As I first mentioned in Illusion Knitting, I’ve been working on the Stephen Plummer’s illusion pattern Double Vision Squared. Getting started required a fair amount of preparation. While the pattern can be done in any weight yarn, that change also impacts what needle is used and what the finished overall size will be. The pattern was designed for DK weight yarn and I purchased the lighter, fingering weight yarn instead, so some experimenting would be needed.
The first choice was what size needle. I started with a size 2 US and swatched. The designer’s notes indicate that a dense fabric is best for a wall-hanging (which was my intent), I felt this generated a fabric that was too loose. Next, I tried a zero US, which gave me a nice, dense fabric.
Next was to figure out how much yarn I would need. Based on ripping out my swatches and measuring the yardage used in one square, the first swatch on size 2 needles would only use about 1/2 the yarn I had purchased. Reducing the needle size to a zero further reduced the yarn requirements. Since I bought this yarn specifically for this project, I wanted to use more of it in the project. So, I did some calculations and increased the # of sts and rows in each square, so that I estimated I would end up using closer to 80% of the total yarn available.
With nine ‘squares’ across, plus one extra stitch on each end, I cast on 326 stitches. A few weeks later, here’s what I have to show for my efforts so far:
Since this photo is taken from an angle, you can see the inset squares within each larger square. For a closer up view:
straight on view
angled view
I’m really excited to watch this project develop – to see the inset squares begin appearing and then complete; and then to move on and see what the next color will bring. It’s fascinating how different the same color can look depending on what other color it is paired with! Plus, take a few steps back from it, and the stripes begin to disappear and you actually see the subtle color differences.
For the most part, the knitting is moving along nicely. I’ve run into to ‘issues’. First, because of the density of the fabric, it doesn’t flow as nicely over the needles as most knitted items do. As a result, I found it is harder on my hands than other projects and I’ve even developed some small callouses where my fingers take the most wear. Second, I opted to do this in one piece, which means working with TEN skeins of yarn at the same time – and that’s just plain messy. I’ve managed OK by throwing them all in a bag together and find myself untangling the mess every 5-7 days. Most of the time, it looks something like this:
As a result, I have occasionally wondered about my choice to do it all in one piece. I can certainly see the wisdom in doing one strip of color at a time. However, I just remind myself of the seaming and sheer number of ends that would result from the strip method and still believe that the all-in-one approach was right for me. My recommendation for anyone attempting this project is to think hard on which approach is best for them – lots of ends to work in, or lots of non-ends tangling together constantly. On the plus side, untangling the ends is considerably easier than the usual tangle of yarn because you can follow one color at a time easily through the tangle and separate it out.
Meanwhile, I’m estimating I should finish this project up sometime in the first quarter of 2013. You can follow the progress on Ravelry or just stay tuned here for updates. Be sure to sign up to “Follow Blog by Email” in the right column to get each blog update as they are posted.
Favorite Things: Yarn and More 