Ink Circles: Pens and Needles: The Horse Latitudes

Picking an obscure grouping for the 2014 RYO series has been an interesting and educational exercise. I probably should have confirmed ahead of time that there even were seven named lines of latitude that would provide inspiration, but this way I have the opportunity each month to do a little research, a bit of digging, and some playing around.

The titular Horse Latitudes are actually a matched set, between 30 and 35 degrees both north and south of the equator. Rather than one specific latitude, each is a band of latitudes characterized by the type of air current. Wikipedia offers much maritime discussion and a few different possibilities on the origin of the name which involve sailors and dead horses (both literally dead and figuratively dead.) See - you learn things when you cross stitch.

I've worked a team of horses into this mandala. They are subtle, and in fact are winged, as in the immortal (thus very not dead) Pegasus. I figure they can keep Draco company. As always with these RYO charts, any of the existing color palettes can be plugged in with an extremely high success rate.

The topmost version in blues and greens is called Door: 3750/931/3752, 3847/3849/472, 561/562/564, 500/502/3813. (Inspired by this Design Seeds Photo.) The second one down is in Geode: 347/3712/761, 3834/3041/3743, 413/414/415, 312/334/3841, inspired by this Design Seed photo.

Here is Horse Latitudes in Victorian (600/602/605, 349/351/743, 3842/3760/3761, 911/913/955.)

And of course, it's still fun to make new palettes. Here is a short example of how you do it.

1) Find a photo, a fabric, a flower - something that you like the look of. This example was suggested by a friend on facebook. I tried to find the original poster to give credit, but it has been share a ton through Tumbl and such and I gave up pulling the thread. It brought a smile to see the Facebook share had come to my friend by way of Patricia Polacco's page - she was one of the kids' favorite author/illustrators when they were young. I also particularly like the message in this photo. The news media seems to be a constant stream of bad things happening due to racism and intolerance. (Be good to each other!)

2) Find four distinct colors in the photo. You do not have to pick every color you see, just four dominant ones.

3) Now find a dark, a medium, and a light for each of those four colors. You do NOT need to see them in the photo, and the four you picked above can be the dark, the medium, or the light of their respective families. Access to a DMC color card or a drawer/wall of threads makes this easier.

4) Plug and Play.

Here are the six Merry Go Round mandalas in the "Human" palette: 355/356/754, 938/400/3776, 3340/3341/967, 838/840/842.

Here is another example, starting with a photo from the website Design Seeds. You might notice that I like that site and use it for color inspiration often: