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.

Lessons Learned: Double-Pointed Needles

Knitting in the round sounds like such a daunting skill to learn. I remember psyching myself up to do my first pair of socks, but I used a circular needle then. I didn't want any of my stitches falling off the needles!

But eventually, I bought a set of double-pointed needles (DPNs, to the knitting crowd) and braced myself for what I was certain was going to be a disaster. It turns out, after casting on, I was able to figure things out just fine, and cast-on was simple after I learned a few tricks.

I started with an extremely simple, small pattern. I wanted something with no new stitches, tiny enough that I could finish it without using extreme amounts of yarn, time, or patience. Knowing I'd probably mess up and frog the whole thing several times, I didn't want to mourn huge amounts of progress lost every time I had to frog again.

My eventual choice was one of the cacti from Lucille Randall's Quick and Easy Cacti. Simple 1x1 rib stitch seemed easy enough, but the in-the-round construction gave me a chance to try out my new needles!

Here are my tips for working with DPNs:

• The easiest mistake to make is to twist up your cast-on between stitches, leaving you with an odd Mobius strip once you're done. My way around this was to cast all the stitches onto one needle. Then I slipped the stitches onto their various needles, evening them out, but I could easily see if I twisted anything before joining in the round. Another way to do the same thing is to cast onto a circular needle of the same size, then slip onto your DPNs. 
• Tighten your stitches after you switch needles. Don't tighten after the first stitch -- it won't hold by itself. Knit two stitches, then tighten the first and the second. The second stitch will hold the tension of the first in place. If you don't watch your tension at the needle changes, there tends to be an odd gap. Sometimes, depending on needle size, there's a gap no matter what you do, in which case blocking helps to even your tension. 
• Knit stitches and purl stitches don't need to be altered each round to achieve stockinette stitch. In other words, one can knit in the round and have a lovely stockinette without ever switching to purl stitch. Reading the pattern, I was very confused when I reached the second round and it didn't start my ribbing with a purl stitch. I ended up re-casting on when I kept trying to start with a purl, getting confused when I ended up with a seed stitch instead! But it turned out I was just not trusting my pattern enough. 

I did end up changing my cactus toward the end; I wanted a more lengthy top, and by this time I was feeling confident, so I did gradual decreases. Here's my little cactus when I finished stuffing it with yarn scraps.

Cute, round, and palm-sized.

I decided he needed a pot to seem quite right, and grabbed a bottle-cap and some twine. After a little super-glue, I had a perfect pincushion!

Pinny is always ready when I need him.

If At First You Don't Succeed: Rainbow Top

Sometimes we start off a project with the best of intentions, and it just refuses to do what we want. My Rainbow Top was that sort of project.

I started with a pattern, but soon realised it wasn't going to work properly at all. The pattern was made for the small-busted, and that wasn't the figure I needed.

I... don't like the way the straps work. Way too thin and will dig into your neck, and for a larger bust it'll need more support. Time to improvise. 

-- Project Notes

I was trying so hard to make this top work. Eventually I ended up frogging nearly the entire piece, which is when I started to lose my patience in my notes.

Officially abandoned the pattern and set out on my own. ... The amount of frogging I have done....it hurts to think about how many times I've re-crocheted the same length of yarn.... 

Now for the bottom. I'm thinking single crochet. Also I'm thinking that apparently the way I learn shaping is to cry a lot and frog a lot. Why.

--Project Notes

 I took that photograph just to commemorate how frustrated I was, because I had worked so hard to get this to work, and I was going to make it happen.

And I did! Sure, it took about all night, but the next day I had an update:

All finished except for weaving in ends! Waiting for the steam-blocking to dry.

--Project Notes 

While I don't think I'll ever have this particular project be my favourite, I remember it because it was the product of so much determination, and I learned so much from the experience. Even the most exasperating project can be worthwhile in the end.

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!

Crocheting patterns are very sensitive to shape, and while tension around a form can do a certain amount of shaping, there are limits. Pay attention to the proportions of the models used by a pattern designer, because if you're not the same shape, you may have to modify.