Ask any great knitter how they became good at the craft and they will tell you, “Practice!”. But as any knitter will tell you practice swatches can be boring to work and if you knit enough of them, you will find your home overrun with practice swatches that have no practical purpose other than, well, practice.
This skill-builder pattern allows you to practice the Illusion or Shadow knitting technique in two small, yet useful, projects.
A search of patterns, both on and off Ravelry, has shown that there does not appear to be a consistent way of charting Illusion/Shadow Knitting. The working charts presented here, are what I found to be the easiest way of presenting the material. When working with other designer’s patterns be sure to read their instructions and chart keys for how to follow any charts provided.
The projects are presented in order of difficulty with the Make Up Remover Pad/Coaster being the simplest and the Camel-flage Hot Pad/Cloth being a “level up your knitting” option that includes an I-cord cast-on, integrated I-cord edges, and an I-cord bind-off, (for more information on those see our I-Cord Skill Builder I Knit of My own I-cord) but you can work the alternative garter stitch beginning, edges and ending for both pieces by working the Sl3 wyif as knit stitches.