Well, you’re going to need to make some fiddly little “fill in triangles”. I’ll show how I do this for ribbed entrelac. If you aren’t doing ribbing, your directions will differ, but most of the steps will be qualitatively similar. Let’s start/

The base triangles are show to the left. Oh, don’t those look like base triangles? Well, they aren’t. My base triangles are in the darker blue. I do exactly the same thing after you finish a set of dark colored rectangles and I’m not going to rip back just to show base triangle.

So, first, look at your knitting. Notice I broke the dark blue yarn and it’s dangling on the left hand side. Now pick up the work, attach the yarn and we are going to do the following: Knit and purl into the first stitch. This increases a stitch and sets the “k1, p1″ pattern. (If we weren’t knitting rib, we’d either p into front and back or knit into front and back. All entrelac patterns will require you to increase in the first stitch.)

Here’s the detail of how to knit and purl into one stitch. (If you look carefully, you’ll see I cheat and illustrate “knitting and purling into the same stitch” when I work the 5th row of the triangle. I’ll explain why later.)

Begin row 1:
First operation: Knit and purl into same stitch:

Step 1: attach yarn and knit normally but don’t slide the stitch off the left needle then bring yarn forward as to purl. You will have a stitch on the right needle– that’s the one you just created. The stitch you knit into is still on the left needle. It will appear as in the photo above and to the right.

Step 2: Insert the tip of the right needle into the stitch you just knit. Insert this “as to purl”. (Actually, you can insert anyway you want, but this is the easiest way.)

Step 3, wrap the yarn to purl, and pull through to work the purl. Now let that very first stitch drop off the left needle tip.

You know have 2 stitches on the right needle tip, see above right.

(Now, the reasons I showed this on row 5 and not row 1 is this: 1) When you work row 1, the loops will be sloppy. This is because you’ve just attached yarn. You can pull on these to tighten them. 2) Because I’d just attached the yarn, I couldn’t hold the camera, firm up the yarn, do the operation and take pictures all at once. )

Finish row 1: Work an “ssk” as follows: Slip purl-wise, slip purlwise, place both stitches back on left needle, so the work appears as shown to the right. Now wrap the yarn knit.

The purpose of the “slips” is to reseat the stitches. If you examine the work you’ll notice the decrease “leans left” and the stitch on the right hides the stitch on the left. Also, if you compare your first SSK to t he picture, you’ll notice you will working two dark blue stitches together when working row 1. You’ll work a light blue stitch with a dark blue stitch on all later rows. Over time, you’ll notice this forms a ray of blue stitches crawling up along the dark blue. Forming that “ray” is the purpose of working the “ssk” instead of some other decrease.

You have finished row 1. There are three stitches on the right hand needle tip. Turn the work. Now, p1, k1, p1. You’ll run out of stitches.

Row 3: Begin with a “kfb”, that is a “knit front and back”. The purpose is to increase a stitch and establish the “k1,p1″ pattern. Here’s an illustration:

(For clearer pictures and a fuller explanation of “kfb”, see Knit into Front and Back Loop. )

Continue row 3: Purl 1, SSK. The SSK will involve a light blue and a dark blue stitch.

You will now have 4 light blue stitches on the left needle tip. Turn the work.
Row 4: P1, k1, p1, p1.
Notice on row 4: You are working “k1 p1 rib”, except for the last stitch. What will happen on all future even number rows is this: Work k1, p1 rib, up to the last stitch, then purl it.

The purpose: you want to work rib. However, you *also* want that last stitch to sit nice and flat. That makes it easier to work the “kfb” or “knit and purl into same stitch” when you turn.

Ok, so now what:

Row 5: Knit and purl into same stitch, k1, p1, ssk.
Row 6: P1, k1, p1,k1, p1.

Row 7: Kfb, p1, k1, p1, ssk.
Row 8: P1, k1, p1, k1, p1, p1.

Notice the pattern is established. Begin row 5, 9, 13 etc with “k and p into same stitch”. Begin row “3, 7, 11 etc. with “kfb”. Always SSK when you reach the dark blue stitches. Always end with a purl.

