"It's not a trick, it's an illusion..."
293 days ago by Kate Bolin
I’ve gotten hooked on illusion knitting. With a pattern, two colours of yarn, and a simple knit-and-purl routine, you can create some utterly amazing things.
I started with Alice Bell’s Rosalind, which was a nice introduction to illusion knitting. A fairly simple pattern, a great concept, and I just happened to have two balls of Rowan DK wool available. So Toxic Rosalind was created pretty quickly.
Unfortunately, because I didn’t add garter stitches on either side, it rolls up, but it is incredibly warm and comforting, plus I know the DNA strand is there.
And illusion knitting piqued my interest. There’s so much potential — any pattern can become an illusion pattern. I started looking for things that would be quick and easy to knit up, but with a strong impact when you viewed it at an angle. I wondered about my iPod covers that I keep on saying I’ll make — would people want illusion knitted monograms on their covers? What about DNA?
I mentioned this to my friend Caroline. She looked at me, frowned a bit, and said “Why not an Apple logo?”
After hitting myself on the head for not coming up with that idea, I started trawling through the web for a knitted Apple logo. There were plenty of options, but I settled on the pattern available with Alison Hansel’s TechGuy Socks. A nice, simple Apple logo, easily converted into illusion knitting.
I made a practice swatch, blocked it, and it’s pretty darn amazing.
The next stage is to actually make the iPod cozies. I’ve finished one, save stitching it up and making sure it fits your average iPod Classic/Touch/iPhone. And I’m working on another one. Cotton 4-ply works like a charm with illusion knitting, and I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve been doing.
But I do have problems with most illusion knitting patterns. They have too much information. Rather than showing the pattern as it will appear, it gives you all the knit and purl information for each row, drowning you in stitches.
For example, the Rosalind pattern looks like this:
It’s a simple view of the pattern, laid out on a grid. You only work it on the wrong side, and, depending on what colour you’re on, you either purl or knit the grey stitches. It’s pretty easy to read, easy to work with, and doesn’t require a lot of thought.
But most illusion knitting patterns look like this:
(Taken from the Dark Mark Illusion Scarf by Lindsay Henricks)
And that’s incredibly confusing to me. Do I really need the right side in the pattern, since it’s just knit stitch all the way through? Are little dots (or dashes, as the Stitch n’ Bitch books do) the best way to show which stitches to work on, just so you can have both colours of yarn represented?
I end up having to take graph paper and redraw the entire pattern, colouring in the stitches that need working and removing the right-side rows. While that’s good for small projects, it can be extremely frustrating for longer projects (as I discovered when I had to redraw the Dark Mark Illusion Scarf in order to work out what I would be doing).
It’s confusing and annoying and makes illusion knitting seem so much harder than it actually is. So here’s the easy version of illusion knitting:
- Grab two balls of yarn that are the same weight, but different colours — enough of a contrast to count. Use the more striking colour for your contrast colour — something that’ll really pop out.
- Take any image pattern you already have. Hearts, stars, green clovers, purple horseshoes, whatever. If you have an image for it, use it.
- Put a row counter on a needle, and cast on using that needle the number of stitches you’d need. Set your row counter to zero, and don’t touch it.
- Knit one row in your main colour. This is your right side knitting.
- Knit the next row in your main colour. This is the wrong side knitting. You’re knitting onto the needle with the row counter, and that’s how you remember which side is which.
- Knit the next row in your contrast colour.
- Purl the next row in your contrast colour. This means that on the right side, the main colour is bumpy, but the contrast colour is smooth.
- Knit the next row in your main colour. And now we begin.
- Turn your row counter to one, and look at your pattern. Since you’re on your main colour, you’ll be knitting the white space and purling the pattern. Count the number of stitches that need knitting, count the stitches that need purling, and follow the pattern. Most patterns are on grids that have a strong line every five stitches, which can really help. You focus less on the total number of stitches and more on the five you’re working on.
- Knit the next row in your contrast colour.
- Turn your row counter to two, and this time, since it’s the contrast colour, you’ll be purling the white space and knitting the pattern.
- Take a deep breath, follow steps 8 – 11, and just keep going. The pattern is there, the routine is simple, and you’ll have something awesome before you know it.
Categories: Adventures in Knitting
iPod Nano Cosy
385 days ago by Kate Bolin
One of my first major knitting projects was a cover for my iPod Nano. I had around three different ones, all badly made, before I finally had one I was happy with.
After I finished it, and once I got a bit more comfortable with knitting, I thought “Hey, I could make a bunch of these and sell them! Then I’d have more money for yarn!”
