Eco Elements Tranquil River

Eco Inspiration

Last year a magazine call perked my interest – designs featuring all things eco. While scrolling Pinterest for some hot eco topics, I was captivated by the photos of melting glaciers / glacier rivers. While some glacier rivers are the consequence of regular freeze and thaw, others are emblematic of global warming.

Visiting the glaciers of Norway, Greenland, and Canada are now firmly on my bucket list. The imagined joy of kayaking down said rivers thrilled me until I saw one photo revealing, these rivers often drop off without notice into waterfalls! Some fall into the ocean, while others fall in under the depths of the glacier where they disappear as internal streams. Uhm, no thank you… I’ll stick to Pinterest!

One specific characteristic that caught my notice was the path these glacier waterways took. Rarely was a straight line seen! From this the path of Tranquil River developed.

I swatched out two methods for achieving the flow – one focused on moving stitches through decreases and increases, while the other focused on sketching a rough outline by switching the stitch upon which the yarn held double.

With a focus on easy stitches, it was clear which swatch would become the pattern.

Eco Elements Materials

After seeing the swatches, Diane at eco-stitch agreed to partner with me in this design. Armed with some glacier images, she created the most amazing colour to match the inspiration for Tranquil River! Azure embodies highlights of light green and shadows of capri blue, on a light blue base. Grown and processed in Belgium, Diane hand dyes her linen yarn in her home studio on the Isle of Wright. Diane implements many eco principles into her dyeing: she does everything by hand, skeins are air-dried, and when she chooses to use detergents (not all colors require them), she picks an eco-detergent! Check out her stunning hand dyed yarns here!