Traditionally, October is a month for knitters to work on socks (Socktober). For me, at least this year, October is the time for me to finish up all the projects I was working on when my daughter was born last summer. The first FO (finished object, as opposed to UFO – knitter’s acronym for unfinished object) is the Op Art Baby Blanket. This pattern was the most recent addition to my Knitty Project:
I had an idea to knit one project from every issue of Knitty (a free quarterly online knitting magazine). I’ve made several things from Knitty already, and have several more in my Ravelry queue.
This pattern also qualifies as an entry for Sunday Knitting Science. Here’s what the designer has to say about the OpArt baby blanket:
“Optical Art is a method of painting concerning the interaction between illusion and picture plane, between understanding and seeing.” [John Lancaster. Introducing Op Art, London: BT Batsford Ltd, 1973, p. 28.] The Op Art movement of the 1960s played with perspective in very simple shapes, taking advantage of the way that the brain interprets images. The art they produced created optical illusions, making the flat surface of a painting appear to bend and twist. Black and white were especially popular in this movement, as the high contrast helped make the illusions more convincing.
…By starting at the center and making increases every row in the same spot, the increases end up making a spiraling square. By making the lines thin at the center, and increasing in width as they move outwards, an illusion is created that the center is further away from the viewer than the outside edge. Pretty cool, don’t you think?
The original pattern was done in black and white, recreating the optical illusion while at the same time accounting for an infant’s poor vision and attraction to high contrast images. For my version of the blanket, I used color theory and the notion of complementary colors, those that are found opposite each other on the color wheel:
Starting in the center with red, and matching each color to its complement (so the next stripe is green), the pattern creates alternating rainbows spiraling out from the center. I also used an I-cord bind off to create a neat, rolled edge. It takes a little longer than a traditional bind off, but the result is worth the extra effort.
The pattern is simple, great for TV knitting. The yarn recommended for this pattern, Knit Picks Swish DK, is an affordable superwash wool, but I found it to be splitty and fragile when wet. Just soaking it for blocking caused it to unravel. I was considering using the leftovers to make a sweater for my youngest, but I think I’ll choose something sturdier, and donate this yarn to the older kids’ stash.
Technical specs:
- Yarn: Knit Picks Swish DK
- Garnet Heather (3 skeins) – ran out with ~40 stitches on the last row.
- Persimmon Heather (2 skeins)
- Grain Heather (2 skeins)
- Forest Heather (2 skeins)
- Delft Heather (2 skeins)
- Amethyst Heather (2 skeins)
- Needles: US Size 7 40 inch circulars
- Pattern: OpArt by Melissa Dominguez
- Modifications: Complementary colors (red/green, orange/blue, yellow/purple, green/red, blue/orange, purple/yellow)
- New skills:
- Purl front and back
- I-cord bind off
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Image credit: Color wheel courtesy of creative commons licensed content from glovsky255 via Flickr.
