Exploring Entrelac

And exploring blogging too, I guess you could say, as this is my "maiden" blog post. I like the idea of a journal, particularly one that chronicles my favourite hobbies (with some kid stuff thrown in here and there, and whatever else I feel like), so exploring blogging seemed a neat thing to do.

So, without further adieu - I've been exploring entrelac these days - hand knit, machine knit, crocheted. On the needles at the moment is some beautiful hand dyed Fleece Artist yarn dyed in colours strikingly similar to the Nova Scotia tartan. I like this. It's just a swatch at the moment, but it has potential, so stay tuned.

I've been a hand knitter for a very long time, and more recently have started exploring machine knitting. I tend to turn to machine knitting when I want some plain, boring stocking stitch done faster than I can hand knit it, or if there is a technique that can be accomplished with the machine that can't be accomplished (or at least not as easily) on my hand needles. I have an electronic Studio mid-gauge machine, and it knits hand knitting yarns (the main component of my stash) like a dream.

So I tried entrelac, and here are two samples - can you tell which was hand knit and which was machine knit (answer below)?

Answer: Picture on the left is machine knit. And for this particular technique, there is no advantage to machine knitting. It takes just as long on the machine to pick up all those stitches (if not longer, in fact), and I think I can do it more neatly and consistently by hand.

So my next stop was crocheted entrelac - which is actually done using the technique of "Tunisian Crochet". Now, I've always found crochet faster than knitting, but this is definitely something that has some possibilities! Forgive the yarn colours in the sample - it's just left over yarn swatched for technique only.

There are some tricks to this, and some kinks to work out. You can see from the photo that it produces a lot of ends (although they can be dealt with in crochet fairly easily as you work). With Tunisian crochet, which to me is like a hybrid mix of crochet and knitting together, you end up with a fabric that "sort of" has a knit side and a purl side. When you're knitting entrelac, all of your squares have the knit side on the same side (unless you wanted to deliberately change that, I suppose). With crochet, because of the way you flip the just-completed square, you end up with a row of "knit side facing" (the gold squares in the sample) and then a row of "purl side facing" (the purple squares in the sample). I imagine that's a simple matter of flipping the squares in some other fashion - it will just take some experimentation. So stay tuned as I continue to play.

I think that's enough for a "maiden blog". More soon....!