New Parks Added in 2023! Since 2016, four new parks were established. We have designed squares for these new parks, which were included in a pattern update and will be included in all future pattern purchases.

Pattern Inspiration:

The year 2016 was 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 that existed in 2016 and one square to celebrate the National Park Service itself. Each square blocks to 6 inches by 6 inches. Learn more about the project at this blog post.

Pattern Packets:

Each month during 2016, five National Park blanket squares (each 6 inches x 6 inches) were released in pattern packets. The square patterns were released in the order the national parks were created (from 1916 to 2016). By the end of December 2016, we released 12 packets of patterns culminating in 60 squares total.

If you do not want all 60 squares, each square is also available to purchase separately on the Smart Knits page as they are released. With individual pattern purchases you can make a smaller blanket made up of your favorite parks or individual blanket square coasters!

Yarn Needed:

Two skeins of each of these colors of Knit Picks Swish DK: Coal, White, Marble Heather, Twilight, Dusk, Forest Heather, Allspice, Garnet Heather, Honey, and Bark. Additionally, you may use scrap yarn that is a DK weight as accent colors for some of the squares (these are noted in the pattern).

Blanket Backing:

We will be designing a National Parks-themed fabric backing for the blanket to be posted on Spoonflower this summer. So folks who knit the blanket (and want to hide all of the intarsia on the back) will have an option to buy the fabric from Spoonflower. Subscribers will also be provided detailed instructions on how to sew the backing to the blanket.

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

Smart Knits acknowledges that much of the U.S. National Park System, like many protected area systems around the globe, was created by forcibly removing Indigenous peoples from their lands. We encourage individuals who purchase these patterns to learn more about this often untold story of the National Parks and learn whose land they are recreating on the next time they visit a National Park or protected area.

Update as of January 2023: Although we are past the NPS Centennial. All proceeds from these patterns continue to be donated to the National Park Foundation. To date, we’ve donated just over $4,000.

Direct questions or comments about the pattern to this forum post in the Smart Knits group.