How to do Illusion Knitting [The Ultimate Tutorial for beginners]

A step-by-step tutorial on illusion knitting and adding hidden messages to your knitting

Few colorwork techniques in knitting are more mysterious than illusion knitting. A unique technique to incorporate hidden designs into your projects that are only visible from a certain angle! Shadow knitting, how it’s sometimes also called, sounds like a magic trick, but it’s almost always much easier to knit than you might think. At its core, it’s simple stripes garter stitch with an ingenious system to use well-placed purl stitches to flesh out the designs.

a dishcloth knitted with the illusion knitting technique revealing a pumpkin design for halloween — When seen from the side, the little pumpkin head is revealed

a dishcloth embellished with the illussion knitting technique seen from above where the motiv isn't visible — This is the exact same dishcloth but seen from above

What is illusion knitting?

stockinette stitch swatch compared to garter stitch side by side on a table

Illusion knitting heavily relies on differences in texture, or rather differences in elevation, between stockinette stitch and garter stitch. If you take a close look at the swatch above, you can clearly tell that the blue stockinette stitch swatch on the left is all flat and smooth, while the yellow swatch in garter stitch features prominent horizontal ridges.

a simple swatch with stripes of garter stitch and stockinette stitch - once seen from above and once from the side

Now, watch what happens when you combine these two stitch patterns and always alternate between two rows in garter stitch in color A and two rows in stockinette stitch in color B. From above, it looks like relatively ordinary stripes, but seen from a certain angle, you only see the elevated garter stitch ridges in color A. This would be the pattern for the swatch above:

Row 1-2: Knit across in color A
Row 3: Knit across in color B
Row 4: Purl across in color B
Repeat rows 1-4

top view vs side view of a basic swatch showing you the illusion knitting effect

Now, for obvious reasons, you can play this game with both colors. Nobody forces you to knit the whole row in garter stitch or stockinette stitch in any given color. And this is exactly where the magic happens. Illusion knitting is basically always a 4-row repeat. You have two rows in stockinette stitch (= flat and doesn’t obstruct the view) followed by two rows of garter stitch (=elevated and blocking the view). The pattern for the swatch above would be:

Cast on 10 stitches
Row 1: Knit across in color A
Row 2: Knit 5, purl 5 in color A
Row 3: Knit across in color B
Row 4: Purl 5, knit 5 in color B
Repeat rows 1-4

And you can use this simple difference to outline your designs. For the background color, you start with 2 rows of garter stitch color A, followed by two rows of stockinette stitch in color B. And if you want to highlight something in the contrasting color, you start with two rows in stockinette stitch in color A, and follow up with two rows of garter stitch in color B.

That’s the whole “secret”. It’s as simple as that. Let’s take a look at a practical example

How to do illusion knitting

a swatch done in illussion knitting - once seen from above and once from the side to reveal the hidden design

If you take a look at the swatch above, it still looks somewhat like normal stripes under normal circumstances. An experienced knitter might spot the different distribution of the knit and purl stitches, but, especially from afar, you’d be hard-pressed to discern the motif. This is only visible from the side.

To create your designs, you need to pick one background color and one contrasting color. And then you basically stick to three very simple rules:

You switch colors every two rows, always starting with a right-side row
You knit across every right-side row, no matter the color
On the wrong side, you purl all stitches that should not be visible, and you knit all stitches that are important for the motif

The pattern for the little sample above would be:

Cast on 12 stitches (I used a longtail cast-on)
Row 1-2: Knit (color A; blue)
Row 3: Knit (color B; yellow-orange)
Row 4: Purl (color B)
Repeat rows 1-4 one more time; This will create a lovely background in color A surrounding your motif. For a bigger border, repeat these rows one or two more times.
Row 9: knit (color A)
Row 10: knit 4, purl 4, knit 4 (color A)
Row 11: knit (color B)
Row 11: purl 4, knit 4, purl 4 (color B)
Repeat rows 9-11 two more times; this will “paint” the little square in the center of your swatch; take special note of how you purl the 4 center stitches in color A in row 10; this will ensure nothing obstructs the view, and the 4 knit stitches you place in the center row 11 in color B will be visible at an angle.
Row 20: Knit (color A; blue)
Row 22: Knit (color B; yellow-orange)
Row 23: Purl (color B)
Repeat rows 20-23 one more time; these last rows will mirror the border in color A you’ve created at the beginning
Bind off all stitches

