I am such a proud "uncle"! Now Lori says she'll write up a pattern for this that I can edit. I hope we can then teach a class at a local yarn store.
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Showing posts with label entrelac knitting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label entrelac knitting. Show all posts
Thursday, February 18, 2010
YAREH! Yet another ribbed-entrelac hat
Lori made herself a ribbed entrelac hat using the techniques I taught her. It's her own design, though it shares an affinity with the other hats I made with this technique. Like the others, it's seamless, reversible and knit in one piece. I guess seamless implies one-piece... well, maybe not, since Elizabeth Zimmerman's sweater designs are often seamless but not made in one piece. Here she is, modeling it at Knit Purl's Thursday night Sip 'n' Stitch:
I am such a proud "uncle"! Now Lori says she'll write up a pattern for this that I can edit. I hope we can then teach a class at a local yarn store.
I am such a proud "uncle"! Now Lori says she'll write up a pattern for this that I can edit. I hope we can then teach a class at a local yarn store.
Monday, February 08, 2010
Entrelac Star
This would be nice as a decoration made of cotton and starched. The example is knit of worsted-weight acrylic. I don't really recommend acrylic for this. The tips of the star tend to twist, and it's easier to block cotton or wool.Preliminaries
Materials and tools: a small quantity of yarn, with circular knitting needle and crochet hook to suit. A length of smooth, contrasting-color yarn. For the example, 8 inches (20 cm.) is about right.Right Twist (RT): Knit 2 together, leaving stitches on left needle, then knit the first stitch again and drop the two stitches off the left needle.
You will be knitting five units. The second unit is picked up from the left edge of the first unit, the third from the fourth, and the fourth from the third. The fifth unit is picked up from the left edge of the fourth unit and its own left edge is joined to the cast-on edge of the first unit. The star is finished with a crochet border.
Ignore the brackets if you are knitting a star the same size as the example. The algebra contained within brackets is only useful if you want to make a smaller or larger star. The base number can be any odd number n >= 7. The example uses 11 for n.Cast on 12 [n+1] stitches.
Unit 1
Row 1: (Right side) *YO, RT, K2 [(n-7)/2], K2tog, rep from *.Row 2: Lay a contrasting piece of yarn from back to front over working yarn, purl to end of row.
Rows 3, 5, ..., 21 [2n-1]: Repeat row 1.
Rows 4, 6, ..., 20 [2n-2]: Repeat row 2.
Leave the last row (21 [2n-1]) on the right needle.
Sanity check: there are 11 [n] lace eyelet holes going up the center of the unit. There are 10 [n-1] loops being held by the contrasting-color yarn.
Units 2-4
Pick up loops held by contrasting yarn onto left needle, from the previous unit's left edge, starting from the bottom left to the top left corner. Remove the contrasting yarn, and use it while turning the rows for this unit.Row 1: (Right side) *YO, RT, K3 [(n-7)/2 + 1], rep from *.
Rows 2-21 [2n-1]: as for Unit 1.
Leave the last row (21 [2n-1]) on the right needle.
Unit 5
Unpick the cast-on and place the freed-up stitches on the left needle, so that the right side of the first unit is facing you (you start picking up loops from the lower-right corner of the unit toward the lower-left corner). There should be 11 [n] stitches on the left needle. Then with the left needle pick up stitches held by the contrasting yarn. There should now be 21 [2n-1] loops on the left needle.Row 1: YO, RT, K3 [(n-7)/2 +1], YO, RT, K2, SSK, turn.
Row 2: Purl.
Row 3: YO, RT, K2 [(n-7)/2], K2tog, YO, RT, K2 [(n-7)/2], Sl2, K1, PSSO (central double-decrease).
Rows 4, 6, ... 20 [2n-2]: Repeat row 2.
Rows 5, 7... 21 [2n-1]: Repeat row 3.
Leave the last row (21 [2n-1]) on the right needle.
Finishing
Crochet *chain 1, single-crochet in a stitch or yarn-over loop, repeat from * in each stitch or loop around the star. When you get to the inner corners, gather three stitches/loops together into one sc. Finish with a slip stitch into the first single crochet. Block flat.PDF link
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Entrelac diagrams
For the last year, I've been experimenting with entrelac knitting. I find diagrams to be a good way to think about and explore entrelac knitting.
In this post, I'll show how to read my diagrams, assuming you already know how to do entrelac. I'll start with the simplest diagram and build from there.
Here's the minimal diagram to describe a piece of knitting:
The line inside the rectangle represents the grain of knitting. It's sometimes hard to tell the beginning edge from the ending edge of a piece of knitting—especially if the piece was cast off with a sewn cast-off—but with a flat piece, you can always tell which edges are selvedges.
These two diagram elements, rectangle and line, are enough to show the gist of an example of entrelac knitting:
The basic technique of entrelac is to join pieces of knitting end-to-side and side-to-end.
Looking at knitting, especially if it's stockinette, garter, or reverse stockinette, it's not always easy to see the direction of knitting. With entrelac, you're joining many little pieces of knitting as you go, so it's important to keep track of the direction of knitting. I use an arrow to show the direction:
Another thing to keep track of is which side the knitting starts and ends on. I use dots to show this. The diagram below shows a piece of stockinette knitting that starts and ends on a right-side row (when it's knit in the conventional direction):
The one below starts on a wrong-side row and ends on a right-side row:
Now I'll show an entrelac diagram with dots and arrows:
This is the minimal diagram to show how an entrelac piece is knitted. I suppose the dots can be inferred from the arrows, but they make following the diagram a little easier.
