Heart Illusion Dishcloth

At the 2015 County Fair, I saw a knit pillow that had an illusion pattern of a mathematical formula. I kept walking back and forth, watching the pattern appear and disappear. After a year of research and trial and error I was able to create a similar effect in crochet by alternating yarn colors and using Tunisian Simple Stitch and Tunisian Reverse Stitch. Viewed straight on, it looks like a striped cloth; tilt it so you are looking from bottom to top across the face of the piece and the Illusion Heart becomes visible.

TUTORIALS FOR THIS PATTERN

Choosing Colors

Size

8 ¾” (22cm) square

Yarn

Lily Sugar n Cream (100% cotton; 120 yards [110 meters]/ 2.5 ounces [71 grams]): 1 skein each Rose Pink Color Number 0046 (MC), White Color Number 0001 (CC) [This is enough yarn to make 2 wash cloths: example uses 30g MC, 20g CC]

Hooks

Tunisian Hook size 6.0mm (J/10)

Standard Hook size 5.5mm (I/9)

Chart

Notions

Tapestry Needle

Gauge

Gauge is not critical for the washcloth

Abbreviations

Please see our standard abbreviations.

Edge Tunisian Simple Stitch (edge tss) – the last stitch of the forward pass; insert hook under both vertical bars, yarn over, pull up a loop and leave on hook

Skip (sk) – skip the next stitch

Tunisian Reverse Stitch (trs) – Insert hook under back vertical bar, yarn over, pull up a loop and leave on hook.

Tunisian Simple Stitch (tss) – Insert hook under front vertical bar, yarn over, pull up a loop and leave it on the hook.

Pattern Notes

Some general things to remember while doing Tunisian Crochet:

Tunisian Crochet instructions include directions for a forward and a return pass for each row.

All work is done on the right side. Do not turn before doing the return pass.

Some curl is natural in Tunisian crochet. If you find the piece curling tightly, increase your hook size.

These notes refer to the work done after the Foundation Row of this pattern:

The last stitch of each forward pass is a Tunisian Simple Stitch (tss) done by inserting the hook under both vertical bars. I termed this stitch Edge Tunisian Simple Stitch (edge tss) since this is different than the tss done throughout the rest of the pattern.

Always skip the first vertical bar of the row; it, along with the loop that remains on the hook after the return pass, counts as the 1^st stitch of the forward pass.

All Main Color (MC) rows start and end with Tunisian Reverse Stitch (trs), excluding edge stitches.

All Contrasting Color (CC) rows start and end with Tunisian Simple Stitch (tss), excluding edge stitches.

This pattern includes instructions presented in three ways:

A Tunisian Crochet Chart

Written instructions

A table of stitches showing color and stitches used by row number

Pattern

Begin “Casting On”:

With MC, ch27 (foundation chain)

Foundation Row (forward): Working in back bumps of foundation ch, insert hook from front to back through 2nd ch from hook; yo, pull lp through ch and leave on hook, *insert hook in next ch; yo, pull lp through and leave on hook*, rep from * to end of row.; 27 lps on hook (the same number as the foundation chain).

Return Row (backward): Yo, pull through 1 lp on hook to make a ch st; *yo, pull through 2 lps on hook*, rep from * until 2 lps rem on hook (25 times) drop MC and change to CC; yo, pull through 2 lps. The last lp remains on hook.

Changing Color

Standard return until 2 lps remain on hook; drop yarn (lay it along the row of stitches to the right hand edge; bring new color up by going under the dropped yarn; yarn over with new color, pull through last 2 loops

Edge tss

At the end of each forward pass go under both vertical bars to do the edge tss.

Make sure there are 27 loops on the hook at the end of every forward pass.

Reminder: Always skip the first vertical bar of the row.

Row 1, forward: Sk first vertical bar, [tss in next vertical bar] 25 times, edge tss.

Return until 2 lps remain on hook; drop CC and change to MC; yo, pull through last 2 lps

Row 2, forward: 25 trs, edge tss