Eventually you will run out of dark blue stitches, and the work will look as shown to the left. Then you’ll be ready to pick up — very much like I showed earlier! (I’ll answer some of the questions people had about the pick up method tomorrow. There are many ways to pick up, so many of the answers are “That way is right too.”)

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So, to be semantically precise, I’m going to call what I’m describing in this article “pick up stitches half way so I can finish picking them up one “row 0.” I call it “row 0″, because it’s technically not working a row– it’s the second half of picking up. By describing it this way, I’ll probably satisfy Doree! (Or not. I’m still not sure she entirely likes the idea of half-way picking up a whole bunch of stitches and then doing the second half all at once. But she agrees it works just fine and you can’t tell the difference when you’re done.)

To the left, you can see that I’ve just finished the edge “triangle” of the lighter colored entrelac bits. I have one stitch on the right hand needle. There are a whole bunch of stitches on the left needle, but there seems to be a “gap” which is formed by one of the sides of the light blue triangle.

The direction are going to have me pick up nine stitches on that side edge, but as I’m picking them up, I need to work them in a “k1, p1″ pattern pluswhen I work the very last one, I will need to work a “p2tog tbl” fusing a picked up stitch with the first stitch that is currently sitting on the left hand needle.

Now there are two ways I could do this, but I’m only going to describe my way which I think is easiest when working ribbed entrelac.

Here’s how I start, I take the point of my right hand needle and stitch it from front to back through the side loop of the bottom stitch of the light blue triangle. Then, I slide that stitch onto the tip of the left hand needle making sure the stitch “sits” right. (That is, you’ll see the left leg of the yarn sitting in front of the left hand needle.)

I have now half-way picked up a stitch. Why isn’t this “fully picked up”? Well.. . uhmmm.. Because some people just don’t count pick ups that way. They don’t consider the stitch “picked up” until after you have either knit or purled into the stitch. And note: I haven’t knit or purled into it. (Other people do call this picking up stitches, and this can be confusing when you are counting rows. But, usually, it’s not confusing at all.)

Ok, but I need to pick up nine stitches eventually. But, the way I do this, you need to leave the pick up half finished for now and then “half way pick up” another stitch. So, I repeat what I just did, this time picking up the side of the loop 2 rows up along this edge.

I continue half-way picking up until I have picked up 9 stitches (because that’s my directions call for nine.) Then, I double check that I have picked up nine– ripping back and adjusting if I have not. At that point, the work likes as it does to the left.

Next, I slide that stitch on the right hand needle to the left needle tip. Then, I attach the dark blue yarn and work the second half of the pick up procedure. This is not row 1; it only seems like a “row”. So, I’ll call it “row 0″.

Ok, to work row 0, I will do this: ** k1, p1, repeat from * until you have reached the last “halfway picked up stitch”. You should be ready to work a p1. (Note, if you like, you can work all stitches through back loops; that tightens the pickups. I do this, but it really doesn’t matter much. Doree thinks it’s fiddly and doesn’t make enough difference to make it work the fiddly-ness of working through back loops.)

Now, that you reached the final “halfway picked up stitch”, you are going to get ready to purl two stitches together. Now, it really is worth doing something fiddly. So, we are going to work a “slip, slip, p2tog tbl.”

To do this, slip that last “half picked up” stitch purl-wise. Slip the next stitch purlwise. (This stitch was on the left needle before we started picking up stitches.) Slip the both back to the left needle tip. The purpose of this procedure is to change the seat of the stitches.

Now, p2tog tbl as shown to the left.. This means “purl 2 together through the back loops.” I didn’t get a very good picture of this, but you can read more in “Symmetric Decreases: Purl.”

The purpose of all this fiddlyness is to make the reverse side look prettier than if you worked a simple “p2tog”.

When you turn the work, you’ll see that the light blue stitch hides the dark blue “half picked up” stitch. Had you skipped the slipping and worked a “p2tog” the dark blue would lie on top of the light blue; that looks ugly because the dark blue “stitch” wasn’t a real stitch”. It was just the edge loop of a sideways stitch.

