You can create interesting effects in illusion knitting by making the ridges of knitting to run in different directions.

When you look directly at these windmills you will see four small striped squares. When you look from an angle you will see windmills of pink and purple.

The pink triangles form one windmill, the purple triangles form another. Because of the orientation of the squares it isn’t possible to see a ‘solid’ windmill at one time. Two triangles of each colour are always ‘solid’. The others show the colour to varying degrees, depending on the angle. As you move round the windmill parts appear more clearly, then disappear again, in rotation.

Each of the four small squares is worked individually, joining them together as you go so you are only working with 23 stitches at a time.

You can use any thickness of yarn and the illusion will still work. The example shown was made in DK and used about 40 metres (45 yards) in each of the two colours. It is approximately 22 cm (9”) square. You can add a border to neaten the edges and make it lie flatter.

The square could be used for an afghan block or a washcloth, or as part of a garment.

This chart has been available on The World of Illusion Knitting web site for over five years. We have eventually got round to making a pdf version which can be downloaded direct from this page.