Optical illusions

Optical illusions are meant to deceive the eye. Unfortunately the camera does not always do justice to them. Designs that work well in real life are often less impressive on the page.

Some designs need to be seen at a particular size, or from a certain vantage point and this effect may be destroyed by a photograph.

This design looks good at all sizes and from all angles. It is easy to reproduce in three or more shades. It is made entirely in garter stitch from squares and parallelograms.

This sweater was made in mohair but it can be made in any yarn to fit anyone, without using a conventional pattern. Instructions can be found in Woolly Thoughts.

Here is a version knit in another colourway:

It is possible to depict cubes using only two colours as shown in the purple and white sweater below.

The design can be coloured in at least six different ways to create various optical illusions. The flower or windmill design above is one of them.

We have experimented with several types of illusion. Some of them have to be seen at full size, or looked at in the same way as Magic Eye pictures, for the effects to work.

It is important that any clever visual effect should look good when viewed as an 'ordinary' sweater. Not everyone sees optical illusions and some can only be seen under the right conditions.

This photograph shows a section of a machine knitted sweater which was inspired by Roman Mosaics.

It is another way of depicting cubes. It appears to use three colours but there are only two. The top faces of the cubes consist of alternate stitches of the two colours.

We produce instruction booklets on the basics of drawing stereograms (Magic Eye) and perspective drawings.
Some of our afghans/wall-hangings also depict optical illusions.