I began to map out a pattern, making sure it was easy, understated, and above all, attractive. I didn’t want something that looked childish or too “girly”, but something that people would love to just have in their pocket, soft delicate cotton with a nice simple button.
I had it worked out, I did a sample one and the recipient loved it, I was all ready to go…
…And Steve Jobs releases the new Nano.
Dammit.
So rather than trying to sell these iPod Nano cosies, I’ve decided to release the pattern for free.
It needs a nice fine cotton or acrylic blend. I like using Rowan’s cotton glace or cotton 4-ply for solid colours, but I really love the Fancy Lustre yarn you can get at your local Wilkinsons for 99p. It comes in three shades — purple with pinkish-silver threads, green with yellowish-silver threads, and brown with white-gold threads. Knits up incredibly well, fantastically soft and looks wonderful.
So, without further conversation:
iPod Nano Cosy
Items needed:
- Fingering/DK yarn of your choice
- 2.75mm double-pointed needles
- Stitch marker
- Tapestry needle
- Button
- iPod Nano (2nd generation)
Tension square:
3cm2 = 9 stitches x 11 rows
Knitting:
- Cast on 29 stitches, leaving a tail of around 15cm.
- Distribute across needles, place marker in, and join for knitting in the round.
- Knit 35 rows (approximately 9cm). Occasionally take your Nano and slip it in to see how far you have to go.
- Row 36: Knit 7, cast off 14, then knit the remaining 8. Slip the remaining 15 stitches onto a single needle and continue with straight knitting from now on.
- Row 37: Purl
- Row 38: Knit
- Row 39: Purl
- Row 40: Knit 2 together through the back of the loop, knit 11, knit 2 together.
- Row 41: Purl
- Row 42: Knit 2 together through the back of the loop, knit 9, knit 2 together.
- Row 43: Purl
- Row 44: Knit 2 together through the back of the loop, knit 7, knit 2 together.
- Row 45: Purl
- Row 46: Knit 2 together through the back of the loop, knit 5, knit 2 together.
- Row 47: Purl
- Row 48: Knit 2 together through the back of the loop, knit 3, knit 2 together.
- Row 49: Purl
- Row 50: Knit 2 together through the back of the loop, knit 1, knit 2 together.
- Row 51: Purl
- Row 52: Cast off with a tail of around 10cm.
Finishing:
- Use the cast-off tail to make a loop, knotting it tightly to prevent it from slipping. Weave tail into the rest of the flap and trim if necessary.
- Use the cast-on tail to sew up the bottom, leaving an approximate 1.5cm hole on the right side for your headphones.
- Fold over the flap and mark where the loop sits comfortably on the cover. Sew your button there.
- Put your Nano in, button it up, and enjoy!
Categories: Patterns
Knitting needles
399 days ago by Kate Bolin
These are my newest needles, and I’m madly in love with them:
The reason why I’m in love with them, aside from the bright colours, is that I got them at Poundland.
No, really. Poundland. The one on Long Row.
They came in two packs — one pack with 5mm – 6.5mm and the other with 8mm – 10mm — and each pack was, naturally, one pound.
They’re plastic, and some of them are a bit rough in places, so they’re not ideal for some of the more snaggable yarns, but they’re excellent on acrylic, thick wools, and cotton. And since I mostly knit with non-snaggable yarns, they’re perfect for me.
Plus, at either 25p or 33p per pair, you can’t really complain, can you?
Categories: Recommendations
Introducing Kate
405 days ago by Kate Bolin
Name: Kate
Knitting Since: January 2007
Likes: Pop culture, kitsch, Halloween, web design, and sleeping
Dislikes: Scratchy clothes, hay fever, bad code, and most mornings
Why’d you start knitting? I was between jobs, and home sick with a nasty cold. Staggering home from a doctor’s appointment, I stopped in at the local Co-op and saw the partwork The Art of Knitting magazine. Only 99p for some 4.5mm needles, some cheap acrylic yarn, a DVD and a magazine, I figured it was high time for me to pick up a new hobby.
What project are you the most proud of? At this moment, it’s my pumpkin hat or my iPod cozy pattern, because the first was my first paid project, and the second was my first real project.
What’s your favourite type of yarn? I like to knit with cotton, because it’s smooth and easy to work with. But I really love bamboo for the silkiness of it. And I have a fondness for ghastly cheap acrylic that no one else loves. I’ll give it a good home!
Strangest place you’ve ever knitted? It’d either be in the projection booth at the Cineworld or in Rock City waiting for a band to go on!
Why are you on the Knit In Notts blog? I needed a place to talk about knitted projects, write up patterns, the whole lot. And since my regular blog is mostly about web design and I made the Knit In Notts website, what better place than to talk about knitting than here!
Categories: Administrative