The edge stitch

view of the wrong side of a simple selvage stitch for illusion knitting

Basically, you can use any selvage stitch of your choice for Illusion knitting. For beginners, I recommend sticking to a nice garter stitch edge. Knit the first and last stitch of your row regardless of the color.

Very important: Whenever you switch colors, cross the two colors once clockwise to achieve a nice and tidy edge on the wrong side, as seen in the picture above.

That being said, I personally really like to use a combination of intarsia and double stockinette stitch for a much neater edge.

double stockinette stitch selvage illusion knitting - wrong side and right side side by side

To knit this special selvage, you will need one additional skein in the background color (color A). Here’s how:

Cast on an additional 6 stitches; so if your chart says 20 stitches, cast on 26.
Row 1 (RS; color A): k1, SL1p wyif, k1, knit across, <join in the second skein in color A three stitches before the end of the row and switch to that skein>, k1, SL1p wyif, k1
Row 2 (WS; color A): SL1p wyif, k1, SL1p wyif, <cross yarns and switch to skein #1>, work across according to chart , SL1p wyif, k1, SL1p wyif
Row 3 (color b): <Start with color A> k1, SL1p wyif, k1 <join in and switch to color B>, knit across, <cross color B with skein #2 in color A and switch to that color>, k1, SL1p wyif, k1
Row 4 (color b): <start with color B, skein #2> SL1p wyif, k1, SL1p wyif, <cross skein #2 with color B and switch to that color> work across according to the chart, <cross color B with skein #1 in color a and switch>, SL1p wyif, k1, SL1p wyif
Repeat these 4 rows;
Make sure that you ALWAYS cross the yarns when you switch. This specifically also applies to three stitches before the end of every row 2. Theoretically, you could simply continue knitting in color A, skein #1. However, I still cross it with color B at this point to create a very regular and tight edge on the wrong side.

How to read Illusion knitting charts

It would be sad if all you could create with illusion knitting were squares. If your project is large enough, you can pretty much create whatever design you want. Most of these more complex projects will come with a chart and not just written instructions. It’s actually rather easy to read them. However, there are some peculiarities that you should be aware of, even if you already know how to read (normal) knitting charts.

1) An Illusion knitting chart has two axes. The horizontal axis counts the stitches in a row. The example above ends with 12. This means there are 12 stitches per row, and this will also be how many stitches you need to cast on (typically excluding any selvage stitches you might want to add). Each little box stands for one stitch and contains the information you need to knit it.

2) The vertical axis counts the ridges. This is important; it does NOT count the rows. Why? Because you always knit every right-side row. The chart basically omits this information entirely because it’s trivial. Experienced knitters might be aware of how a lot of cable/lace charts skip the wrong-side rows because you always only work across in pattern. This is similar.

3) Each box is filled with one of three colors. And these colors basically tell you how you need to work this stitch on the wrong side only. Most important are perhaps the white boxes. A white box stands for “purl this stitch on the wrong side”. A colored box, on the other hand, tells you to knit that stitch in the respective color.

4) You read the wrong-side rows from left to right. The chart depicts the motif as seen from the right side. That’s why the reading direction is reversed for any flat project.

Let’s put that knowledge to good use with an example and let’s read the following chart together:

a simple illussion knitting chart for a square shap

Let’s focus on ridge 6.

