Clear skies. Low 59F. NW winds at 10 to 15 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph..
Clear skies. Low 59F. NW winds at 10 to 15 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph.
Knitting designer Nancy Bates signs her newly released book at the Hands On Knitting Center in Redlands.
Knitting designer Nancy Bates signs her newly released book at the Hands On Knitting Center in Redlands.
On Saturday, Sept. 3, Ontario-based knitting designer Nancy Bates visited Redlands’ Hands On Knitting Center (HOKC) to celebrate and sign her newly released book, “Knitting the National Parks.” It contains 63 designs for beanies inspired by the U.S. National Parks. The book was released on Aug. 30.
“That was my first live book signing,” Bates said. “I’ve been working with HOKC since the very start of doing my National Park hats. They were the first store that did a trunk show.”
She described her connection with HOKC as nostalgic.
The project resulting in a book began with 10 designs five years ago.
“When I first started, I didn’t set out thinking that I would do all 63 of them because that’s a lot. But as time went by, I was just having so much fun, I just kept adding more and more and then I made it my goal to do all of them,” she said.
The love of knitting began in middle school. Also, her parents owned a yarn store where she worked during college.
“I knitted a really nice sweater that I took on my honeymoon,” she said.
While being married and raising three daughters, Bates focused on sewing. She worked as an exhibit designer for the L.A. County Fair for 18 years. She didn’t take knitting seriously again until nine years ago.
“I was just suddenly really hooked this time and I got the idea of doing the hats and it went from there,” she said.
Her first hat began with Joshua Tree National Park. “I got super excited about cables, and I just love how they go this way and that way. And we were on a trip to Joshua Tree one day and I was like, that would be so fun, I could make a hat look like a Joshua Tree,” she said.
Another inspiration was the Lion Brand Yarn that has skeins named after National Parks. Bates used some of these yarns while knitting her hats. For the past two years, her daughter Alyson has been dyeing yarns that Bates also uses.
Knitting a National Park inspired hat is not only crafting a history but also includes memories, described Bates. “I went every year with my grandparents, and it reminds me of that, or we are going there next year, and we are all going to wear our hats,” are the things she hears people say about her designs. “Everybody ties it in to their special memories and that’s just so heartwarming to me.”
Bates was the Girl Scout leader with her girls, and as a family they visited many State and National Parks. “My husband and I have been to now 40 of the 63 National Parks,” she said, her daughters as well. They made sure to take photos for the book on these trips in recent years.
From the beginning her goal has been to get her kits into the National Parks stores. “Actually, right now for the first time, Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon asked me if I would design a hat that was for the Dark Sky Festival,” she said of the upcoming event on Saturday, Sept. 24. The design called “Dark Sky Giant” is not part of the recent book but would not have happened without it. That kit is now available in those two national park stores.
“It was such a great event,” said Brigid Kumler, co-owner of the Hands On Knitting Center. The book “Knitting the National Park” is already in its second and third edition. Nancy Bates is ready to announce a new collection of beanie designs within the coming weeks.
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