Pattern Inspiration:

This year, 2016, is the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. Smart Knits - a knitting group out of Logan, Utah - thought that a great way to celebrate the National Park Service and the sublime lands that it protects was to design a National Parks blanket. The blanket is made up of 60 blanket squares - one to celebrate each of the 59 National Parks and one square to celebrate the National Park Service itself.

Everglades National Park -- 1.5 million acres at the southern tip of Florida -- was the first of the national parks to be designated in order to preserve a fragile ecosystem, rather than a geographic feature. Expansive mangrove swamps and sawgrass prairies harbor a huge variety of wetland animals, birds, fish, and plants, including 36 threatened or protected species. This square uses stitch techniques to mimic the texture on the back of an American alligator, the most iconic keystone species in the Everglades. Alligators can be brown, olive, gray, or black, so any of these colors would make a realistic Everglades square (pink and turquoise alligators are also fabulous, although less true to nature).

This Pattern:

If you purchase this pattern, you will receive only the pattern for the Everglades National Park blanket square. If you would like to purchase a subscription to all of the blanket squares please buy the eBook.

All proceeds from this pattern will be donated to the National Park Foundation in celebration of the National Park Service Centennial.