Illustrious Illusion Knitting

Illusion Knitting: Lesson 7 Knitting a Star Washcloth

From the simple heart we knitted last week you can now move on to the more complex shape of the Star, along with some funky borders to stretch your new skills. You will be knitting up the self same design you see in all the headers for this course. You Will Need a DK or […]

Illusion Knitting: Lesson 6 Knitting a Hidden Heart

Now its time to cast on! You will be using all the skills we have covered in the previous lessons to make a Hidden Heart mug rug, in perfect time for a Valentines gift. A fun small piece to check you have the technique down. You Will Need a DK or Worsted weight yarn in […]

Illusion Knitting: Lesson 5 Cast On, Bind Off and Selvedges

Cast-Ons Most cast-ons will work well with illusion knitting, since it is just simple rows of knits and purls. A long-tail cast on or knitting cast on are probably the most common. I like the Chinese Waitress Cast-On, because it produces a rolled edge that looks nice on both sides. Bind-Offs Matching your bind off […]

Illusion Knitting: Lesson 4 Reading Illusion Knitting Charts

By now you should have a healthy understanding of how to read a knitting chart, so lets look at why an Illusion chart is different. Because you will be changing colors every other row, there are some things that are different about illusion charts. First, instead of the chart leaving off the wrong side rows, […]

Illusion Knitting: Lesson 3 Swatching and General Charts

I know not everyone LOVES to swatch, but it’s really important when creating a picture with your yarn. Whether visible or Invisible you still NEED to swatch. Sloppy stitches, random tension and ending up with an image three times as large as expected, or indeed a postage stamp sized dragon is no fun after all […]

Illusion Knitting: Lesson 2 Reading Stitches

Why in particular for Illusion knitting do we need to be able to read our knitting? Illusion knit images are often subtle, rather than bold, which means that a stitch getting twisted, or getting purled when it should be knit, can easily distort the image and make it difficult to recognize. Stitch Orientation First, a […]

Quiz: Can You Read Knitting?

Illusion Knitting: Lesson 1 Selecting Yarn

A large part of the ‘magic’ behind illusion knitting is the correct choice of yarn. An illusion knit image becomes visible because the flat knit stitches above and/or below the purl ridges create “windows” for the contrast color to be seen. To successfully achieve this, it’s important to first choose the right yarns. You will […]