But, good news. The only time you work these “slip, slip, p2tog tbl’s” for the final two stitches during this whole “pick up stitches” operation. You’ll just work p2tog the normal way the rest of the rows.

Sometime next week, I’ll show how to work the light blue rows. (Which should help everyone working entrelac.) Meanwhile, bye for now.

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Yes, I’m knitting very slowly. What with deciding to start working out, getting a diet blog set up, and deciding to see if it is even possible to make money blogging. (A final report with dollar figures, program lists and rules one must follow will be provided sometime next week.)

Still it looks like my design idea for the scarf worked out. Here are the features of the ribbed entrelac:

• Reversible.
• “Entrelacs” bits looks tall and narrow (as opposed to garterlacs, which look squarish.)
• The fabric is flat (as opposed to bulgy in-and-outie look of stockinette entrelac.)
• A bit slower to work that garter stitch or stockinette at least for me.
• Thick and “plushy”, as you would expect for ribbing.

I think this scarf design is going to be popular with my family!

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Still, I think it’s interesting to show different types of “Knit-lacs” and compare how they look. After all, knitters pick projects based on how they want their item to look, so seeing the options is great.

Standard Entrelac

First , let’s look at normal entrelac. Here’s a sample of entrelac knit by Spinsters Blog.
One feature of stockinette entrelac (aka normal entrelac) is the “blocks” are taller than they are wide. Because of this, the surface ripples and bulges ever so slightly, resulting in an emphasized “up and down” woven effect. You can see this in the sample to the left.

You’ll also sometimes notice blocks can seem a bit hourglass shaped with the centers a bit narrower than the tops and bottoms. This doesn’t show much in the sample I found– but you’ll sometimes see it.

Generally, both the rippling and “hourglass” shape are more noticeable before blocking. Usually, knitters who knit entrelac want the dimensional effect, just as they want cables to have a “up-down” woven effect. Consequently, these knitters don’t block the fabric at all, or they block very lightly. Still, some do block hard, and heavily blocked entrelac can look nice too.

The down side: stockinette entrelac is not truly reversible. If you flipped this over, you would notice the opposite side is reverse stockinette. I found this example at sknitty. You get to decide if you want a scarf that flips over and looks like this. I don’t; that’s why I’m working or ribbed entrelac instead of just following the directions for the “Danica” scarf at “Knitty”.

Garterlac I

Now, let’s look at “garterlac”. Most commonly, “garterlac” seems to refer to entrelac where the knitter knits each block in garter stitch. Here’s an example from Criminy Jickets who provides directions for garterlac dishcloths at his blog.

Because each block is knit in garter-stitch, garterlac is truly reversible. I think that’s an advantage because I really don’t like having to look for the “right side” when I’m putting a scarf on. Maybe that’s just me?

Still, let’s compare garterlac to the stockinette (aka “normal”) entrelac.

To the right, you can see Spike’s garterlac afghan. Notice the individual blocks are nearly square. This is because the height of two rows of garter stitch is nearly equal to the width of 1 stitch. One result is the blocks do tend to look like true diamonds; there is never any “hourglass” type effect. Another result is the fabric lies very flat even with very little blocking; it doesn’t have the “dimensional up-down” effect. This is good if you don’t want a dimensional effect; it’s bad if you want one. (Duh! )

Even without the “up and down” effect, garterlac the garter ridges may give garterlac a very strong “woven” effect. As you can see in the dishcloths above, the woven effect is particularly strong when you use variegated yarn; it may vanish entirely in an item is knit in a single color or in random colored blocks. In that case, you can treat them more like simple blocks of color and mimic popular block quilt patterns.

So, you have options!

So, strong woven effect (or not) and reversible. A great stitch for a scarf, right? Yep!

So, why don’t I do this? Well…. I want those elongated blocks! Plus, heck, I like doing things I haven’t seen done!

Garterlac II

It turns out Sachi was suggesting that I alternate knitting the stockinette blocks so that half would appear knit side facing and half purl side facing. This would be perfectly reversible, and it may look pretty darn cool. But, you’ll notice no pictures? I couldn’t find an example! So, we’ll all need to guess what this looks like! (I may eventually try it.)

