Ummmm

I've fallen behind. Again. Yesterday was a bit nuts, and honestly not much knitting took place. I felt a bit queasy and took a nap and when I woke up it was time to go to New Roommate's sheva brochas. Got home after 11. And today. Today I helped a friend get ready for her son's Bar Mitzvah, so except for a few rows here and there on my Marigolds, not much knitting again. And now it's time to get ready for Shabbos so no action until tomorrow night. But then, I'm sure I'll be up til the wee hours knitting away. Because Sunday I finally have to deal with the reality we call Pesach cleaning. Wish me luck!

But wait! What was that alt-neu (old-new) project I mentioned. Why, another Quant, of course. Quant-i-fiable is one of two new Quants I am making for my friend P, an accountant. She wanted black and professional, so I'm knitting these up in Sublime yarns Cashmere Merino Silk Aran. Talk about decadence! And taking my inspiration from Danica, it's all black, with random splashes of light blue (the second will be with orchid pink.) I'm thinking I may be on to something!

Mod Elegance

OK, so I've got a thing for entrelac. What is it? And why do I like so much?

Wikipedia defines entrelac as a "technique used to create a textured diamond pattern. While the end result resembles basket-woven strips of knitted fabric, the actual material comprises interconnected squares on two different orientations."

I'm guessing the word is French. If it isn't, please let me know. It highly resembles the English word "interlock" and that makes sense to me since, though it may look like two pieces that are interwoven, they are actually one piece of interlocking diamonds.

What first drew me to entrelac trying to figure out how it worked. It looks cool, and I HAD to know how to do it. That simple. I learned the technique pretty quickly. And yet. I have had a hard time finding patterns that appeal to me. Quant is a great little headband the shows off the technique nicely. Danica is also nice, but another flat accessory. Go bigger and, well, ugh. Most entrelac patterns are boxy. That I don't like. That's why John Briengar's Entrelac Jacket appeals. It's got all the detail and shaping. Truly the only reasons it keeps getting knocked down the queue are these: 1) It's heck of expensive to make (find me a good substitute yarn and we'll talk. Then again there is point 2,) it's a VK pattern people, it's never going to fit me. Sigh... I'm working towards neither of those things being a problem, but for now I guess I stick with the accessories. And always ready for a new challenge, I am ready to do it in the round! I finally replaced my wayward IK Spring '07 just to get my hands on Eunny's Entrelac Socks pattern. But more of that anon...

For now, here is Ele-quant. A more subtle, dignified version of Quant. (The original was bit big and bold for some people at the Shabbos table.)


The modifications are simple. I used a super expensive yarn (white elephant stash people, white elephant stash!) 4 mm needles instead of 5 mm and increased to 15 sts instead of 18. The last increase row uses a M1 in the center to get that odd number. That's it. My base number is 5 instead of 6 and all the rest is as the pattern.

Now here are the demonstration pictures I spoke of yesterday. I hope they are helpful, or at least interesting.

Every time you finish a diamond, it is time to pick up and knit (left slanting) or pick and purl (right slanting.) You'll notice that the pattern calls for slipping the first stitch on every diamond row, either direction. This creates a nice selvage row, allowing you to easily pick up the stitches. What keeps everything interlocked is this: as you make your new diamond, you are always hooking up the last stitch of your present work with the first available stitch on the next diamond. Using a right slanting diamond, following the pictures from left to right: Picture 1: The selvage stitches from where we will pick up. Picture 2: pick up and purl. Picture 3: the last picked up stitch is slipped to the left needle and Picture 4: purled together with the first stitch of completed, left slanting diamond of the previous section.

Click to enlarge

The diamonds are worked one at a time. As each row of stitches (that's 6 sts per the pattern, 5 in my pictures) is completed, you just turn and knit back. For the rest of the rows you will simply purl the last stitch of your current diamond with the first available stitch from the finished, (in our case,) left slanting diamond. As each diamond is completed, simply pick up the necessary stitches for the next diamond and repeat the steps.

The left slanting diamonds are worked from the knit side, which means they are joined by an SSK:

The two end stitches have been slipped knit wise,
the left needle comes through the front and the stitches are knit together,
through the back loop.

the completed row

In the meantime, here's where I was holding yesterday morning. (This morning's picture was pretty bad. Just imagine this about twice as long.)


And here is a close up of the wrong side. See all that interconnected goodness?


Now I have only covered the diamonds here, not the side triangles. But the post is running long so I will address them, and hopefully present the finished object, tomorrow.

moments

There are always moments. You know. Moments. Moments when you know you have crossed from one state of being to another. Like when I started on Backyard Leaves, I became a Knitter. But there are also smaller moments, moments that move towards the Moment. My big pre-Moment moment, must have been when I became besotted with Entrelac. I had to know how to do it. I had just bought my first Vogue Knitting magazine, no small investment in Israel. I believe it cost 70 NIS or approximately $15. It was the Fall 06 issue and featured a tutorial in Entrelac.

So there I was, knitting for only a few months, and I managed to work my way through. I don't think it was the best written tutorial, and I had to start over a few times. But when I got it, I got it. The thing that helped the most: I changed colors every diamond and every triangle. This let me see more clearly what was going on. Here's a picture of that first swatch:



Anyway, I have been looking for the right pattern ever since. I tried Danica, but it just wasn't working for me. Don't get me wrong, I still think it's a fab pattern. Now that I am a wiser Knitter, I am sure it was because I wasn't using the greatest of materials so I didn't like the how the scarf was flowing. I am sure I will revisit the pattern one day. If you don't know the pattern, check it out. And visit Jesse's blog. His was the first blog I visited and eventually subscribed to. I wish Yarn Boy was updated more often, but he is working on his book, so though I miss his posts I wish him much success.

Another Entrelac pattern that caught my eye, and was forever in my queue, was the Entrelac Jacket by John Brinegar, VK Holiday 2006. There are many reasons why I haven't yet cast on, among them that magazine is MIA (remember that all my things from Israel seemed to have arrived to CA EXCEPT my knitting books, etc...) but it remains a goal.

So here we are. Winter '08. I haven't had a hair cut since I left Jerusalem. But it's curly again, which somehow makes this ok. Still, it's just not looking its best. And since I have yet to purchase a shower cap (can you tell I'm still in a bit of limbo land?) it picks up a bit more frizz each morning from the shower. I needed a head band and I needed one stat. Thus I remembered Quant by Star Athena, from the newest crop of Knitty patterns. A nice wide headband, Entrelac, who could ask for anything more. (For more of my Quant project details, here is the link to my Ravelry project page.)

Knit up in bright self striping yarn, this is a super fast, super easy little project that gave me the Entrelac project I had been craving and cute headband to cover a myriad of hair sins. From the stash, I used Lang's Mille Colori and was quite pleased with the results.

from the front

and from the back

on the head

from the right

and from the left

Can I take just a moment to say how proud I am of these pictures? You see, I took them myself! Using the bathroom mirror to guide me, I actually got focused, close up shots OF MYSELF!

While I am quite pleased with the results, this headband is a bit wide. So I decided to use up that Artyarns I've been talking about and make another Quant. A more subtle Quant. An Ele-quant. I cast on with smaller needles and fewer stitches. Tomorrow we'll see how that's coming along and look at some pics I took showing some of the Entrelac process.