To make it clearer, for each square I'll often add a number in place of the dot that indicates how the first row begins, like so:
From the diagram above, you can infer how to work each square:
Now, all this assumes that you know how to join entrelac squares. In a subsequent post, I'll write about different ways to join entrelac pieces.
In this post, I'll show how to read my diagrams, assuming you already know how to do entrelac. I'll start with the simplest diagram and build from there.
Here's the minimal diagram to describe a piece of knitting:
The line inside the rectangle represents the grain of knitting. It's sometimes hard to tell the beginning edge from the ending edge of a piece of knitting—especially if the piece was cast off with a sewn cast-off—but with a flat piece, you can always tell which edges are selvedges.
These two diagram elements, rectangle and line, are enough to show the gist of an example of entrelac knitting:
The basic technique of entrelac is to join pieces of knitting end-to-side and side-to-end.
Looking at knitting, especially if it's stockinette, garter, or reverse stockinette, it's not always easy to see the direction of knitting. With entrelac, you're joining many little pieces of knitting as you go, so it's important to keep track of the direction of knitting. I use an arrow to show the direction:
Another thing to keep track of is which side the knitting starts and ends on. I use dots to show this. The diagram below shows a piece of stockinette knitting that starts and ends on a right-side row (when it's knit in the conventional direction):
The one below starts on a wrong-side row and ends on a right-side row:
Now I'll show an entrelac diagram with dots and arrows:
This is the minimal diagram to show how an entrelac piece is knitted. I suppose the dots can be inferred from the arrows, but they make following the diagram a little easier.
To make it clearer, for each square I'll often add a number in place of the dot that indicates how the first row begins, like so:
From the diagram above, you can infer how to work each square:
- Start on a wrong-side and end on a wrong-side row: 1, 2, 7, 12, 13.
- Start on a wrong-side and end on a right-side row: 3, 8.
- Start on a right-side and end on a right-side row: 4, 5, 9, 10.
- Start on a right-side and end on a wrong-side row: 6, 11.
Now, all this assumes that you know how to join entrelac squares. In a subsequent post, I'll write about different ways to join entrelac pieces.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Continuous-loop cable design
Fleegle has set the challenge: simplify. I tend to make things more and more complicated in knitting, to the point where (to myself anyway) I call it "Stunt Knitting." Yes, in my mind it's written capitalized.
The type of knitting I've been complicating lately is a style I call "Continuous Loop Cable Entrelac."
The design goals of this type of knitting are these:
1. produce knitted cables that appear to have no beginning and no end.
2. make these cables with one continuous thread of yarn.
3. minimize grafting.
The way I solved this challenge was to knit entrelac squares that bear diagonal cables. The cables can cross each other where the corners of four squares come together.
The simplest continuous loop would be a simple, uncrossed loop. Such a loop can be created with four entrelac squares that bear diagonal cables.
With a simple loop the beginning and end of the continuous cable have nowhere to hide. It would be possible to graft the beginning and end together, and that's a legitimate choice, but it conflicts with design goal 3.
To avoid grafting the cable itself, the simplest possible loop is a figure-8. With this shape, I can hide the beginning and ending of the cable under a cable crossing.
Figure-8 loop in continuous loop cable entrelac
1. Draw eight squares arranged in a two-by-four rectangle.
2. Indicate the grain of the knitting with a line in each square (this show how the squares are perpendicular to each other, without deciding on the direction of knitting yet.)
3. Draw in a diagonal cable on each square.
4. Draw in how the cables flow from and cross over each other.*
5. Indicate the direction of the cable with chevrons. The cable must start and end under a cable crossing to be able to appear continuous.
6. Indicate the direction of knitting the squares with arrowheads added to the lines in step 2.
7. Number the squares in order of knitting.
8. Diagram each square separately, showing its connections to previous squares.
When it comes time to present the diagram, I usually remove the chevrons I added to the diagram in step 5.
To be continued...
*There are generally two possible ways to do this; I usually have to try both ways to see which would be easier to knit.
The type of knitting I've been complicating lately is a style I call "Continuous Loop Cable Entrelac."
The design goals of this type of knitting are these:
1. produce knitted cables that appear to have no beginning and no end.
2. make these cables with one continuous thread of yarn.
3. minimize grafting.
The way I solved this challenge was to knit entrelac squares that bear diagonal cables. The cables can cross each other where the corners of four squares come together.
The simplest continuous loop would be a simple, uncrossed loop. Such a loop can be created with four entrelac squares that bear diagonal cables.
With a simple loop the beginning and end of the continuous cable have nowhere to hide. It would be possible to graft the beginning and end together, and that's a legitimate choice, but it conflicts with design goal 3.
To avoid grafting the cable itself, the simplest possible loop is a figure-8. With this shape, I can hide the beginning and ending of the cable under a cable crossing.
Figure-8 loop in continuous loop cable entrelac
1. Draw eight squares arranged in a two-by-four rectangle.
2. Indicate the grain of the knitting with a line in each square (this show how the squares are perpendicular to each other, without deciding on the direction of knitting yet.)
3. Draw in a diagonal cable on each square.
4. Draw in how the cables flow from and cross over each other.*
5. Indicate the direction of the cable with chevrons. The cable must start and end under a cable crossing to be able to appear continuous.
6. Indicate the direction of knitting the squares with arrowheads added to the lines in step 2.
7. Number the squares in order of knitting.
8. Diagram each square separately, showing its connections to previous squares.
When it comes time to present the diagram, I usually remove the chevrons I added to the diagram in step 5.
To be continued...
*There are generally two possible ways to do this; I usually have to try both ways to see which would be easier to knit.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
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