Shadow/Illusion Knitting

While I'm on vacation, I'm still knitting for others, finishing up Christmas gifts. But I brought a project out of hiding for *gasp* myself.

I wanted to do illusion knitting so I started a piano scarf, oh, about 4 months ago. It's coming along slowly because I keep getting distracted with non-me knitting. Winter will be over by the time I get this done, but really, it's more for the looking right now than it is for the wearing.

For Ravelry folks: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/counterpoint-scarf

Illusion knitting means that when viewed straight on, you have a typical design. In this case, the design is just black and white stripes.

Simple stripes, right?

Ok, so this was the harder part - trying to photograph the illusion.

When viewed from a different direction, we have the beginnings of a piano keyboard.

Neat, huh?

I have a lot of work to do, but it's exciting to see the progress!

Mitts!

I found a really great pattern for fingerless mitts. It's simple but looks so good! They are the Alice Mitts on Ravelry. Apparently inspired by Alice from Twilight, although I never paid that much attention to the movie. Anyways, they knit up fast and just look really good.

For Christmas, I made Windy City scarves for my girl friends and gave them the option of a hat or a pair of mitts in matching colors. All of them chose mitts.

The first pair completed is the Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool in a beigey tweed which, it's turning out, I'm loving A LOT.

Here is the scarf. The Windy City scarf has a hole in it that allows you to tuck the opposite end through so it doesn't come undone in the wind. Or during snowball fights. Or while running away from the crazed snow monster.

Without a hand in them, the mitts look like those candies. With a hand, I think they are pretty nifty looking.


The remaining mitts will match these scarves

My girlfriends will look quite snappy this winter.

'ello!

I've been working my fingers to nubs getting together fun patterns and designs to create for everyone. I've only been knitting for a few years but have found it to be the best way to relax, aside from reading. I've managed to create a heck of a stash and a load of knitting books, trying to learn everything I can about this craft. It's fun to find patterns and bring to life the final result, but I'm finding it's more fun, and challenging, to create my own patterns. Once you start altering someone else's pattern, you are on your way to creating your own.

The basic stuff, like hats, scarves, dishcloths & blankets, are fun and easy to do, but then I started seeing other people's felted works, other people's lace works and cables. I needed to expand. My first felting experience was... ok. I decided to make a cover for my Kindle. My math was off (arrrgh) width-wise. I knew I should have paid more attention to math class. But, it's still usable and provides great padding for my Kindle to jostle around in my purse.

I've been playing with felting lately to get a cozy for my new Droid. I drop things like crazy, completely on accident. All electronics are eventually damaged beyond repair in my hands. My first cozy, yes again, was off width-wise. Dangit! I embroidered a pretty lotus flower on it anyway and use it regularly. The next try .... drumroll.... was great!! I finally got the dreaded math fixed! I ordered up more beautiful yarn today to put this design into action.

Call me naive but I didn't realize ipods were about the same size as smart phones, so double bonus, the cozy fits the ipod perfectly too. Yay!

Pictures and items for sale will be up soon! Please friend me at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Anderson-IN/Born-Lost-Creations/114418891948940?ref=sgm

Amanda