On June 2, 2005, I’m teaching a design workshop in Indiana for Camp Iwannaknit 2005. We will design, knit, and embellish an underwater scene, using marine life photographs as inspiration. With only six hours to do all this, we will design on the fly (no gauge swatches, minimal notes) and work fast.
I’m knitting a new class sample, and I will be documenting the basic steps of the process here, so the people who signed up can get an idea of how we will go about this business. I’ll be talking to them in these Design Workshop posts.
For homework, I asked you to look at photos of marine life. Reef photos are good, because the plant and animal life is varied and colorful. My favorite reef picture books are Reef Fish Identification, Reef Coral Identification, and Reef Creature Identification, by Paul Humann and Ned DeLoach (published by New World Publications). The library should have books of ocean life photography.
We can mix and match fish, plants, coral, and backgrounds from different photos. Pay particular attention to the backgrounds in the photos and choose one you like. I chose a rocky, sandy background as shown here. The book is Reef Fish Identification, mentioned above.
I saw three major color groups in the background of the photo: white, gray, and light blue at the bottom; very dark in the middle; grayish browns with a little red on top. I chose yarns from my collection that were fairly close to the ones in the picture, then added different shades of the major colors. My favorite touch is the variegated yarn. It has been in my stash for over 20 years.
If you bring as many colors as are in my photo, you will have way more than enough to knit the background. (But choose your own colors!) I used each one of the colors shown, and most of the yarn is still here for me to use another day.
Does your chosen background include black? Did you get out some black yarn and put it with your other yarns, only to be shocked at how stark and unnatural it looks? Try substituting dark brown, dark purple, or navy (or all three) for black.
You will also need yarn for fish, plant life, corals, sponges, and so on. Use your homework research to guide your color choices.
Tomorrow I’ll post the background I knitted with these colors.