shadow knitting out of the shadows and into the Spotlight

At last, i can now show you some of the shadow knitting i made for our Spotty (Spotlight) knitting group christmas exchangeCompare the photos above and below, now you see the trees and now you don't, it all depends upon the viewing angle.

The same here, above and below, 2 nine patches on the left which are hardly visible above.....

but here they are again from an acute viewing angle, above.

And lastly 2 diagonal knit squares with simple strips above

and triangles of green or white in this one. This Shadow Knitting is a lot of fun, i have a book by Vivian Hoxbro which explains it all but basically it is done with alternating pairs of rows in 2 different colours, and the pattern is created from the underside by knitting the wrong side row with either knit or purl.

Row 1: (RS) all stitches Knit with colour A;

Row 2: (WS) Knit (or Purl) with colour A;

Row 3: (RS) all stitches Knit with colour B;

Row 4: (WS) Purl (or Knit) with colour B.

Repeat these 4 rows for the basic pattern but for a more complex design vary the stitches used in rows 2 and 4 between purl and knit, but only use the one colour in each pair of rows. Try a sample and remember to always knit on the right side and use strongly contrasting colours or tones.

Now for what i received from my lovely Spotty knitting group. We've been meeting every Wednesday morning since early July, and if you live locally to Bathurst you're welcome to join us.

A gorgeous black velvet bag from Carol, this is the deepest black you can imagine and a fluffy white knitted coathanger from Janette.
Janette also very generously made all of us knitted brooch pins in different colours for each person. I get many compliments when i wear mine, it's very cute. The other girls are still making gifts which they will exchange in the New Year as this occurred very spontaneously.

Thankyou Ruth and Brenda and the team at Spotlight Bathurst for hosting our lovely knitting group, we feel very welcome there and we make so much noise with our natter that the other shoppers look at us probably wondering how we can be having so much fun knitting.