This ridge holds the information for rows 11 and 12
Row 11 is only implied and not actually depicted in the chart, but you know it has to be knit row like every right-side row.
Since you start your project with color A (= black) and always need to switch every 2 rows, ridges 6 or rows 11 and 12 must be knitted in color B. The fact that there are grey boxes further in is also a clue, but if you take a look at ridges 2, 4, or 12, you’d see that this information sometimes needs to be inferred.
For row 12, you need to start reading from the left side.
Stitches 12, 11, 10, and 9 are white. This means you need to purl them. It doesn’t actually say in which color. But since you only have color B to work with, that’s the color you use
Stitches 8, 7, 6, and 5 are light grey. This means you need to knit them in color A.
Stitches 4, 3, 2, and 1 are white again, and you purl them.

So the final instructions for these rows are:

Row 11: switch to color B; knit across
Row 12 (still color B by default): purl 4, knit 4, purl 4

And equipped with this knowledge, you can certainly try to read the following chart as well. This is the chart I used to knit the pumpkin potholder seen throughout this tutorial.

a chart to knit a dishcloth with a pumpkin motif in illussion knitting

Setting the use of orange as color B aside, you can read this chart in the exact same way. Example for ridge 10:

Row 19 (RS): knit across in color B
Row 20 (WS; still color B): p5, k3, p3, k9, p3, k3, p5

The charts might appear a little bit odd at first sight, but once you get used to them, they are remarkably easy. Again, it’s just some knits and purls on the wrong side.

Intermediate shading

Now, there is one more aspect I need to talk about. This is for advanced illusion knitting projects only. Especially designer Steve Plummer, who one could say is the sole reason that this knitting technique became so popular to begin with, uses a third color in their charts and projects. But how is this done?

There is actually very little further magic or tricks involved. Steve Plummer might call it intermediate shading, and that might make it sound all fancy, but basically it’s just sections of pure garter stitch. Take a look at the swatch below.

a simple swatch showcasing intermediate shading in illusion knitting

On the left, the swatch appears to be just yellow; on the right, it’s just blue, and in the middle you get a mix of the two. When you take a close look at the swatch as seen from above, the “secret” to this third kind of shade is revealed. The pattern for the swatch would be:

Cast on 12 stitches
Row 1 (A): knit
Row 2 (A): p4, k4, k4
Row 3 (b): knit
Row 4 (b): k4, k4, p4
Repeat these 4 rows

I specifically wrote out rows 2 and 4 in such a weird way (normally you’d write row 2 “p4, k8”), so you can see how these stitches align.

Now here’s a word of caution. Intermediate shading or sections of pure garter stitch can introduce a third color and nice transitions into larger projects. When you apply it to a small project, it will often do the opposite. If there’s too much detail cramped into a too small chart, the illusion often fails.

Last tips and tricks for illusion knitting

To turn your illusion knitting projects into a success, you should be aware of a couple of important tips and tricks.

1. Use solid colors and clean yarns. While I love colorways and slightly fuzzy/cozy yarn, these choices will make your precious hidden message that much harder to discern.

2. When you design your own chart (use a program like StitchFiddle or Inkscape), use broad strokes. Don’t draw a super detailed cat; think along the lines of creating an icon for a cat as you would see on a street sign – especially if your project is a wearable where you might only see the design partially from any given angle.

3. Think of the final use for your project. The motif will only be seen from one angle. If you design/knit your motif bottom-up (so the ridges are all horizontal) but then use it as a wall hanging, you will only be able to see the design when you get on your knees. In these cases, knit from left to right, so the ridges will be horizontal (so simply switch the axes of your chart and treat the horizontal axis as your stitches rather than counting the ridges).
Ideally speaking, the ridges & the motif always need to be at eye level and face you.

4. Use stitch markers liberally. The true action happens on the wrong side. However, this is also the side where it’s a lot more difficult to read your knitting. So, consider placing stitch markers in the right-side row, so you don’t miss a “color” change on the wrong side.

5. Learn how to fix mistakes. You might know how to fix mistakes in stockinette stitch using a crochet hook. But you can do the exact same for garter stitch as well. If you combine these two techniques, you can easily unravel a single stitch to access a mistake a couple of rows further down.

Other than that, have fun. Start by knitting a couple of swatches to get the basics and observe the limits of this technique, and then go to Ravelry and explore the hundredts of amazing patterns you will be able to find there.