Knitting Pattern: Humpback Whale Quilt

Knit for Wildlife uses knitting to bring wildlife stories into everyday culture.

Rather than keeping conservation confined to reports, exhibitions, or campaigns, the initiative works through garments that are worn and seen in daily life; in cafés, on public transport, at work, and on campus. The aim is visibility: Keeping wildlife present in places where conservation is not usually discussed.

This pattern is part of an open-access series developed in collaboration with Love the Oceans, a marine conservation organisation based in Mozambique. Their work includes coral reef protection, marine megafauna research, and community-led conservation, providing real-world context behind each species represented.

Humpback whales> are long-lived, migratory marine mammals known for their complex songs and vast ocean journeys. After centuries of commercial whaling, many populations are still recovering and remain vulnerable to entanglement in fishing gear, ship strikes, underwater noise, and climate-driven changes to their feeding grounds. Protecting humpback whales requires international cooperation across the full length of their migratory routes.

All patterns in this series are released for free to support use, sharing, and cultural reach.

Knit for Wildlife is endorsed by the UN Ocean Decade for its contribution to ocean literacy through creative, community-based approaches.

USAGE & RIGHTS

This pattern is released as open access for personal, non-commercial use. Sharing is welcome when crediting Knit for Wildlife. Commercial use, resale, or redistribution is not permitted.
© Knit for Wildlife.

About the Designer

Eddie Corney (Australia) is a fine art graduate and print-based visual artist working with pattern, repetition, and material processes across paper and textiles. Eddie lives in rural Australia on a sheep farm, a setting that naturally connects daily life with fibre, material awareness, and slow making.

This design takes a modular approach, using individual knitted pieces that come together to form a larger whale image. The structure reflects both the scale of the humpback whale and the idea that many small contributions can create something larger and more visible.

Alongside the physical quilt, the project includes a digital community quilt. Knitters are invited to share photos of their knitted swatches, which are then brought together digitally to form a collective humpback whale quilt. This allows people from different places to contribute to the same shared piece. Through both the physical and digital quilts, the design highlights connection, collaboration, and shared responsibility. Mirroring the global nature of whale conservation and the long distances humpback whales travel.

Submit Your work for the digital quilt

• Submit here!

Resources

Some readers print patterns or use PDF apps that don’t support clickable links. If that’s the case, read them here.

Learn more

• Love the Oceans (Mozambique)
• Humpback Whale Research