Ribbed Entrelac

Ok, this is what I’m going to do. I couldn’t find any samples on the web. (For that matter, I’ve never seen ribbed entrelac, but that doesn’t mean I’m the first to do it.)

How does it look? Well, rib stitches are “tall” like stockinette so the blocks that are tall compared to their width. Because ribbing is reversible, each block lies flat, and I’m not getting any “up and down” dimensional effect. However, I am getting a bit of an hourglass effect. The tops and bottoms stretch to the length of a block an the centers narrow a bit. (Not a lot– but a bit.)

And of course, most important, this is reversible. I do think I’m going to like this better than a pure stockinet entrelac scarf.

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Table of contents for ribbed-entrelac

1. Ribbed Entrelac Test Knit
2. Ribbed Entrelac: The scarf begins!

When we adopted Cosmo from the Humane Society, we made one thing very clear: He was expected to be a working cat. He told us he was more than willing to work for his keep. So, yesterday, I assigned him his first task: Pick out yarn for my entrelac scarf. And guess what? He picked some great stuff!

The yarn is DK weight, 100% wool, and Cosmo picked two beautiful shades of blue. Inspired by his color choices, I cast on. To the left, you can see what I’ve done so far.

I labeled the “bits”. Bits, 1&2 are knit following the directions for “Section 1″. Bits 3,4 & 5, are the left triangle, center rectangle and right triangle created following the directions in “Section 2″. Bit 6 is the first rectangle following directions for “Section 3″. The magenta line indicates a row of stitches.

In case you want to give this a whirl, here are sort of directions — but notice they aren’t complete! I’ll write the full directions up when I’m done, and I’ll write a calculator so you can vary. (Ok, you know the real reason these directiosn are here. It’s so I can print them out and check as I keep knitting section 2 and 3 over and over again. If they are confusing, please ask questions– then I can fix wording. There may be mistakes! )

MATERIALS
Main Color [MC]: Dark blue stash yarn DK [100% wool; 105 yd per 50g skein] 1 skein;
Contrast Color [CC]: Light blue stash yarn DK [100% wool; 105 yd per 50g skein].
(This happens to be Aarlan Swa Laine. I doubt this is made anymore. You can use any DK or sport yarn.)

1 set 4 mm needles

GAUGE
?? sts/?? rows = 4 inches in stockinette stitch

ABBREVIATIONS:
Pfb: Purl into front, then back of stitch. 1 st increased.
Kfb: Knit into front, them back of stitch. 1 st increased.
SSK: Slip 1 knit wise, slip knit wise, knit two slipped stitches together.

DIRECTIONS
IMPORTANT NOTE: Turn work at the end of each row throughout pattern, unless instructed otherwise. I’ll remind you once after row 1.

NOTES: The directions mention the “right side” and “wrong side”. There really isn’t a right side and wrong side, but the notes help you keep track of the directions, and remind you to turn the work. I mark the “right side” with a safety pin after a few rows.

Slip purlwise unless the directions instruct otherwise.

I sometimes use blue font to emphasize what’s changed since two rows earlier in the directions. This should help you understand directions like “continue in pattern established.”

SECTION 1:Two Base Triangles.

Using MC, CO 20 sts. (Note: This makes two blocks with 10 stitches each. )

Row 1 [RS]: K1,P1. (Turn the work even though there are tons of stitches on the left hand needle. Really!)
Row 2 [WS]: Sl1, p1.

Row 3 [RS]: K1, p1, k1.
Row 4 [WS]: Sl1, k1, p1.

Notice, you should be able to tell this is becoming 1 x 1 ribbing. Also, the point of triangle 1 will begin to from.

Row 5 [RS]: K1, p1, k1, p1.
Row 6 [WS]: Sl1, p1, k1, p1.

Row 7 [RS]: K1, p1, k1, p1, k1.
Row 6 [WS]: Sl1, k1, p1, k1, p1.

Continue in pattern established by rows 5-8 until row 14. (Math note, that’s 2*10 – 6.) Just in case you get lost, here are the directions for rows 13 & 14!

