Wohoo! First finished object this year! They are wrist cuffs, but our trusty thermos got to model them.
Shadow knitting or illusion knitting was one of the first ”fancy” techniques I tried as a knitting newbie. The basics are fairly simple and requires only knitting, purling and lifting stitches to make a neat edge.
I was excited about it and told a friend who joked that I could knit a scarf that looked like a hat (or hat that looked like a scarf, I can’t remember). Later, he got a very special scarf as a gift 
The design is visible at an angle and otherwise just looks striped if you look at it. It doesn’t show up great on a small, curved object like these cuffs, but still adds a bit of interest. The most important part was to give G something soft and warm to help his cold hands.
The black yarn is a superwash merino and the multicoloured one is from Easyknits. I can’t remember the yarn base since it’s lived in my stash for 10+ years 
I think it’s merino/silk. It’s very soft and a bit slippery, but doesn’t have the feel of pure silk. The white yarn is just cotton yarn for a provisional cast on. I grafted them together with kitchener stitch when they reached round the intended wrist.
And just for fun, here’s my first shadow knitting project, the hat/scarf scarf/hat:
”Mössa” is the Swedish word for hat/beanie. It’s knitted in an acrylic yarn, and I think I charted the letters myself, at least the Ö.
