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Background Background From "Knitty Gritty" episode DKNG-111

Can you do the knit stitch? What about the purl stitch? If you answered yes to both, then you can create two-color images without worrying about Fair Isle techniques, carrying colors or any of that tricky stuff. How, you ask? Easy! By creating an image that isn't there! Okay, so how do you see an image that isn't there -- and more important, how do you knit one? By creating an illusion. Illusion knitting uses flat knitting (knits on the right side, purls on the wrong side) and raised knitting (purls on the right side, knits on the wrong side) to raise the colors you want -- where you want them -- and to leave the rest flat. That way, when you look at it from head on, you see stripes of the two colors in your image. But when you look at it from the right angle, you see the image pop out from (seemingly) nowhere.

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The image must be broken into sections (rows), and to create one section it actually takes four rows of knitting. The first two are in one color (background color here) and the second two are in the other color (main color). Starting on the right side, the first and every odd row are knit across all stitches. On the wrong side (every even numbered row), you will knit the stitches you want to raise and purl the stitches you want to lie flat.

Figure A

Here's an example of one section of illusion knit. There are four rows of knitting. The first two rows are worked in white and the second two in red. If translated into text, the pattern in figure A would read as follows:
Row 1: K21 sts in CC
Row 2: K7, P7, K7 in CC
Row 3: K21 sts in MC2
Row 4: P7, K7, P7 in MC2

	Figure B
	Figure C

Now, anyone who has knit stripes before knows that there are going to be a million ends to weave in, but with illusion knitting, that is not the case. Since there are only two rows worked in each color, the yarns can just be carried up without cutting them. The only thing to be careful of is pulling the carried yarn too tight. Be sure to leave some slack in the carried yarn, or the illusion will be puckered on the side where the colors are carried up. When the above four rows are completed, the worked piece will look like figure B from the front.

When viewed from above or below, the hidden illusion pattern will appear as in figure C.

This scarf will use this technique to make some hidden images of card suits. You don't even have to know how to shuffle a deck of cards to pull off this card trick!

RESOURCES :
Rowan Wool Cotton
Suggested retail price: $8
Colors: Aqua (949); Inky (908)
Rowan Yarns
Website: knitrowan.com

Cecil Yarn
White (01), Black (02), Red (03)
Suggested retail price: $4.50
Schoeller Stahl
Website: schoeller-und-stahl.de

Pronto Yarn
Suggested retail price: $4.95
Colors: White (4400), Black (4434), Fire (4470)
Berroco Inc.
Check Website for local retailers.
Website: www.berroco.com

GUESTS :

Shetha Nolke
Knitting expert
E-mail: shetha@comcast.net