I am a Senior Research Scientist for the Paul Smith’s College Adirondack Watershed Institute and this is one of several pieces made for a project called Wool and Water.

Wool and Water is a data art project that blends fiber art with scientific data to create visual representations of changing water quality conditions in the Adirondacks and Lake Champlain Basin. In association with the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, the Paul Smith’s College Adirondack Watershed Institute has embarked on a collaborative fiber arts project supported by the Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership to showcase the legacy of protecting clean water in the Lake Champlain Basin and beyond.

The winter economy of the Adirondack Park is highly dependent on snowfall to support a variety of winter sporting activities. Winters have warmed 3 times faster than summers in recent years, according to the most recent National Climate assessment. Declines in the snowpack mean not only a decreased capacity for favored winter recreational pursuits like skiing and snowmobiling, but also have ecological implications for freshwater aquatic ecosystems, which are sensitive to snowpack and timing of snowmelt. Declining snow cover may also impair forest health and reduce the ability of forests to filter air and water and to sequester carbon. Snowfall trends in the park are somewhat unclear, in part because of incomplete records and in part because snowfall is increasing in some locations and decreasing in others. The record represented in this scarf is from Wanakena, one of 3 stations in the Adirondacks which has shown a decreasing trend in snowfall. The scarf was created using Tunisian crochet (simple stitch) as a base and then surface crochet with novelty yarn to represent annual snowfall totals.

Data: New York Climate Change Science Clearinghouse https://d2ln813o5uvqrd.cloudfront.net/?c=Temp/stn/snow/AN...

Pattern: improvised with Tunisian crochet and surface crochet