In Praise of Entrelac

I love entrelac.

First, when you say it, you sound French without even having to put on a fake accent.

Second, it looks really, really hard to do and it isn’t.

Third, it’s magic.

I say this because when I decided to take up knitting again about nine months ago, I wanted to make a shawl for my daughter, something I considered a relatively simple back-to-knitting project. The Nice Knitting Lady at my local yarn store showed me a whole book of shawls and, in all innocence, I picked the entrelac one because it was large and warm and I’m a sucker for anything that looks like latticework. She assured me that it was easy.

(Here's my daughter wearing her entrelac shawl.)

I started knitting the shawl in the store because there were some strange terms in the directions, such as “M1”, which I figured I’d need help with. But mostly I just followed the instructions slavishly without having any idea of what the stitches were supposed to be forming. All of a sudden I had a row of triangles. Where in the heck had those come from? Then I picked up some stitches and did some knitting together and--lo and behold!--I had a slanted rectangle attached to one of the triangles. Wow! It was magic.

Entrelac is a French term (duh!) which means interlaced. The pattern has other names such as basket stitch, trellis, lattice stitch or birch stitch but these are not nearly as sophisticated and cosmopolitan so I don’t use them.

(My latest entrelac project.)

It basically consists of a series of slanted blocks or rectangles framed by rows of triangles to give a straight edge. The finished project resembles a basket weave; it’s very three-dimensional. The pattern is amazingly easy to do and quite hypnotic. I consider entrelac my comfort stitch: interesting enough to hold my attention but not so hard that I end up cursing and frogging.

Entrelac can be done in garter stitch but is usually knitted in stockinette. It requires picking up stitches along one edge of one rectangle and then doing some knitting (or purling) together to slant it and attach it to the next rectangle. The end triangles are a bit more challenging but easily within a basic knitter’s grasp (once you get past the “M1”mystery).

I’ve seen entrelac patterns for afghans, sweaters, coats, vests, hats and, yes, socks! Some patterns turn it so that instead of being a diagonal pattern, it goes straight up-and-down. It’s particularly useful for using up odds and ends of yarn because you can get fabulous effects from knitting each row of rectangles in a different color. You can also felt it to create an intarsia argyle look although then you lose the three-dimensional lattice feeling.

So what’s your comfort stitch? What pattern makes you happiest?