Lessons Learned: Illusion Knitting

I have known of illusion knitting for a while and was fascinated since I saw a photo of a crazy Hagrid illusion knit by Steve Plummer. (The pattern's on Ravelry!) But the technique was too intimidating for me. I put it off until I found a brilliant Instructable on the subject, and realised it was far simpler than I had expected!

For those of you who don't know what illusion knitting is, I suggest seeing Steve's pattern first, since it's far more impressive. Illusion knitting looks like plain stripes when viewed from the front, but when viewed from the side it creates a picture. While seemingly magic, this is a simple knit/purl technique. Not only that but in a project like a scarf one can carry the yarn up the side, making it a simple process to change colours.

To start one needs a simple chart of a design. I wanted a project for my violin teacher, so I chose a pattern of a treble clef. This is actually a pattern for crochet filet! Amazingly, these charts work for illusion knitting as well, as will any block-based chart with two colours.

I followed the instructable, feeling very unsure. Surely this couldn't be as simple as they made it out to be? But as things worked up I found myself amazed at what was coming off my needles. Look at this!

Straight on.

From the side. 

Once I finished I used a steamer to block the acrylic. Here's a look at the pinning, with the back of the item. The pattern's a little more obvious on the reverse.

My messy craft area in the background. Pinning is a little harder, but I used my ironing board's stripes to get it straight.

Here's the final product, taken at an angle. I adore the way it turned out. Not only that, but my violin teacher loved it!

The only space big enough to get a photo was next to my kitchen, so pardon the mess. But look how cool this is!

In future, I'm thinking of doing a wall-hanging, because the back-side is hidden. It would be so cool to watch it change as you walked past. Of course, I could have stitched a backing on, but as it was a scarf I figured this was fine.

I encourage anyone interested to at least try a small swatch. It's addicting once you start. The only complaint I had was the constant counting, but every other row is a straight knit, so it really wasn't that bad.

Improvement Notes:

Knitting is a constant learning process. These are my notes to help me grow and improve my skills - feel free to ignore, or learn with me!
At the time I made this, I was pretty much unaware stitch markers existed. Next time, I'd definitely be marking my stitches to make the counting easier.