Alien Illusion Scarf

Green Alien Illusion Scarf showing the alien headsThe Alien Illusion Scarf was the pattern that got me knitting.  This wasn’t the first project I completed, but it was the one that fired my imagination. Who wouldn’t want to have aliens wrapped around their neck?

I had attempted knitting on and off a few times in my teens and twenties.   But I never seemed to get it.  Something that was supposed to be fifteen stitches across ballooned to twenty four in one row, and then shrank to nine in the next.  I didn’t have the time or the patience to try to figure out where I was making mistakes, so the projects always ended up being put to one side.

This scarf caught my imagination.  It reminded me of when The X-Files was on air, with it’s theme of aliens being the unseen menace in the background.  I bought yarn, the Stitch-N-Bitch handbook, knitting needles, watched a few lessons on YouTube, and began knitting.  After I finished a few simple projects, I attempted the green one.

Green Alien Illusion Scarf with aliens not visibleIt’s known as illusion knitting because the pattern appears and disappears depending on the angle it is viewed at.  The reason is that the knit stitch lays flatter than the purl stitches.  It’s hard to see the height difference from above, but when viewed edge-on it becomes obvious.  Illusion knitting takes advantage of this fact by arranging knits and purls in such a way to create patterns visible only at certain angles.

Unfortunately, I caught it on something while wearing it.  That caused a snag, ruining part of the pattern.  In order to fix it, I would have to unravel and reknit over half the pattern again, so I plan to make a new one someday.

And now, the Apiary Quilt update

Puffs for Feb 5, 2014

  • Weekly Puffs Completed: 7
  • Total Puffs Completed: 13
  • Total Leftover Skeins Busted: 1

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