on here.
Let’s go back to January 2020. I had been mulling over the idea of a collection like this for a while, and I wanted to give myself a new challenge. I’d already designed the Grand Canyon Hat and was getting it ready to release, but I wanted to knit more items inspired by National Parks so I decided that I would launch Grand Canyon as the first in a collection of Hats inspired by National Parks. I’d release one new hat per month.
It was a fun challenge. I was ready for it.
The first month I launched, I had numerous excited emails from fellow National Park Lovers. You all wanted kits to knit these hats too. So I delivered. I started selling the kits each month when I could get the yarn from the distributor, and people were thrilled to be able to knit the hat in the exact colors that inspired me.
And most importantly, it was fun and a great challenge for me as a designer.
Then in the fall of 2020, I realized I wanted to learn to dye yarn. So I got some supplies, and started playing with color. I fell in love with dyeing immediately and decided in 2021 I wanted to create unique colorways to go along with my National Park Hats. The National Park Yarn Subscription club was born.
Now, each month I release a new yarn in an all-American made wool base in a color inspired by a new park. Along with the yarn, I release a unique hat pattern for that park as well. The bases vary in weight each month to fit the pattern I create. I always seek inspiration from a photo of the park and try to emulate the scene I see in the image. It’s a fun way to express my creativity.
Not only that, but I also donate 10% of my profit from the collection both yarn and patterns to the National Parks Foundation which is doing good work in the parks to preserve and protect them for generations to come.
So far, the parks I have included in the collections are as follows:
Collection 2 - 2021:
The entire first year’s E-book is available, and the 2nd Year will be available when the collection is complete.
There is also a subscription program for the yarn only, where subscribers get a monthly sneak peek at the color, free shipping, and early access to the color.
This collection is literally the culmination of a childhood full of National Park adventures mixed with the adult version of me who is both a passionate outdoors-woman and a lover of all things knitty and wooly.
I hope you’ll join me for the adventure!
