Tales from Goshen: knitting

Entrelac Knitting

knitting 9:00 AM

My latest knitting project was yet another inspiration from Purl Soho in NYC. This particular project was actually in a book I bought from Purl called More Last Minute Knitted Gifts.

The Entrelac Baby Blanket.

This was one of the most unique knitting projects I've ever undertaken. Entrelac is a style of knitting where you basically knit a series of square and triangles together.

This project was knit completely on one pair of circular needles. It was broken down into 5 rows: green/blue triangles...white row...blue and green squares...white row...yellow and blue triangles. I started with the blue triangle pictured in the top right, then did the green triangle, then the white triangle on the next row. And it was a project where I couldn't overthink what I was doing. Only when I was well into the rows did it even begin to look like a blanket.

But I would have to say it was pretty easy to knit, pretty mindless once you got going, and pretty fun!

The book suggested you use a cashmere...but seriously? I wasn't gonna spend over $100 to buy yarn for a blanket that a child was going to use. This is not a precious jewel. This is something that needs to be machine-washable.

Fortunately, the helpful ladies at the yarn store where I purchased the yarn were able to give me some ideas for substitutes. And either we overcalculated or I knit it tighter...but I have SEVERAL skeins left. A new project???

I love this blanket. I chose the colors based on its future use in August and Dorien's room which has mustard colored quilts on the beds. I thought the one mustard triangle would be a neat addition to tie it to the room.

Size-wise, it's about 34 inches square. Perfect to wrap up a child in. And extremely soft.

The More Last Minute Knitted Gifts book breaks projects down by estimated hours to completion, and this one was projected to take over 8 hours. And yes, it did. It actually took me a few months. Nothing really last minute about it!

But that's really my fault as finding time to knit is squeezed in among other, more pressing priorities.

But I am so pleased to have checked it off my knitting "to do" list!

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knitting 1:13 PM

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knitting 4:56 PM

My Latest Knitting Project

knitting 8:00 AM

Knitting Lesson 1 - Tying a SlipKnot

knitting 1:33 PM

The very very very first thing you do when you begin any knitting project is attach your yarn to your needle via a slipknot. This may be something very simple for you, but for some reason, every illustration I saw of one made me scratch my head in puzzlement. I eventually figured out that it wasn't that hard - you just make a pretzel. See what I mean in the following illustrations...

First, take your yarn and estimate how much yarn you'll need to cast on the needle (casting on is just your starter stitches). For example, if you have to cast on only 10 stitches, you won't need much yarn. If you're casting on 65 stitches, you may need several feet of yarn. Don't be alarmed by the amount of yarn you pull out to get you started.

If you fail to estimate the right amount of yarn, you'll end up going back, unraveling your stitches and starting over. Been there, done that. So it's better to over-estimate and have a tail of yarn left rather than have to start over.

As the picture above shows, you pull out the required amount of yarn you think you'll need to cast on and you fold it back to your left. The top strand of yarn is what you'll be pulling from the yarn ball. The bottom yarn will be what you end up casting on.

Next, take the curve you've made and twist it over once on the end, leaving a little bubble of about an inch or so. I always take the side closest to me and twist it over away from me.

Then, with your hand, pick up that bubble...

And fold it back over itself.

Like so...You want to fold it so that you leave it looking like a pretzel.

Then, take your knitting needle and insert the tip under the second strand of yarn from you. (not to complicate things, but if you made your initial twist opposite of the way I did, then you'll insert your needle through the strand just below the top strand instead of what I've shown).