Row 13 [RS]: **K1, p1 repeat from ** 3 times, end k1. (You worked a total of 9 stitches.)
Row 14 [WS]: Sl1, p1, **k1, p1 repeat from ** to end.

Row 15 [RS]: **K1, p1 repeat from ** 6 times. (Note: You work a total of 12 stitches on this row. That’s 10 to complete the first base triangle and 2 for the next base triangle.)

Repeat Rows 2-14 once more.

Next Row [RS]: **K1, p1 repeat from ** 5 times. Break yarn. Mark “right side” [RS] with safety pin.

If you want to see how these triangles are going to look when after you finish, take one of the triangles off onto a spare needle. and draw the cast on into a straight line. There will be 10 stitches at the top of each base triangle. (If you do this, do put the stitches back on the needle to continue working. )
==================================
SECTION 2: Edge triangles and rectangles in CC.

Left Edge Triangle: Start with “wrong side” facing. You’ll be attaching yarn at the edge of triangle 2.
Row 1 [WS]: Kfb into same stitch, p2tog. (The kfb increases a stitch at the edge; the p2tog eats up one of the dark blue stitches on the top of triangle 2. Remember to turn the work.)
Row 2 [RS]: K1, p1, p1.

Row 3 [WS]: (K1,p1) into same stitch, k1, p2tog. (The k1, p1 into same stitch increases a stitch at the edge.)
Row 4 [RS]: K1, p1, k1, p1.

Row 5 [WS]: Kfb, p1, k1, p2tog.
Row 6 [RS]: K1, p1, k1, p1, p1.

Row 7 [WS]: (K1,p1) into same stitch, k1, p1, k1, p2tog.
Row 6 [RS]: K1, p1, k1, p1, k1, p1.
Continue in pattern established until you reach row 15.

Row 15 [WS]: (K1,p1) into same stitch, **k1, p1, repeat from ** 3 times, k1, p2tog. Do not turn work. Note: 10 sts on right needle.

Note: Directions for Center Square and Right Edge Triangle will instruct you to pick up sts along the edge of a square. The first time you work Section 1, you will be picking these sts up along the edges of the base triangles.

Center Square:
Pick up 10 stitches along edge of square adjacent to right needle.
Now (k1, p1) across until 3 stitches remain, end (k1, then ssk.)

Next Row [RS]: **k1, p1 repeat 5 times.
Next Row [WS]: **k1,p1 repeat from ** 4 times, end k1, p2tog.
Repeat these 2 rows * times more. All sts have been worked; 20 sts on right needle. Do not turn work at end of last row.

Right Edge Triangle:
Along edge of square adjacent to right side, pick up 10 stitches and beginning with a knit stitch work in 1 x 1 rib until two stitches remain, ssk.

Row 1 [RS]: *p1, k1 repeat from *, end k1.
Row 2 [WS]: * k1, p1, repeat from * until 3 stitches remain, k1, ssk.
Row 3 [RS]: p1, *p1, k1 repeat from *.
Row 4 [WS]: *k1, p1, repeat from * until 2 stitches remain ssk.

Continue in pattern established.

Row 16 [WS]: Ssk. Break yarn. Attach other color.

==================================
SECTION 3: Two rectangles in MC.

First Square:
With RS facing and using MC, p1, pick up and work 9 sts in 1 x 1 rib along edge of Right Edge Triangle beginning with a knit stitch, when you reach the last picked up stitch, work an ssk to “seam” with the first stitch on the top of the next rectangle.)

*Next Row [WS]: *p1, k1, repeat from *.
Next Row [RS]: *p1, k1, repeat from * 3 times, end p1, ssk.
Repeat these 2 rows 8 times more. 10 sts on right needle. Do not turn work at end of last row.*

Second Square:
Along edge of Center square, pick up 10 stitches and work the first 9 in 1 x 1 rib beginning with a purl stitch, end with ssk.

Work from * to * as for First Square. Break yarn.
=======================
Repeat Section 2 and Section 3 until work measures “some long length” inches, ending with Section 2.
=====

Finishing bit!
I haven’t finished! These instructions aren’t here yet!

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