©Pat Ashforth & Steve Plummer 2021

©Pat Ashforth & Steve Plummer 2021

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MACK TRUCK by DEB BERTRAND

I discovered illusion knitting by accident.  Wanting to knit a runner for the top of my friend's piano, I came across a pattern for a table runner with quarter notes, and started knitting it without realizing the "illusion" part.  I was confused at first, but as I persevered with it, I became quite intrigued at the way the design emerged.  My friend loved the result.

 My son and his wife are expecting a new baby shortly.  I wanted to knit a baby blanket, and I found the Woolly Thoughts website, with its lovely baby designs.  But my son is a trucker, and somehow I just couldn't see making him a cute little teddy bear or dinosaur.  I emailed Steve to ask if he would design a Mack truck illusion knit, but instead, he said he would help me design my own.  I sent him a couple of images, we decided on one, and Steve emailed me detailed and explicit instructions for downloading the Inkscape program and getting started.  (Hmm, I think he has done this before . . . !)

Once I had downloaded the program, Steve got me started by inserting the image and the letters of the baby's name, and filled in the first several rows.  Once I had worked on the chart for a while, I emailed it to him, he made some helpful suggestions, and I carried on. (There were times when I couldn't look at the chart anymore - my eyes were blurring, looking at the detail!) Steve tweaked the final result, and I have to say that I am extremely pleased with the finished article.  It's not perfect, but I love the way it looks.

I have shown it to a number of people, and they have all been impressed.  Funnily enough, it seems to be men who are really intrigued by it.  My son loves it, and now my husband has asked me to knit a blanket for him, too!  (Steve, thankfully, has offered to help again once I am ready to start that one.)

Deb

Deb Bertrand

tandelaya