Landscape Knitting: A Blue Heron Guide
Barbara Lundy Stone

The first step in creating a landscape piece is to begin to look. Look at the landscape around you. It will change from day to day depending on the time of day and the difference in lighting.

The next step is to gather. Collect photos, your own and from magazines and books. Some of the best photography is in advertisements. Paintings are an excellent source ,especially the ones that push the color. The artists that make these paintings use the color wheel to plan the colors they use. This creates a harmony and balance that you will also find in the best photographs. If you have Photoshop you can play with the gradient tool. Make some simple paintings yourself.

Once you have gathered some inspiration put them in a scrapbook. Think of this as an ongoing process and a creative project in its own right. As your scrapbook begins to evolve think about what draws you to the examples you have chosen. What are the connections between them? Are you drawn to certain color combinations? Do you like lots of pattern or simple gradations? What about monochromatic texture? Do you like closely related colors or colors that contrast? You can have more than one idea, after all you have many sides of your personality to express. You can separate your ideas into different chapters .

Now you can begin to translate some of these ideas into yarn samplers. Think of your piece as a landscape with the foreground at the bottom and the middle ground beginning somewhere slightly above your waist. The level of highest contrast will be about 1/3 of the way down from the top. This will be the area with the busiest color changes, the greatest textures and pattern. It will be the change from the middle ground to the sky. Gradually quiet everything down as you approach the top of your piece. This is a safe plan and you can certainly deviate from it . I hope you will as you grow and are able to handle greater creative challenges. Knit at least three samplers trying different color combinations and striping patterns. This is where you can really be surprised. It is hard to predict how two colorways will work together until you try them. Add these to your scrapbook next to the landscapes that inspired them. The more you do the more you will have to draw inspiration from as you continue to design. Label your sampler with the yarns used including the color names, the stores you purchased them from, and the dates purchased. Also include a bit of the yarns by themselves so you can see their original look.

As you finish each sampler critique it before you move on to the next one. How well do the colors relate to each other? What about the overall effect? Would you prefer it lighter or darker? Remember that you do not have to copy your inspiration piece. You are creating something new. Remember that you will be wearing this. You are just being inspired by the original and at some point you will be leaving it behind and will be focusing on your own original idea. What about the color balance? The foreground area will be larger so you must use contrast, intensity, pattern and texture to give visual weight to the smaller areas. Also pay attention to the areas of transition. Don’t be too predictable. Throw a bit of sky color into the foreground and some of the middle ground color higher up into the sky. These small reintroductions create a more entertaining and complex composition. Once you have noted the changes you would like to make begin your next sampler. As you move from one sampler to the next your changes will probably become smaller and subtler. Don’t feel you have to perfect your idea in the samplers. Just be sure of the direction you are going. This is also the time to go too far so you know the edges of your idea.

Now you are ready to begin your final project. There are new options in your larger piece. You have a lot more rows and stitches within those rows. This piece should flow from the samplers not be a slave to them. You want to continue to be challenged throughout. Don’t be afraid to make some changes. Let your idea expand. Just remain aware of the limits you have set in your samplers. There is a balance here between these limits and the expansion of your idea. That balance is what makes a good piece. If you go too far you can begin to introduce a new idea and create confusion. It’s better to make notes of these new ideas for future projects. It’s wonderful that new ideas flow from the process. You will have to knit fast to keep up with them. It’s a joyful compulsion.