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.

Lake Clark National Park & Preserve is a stunning landscape of active volcanoes, scenic mountains, turquoise lakes, running salmon, and abundant wildlife. Proclaimed a national monument in 1978 and designated a national park with the passage of the Alaska National Interest Conservation Lands Act in 1980, Lake Clark National Park & Preserve protects over 4 million acres of diverse ecosystems, critical watersheds and salmon fisheries, and nearly 10,000 years of human history. The park’s namesake–called Qizhjeh Vena, meaning “a place where people gathered” by the Dena’ina Athabascan–Lake Clark is 1,056 feet deep and covers 128 square miles. The region has been home to Native Alaskans for millennia, and has more recently attracted explorers, missionaries, prospectors, trappers, entrepreneurs, and wilderness-seekers. In the 1960s, Richard L. Proenneke traveled to the Twin Lakes region of what is now Lake Clark National Park & Preserve to put down roots far from civilization. Using mostly local materials and simple hand tools, Proenneke built a cabin on the shore of Upper Twin Lake where he would live for the next thirty years. The cabin has been recognized for its craftsmanship and as an outstanding example of an Alaskan bush cabin, and was designated a National Historic Site in 2007. While the designer has not visited Lake Clark National Park & Preserve, one of her bucket list items is to visit all of the national parks in Alaska: three down and five to go!

This Pattern:

If you purchase this pattern, you will receive only the pattern for the Lake Clark 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.