I love an optical illusion, I also love a handcrafted piece of art, I love the Beatles, and we have lots of wall space to fill. So this birthday gift from my mum ticks all the boxes. It’s also fantastically clever…
My mum is an accomplished knitter, and has made all sorts of jumpers, socks, hats, etc for the family. But she is also hangs around on knitting forums and through those she came across a site which offers patterns for all sorts of knitted illusions, Woolly Thoughts.
Unlike her, I know next to nothing about knitting, so the video below is likely the best way to both see and understand the illusion. But essentially, there are vertical alternating columns of colours, with the purple stiches being always raised. Whereas the lighter columns have a combination of flat and raised stiches – this ingenious approach means that when viewed straight on, you simply see the stripes.
But when viewed from a side angle, the raised stiches become more prominent and so an image emerges… it’s a really amazing effect. Everybody (without exception) that visits our house notices the stripes (as they first see it full on) and politely don’t say anything about a neat but seemingly pointless piece of art. But as soon as they experience it from an angle, delight spreads across their face and they spend a good couple of minutes moving all around to get the full effect.
It’s really quite magical!