Entrelac is a
knitting
Knitting is a method by which yarn is manipulated to create a textile, or fabric. It is used to create many types of garments. Knitting may be done by hand or by machine.
Knitting creates stitches: loops of yarn in a row, either flat or i ...
technique used to create a textured diamond pattern. While the result resembles basket-woven strips of knitted fabric, the actual material comprises interconnected squares on two different orientations.
![Entrelac-hat](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Entrelac-hat.jpg)
Unlike many textured knitting techniques, Entrelac allows for colorwork as well. Though single-color entrelac is the norm, it is often used to create colored patterns. The use of variegated
yarn
Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, used in sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery, ropemaking, and the production of textiles. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufact ...
with long color repeats for entrelac has become commonplace, since careful use can create distinct squares of color with only one yarn.
Entrelac can be knit flat (back-and-forth) or in the round for a cylinder, as for the hat at right. However, unlike typical round knitting, the knitting is turned after a full round of squares so the next set is knitted in the opposite direction.
Method
Knitting entrelac requires only the knit and purl stitches, an ability to "k2tog" and "p2tog" (knit or purl two stitches together) and to pick up stitches. Entrelac can be done entirely in
garter stitch
Basic knitted fabrics include stocking stitch, reverse stocking stitch, garter stitch, seed stitch, faggoting, and tricot. In some cases, these fabrics appear differently on the right side (as seen when making the stitch) than on the wrong side ...
although
stockinette
Basic knitted fabrics include stocking stitch, reverse stocking stitch, garter stitch, seed stitch, faggoting, and tricot. In some cases, these fabrics appear differently on the right side (as seen when making the stitch) than on the wrong side ...
is more common.
A unique aspect of entrelac is that a "row" of knitting actually contains many smaller "rows" within the squares. Squares within a row (for instance, the first set of blue squares in the hat above) are knitted in sequence and then topped with a new row of squares (black squares in the example above).
The knitter picks up stitches along the side edge of an existing square and knits along them, knitting or purling two together as needed each time they reach the live stitches along the top of the neighboring square.
Because of the picked-up stitches, the back of stockinette entrelac is generally less attractive than the front, as seen in the photo to the left.
For garments and projects requiring square edges, the entrelac is ringed in triangles, knit in the same way as the squares but with increases and decreases. A row of triangles is the typical starting point for an entrelac project, though they can also be started with connected squares, as in the scarf to the left, which was knit from side to side starting with the white row.
Entrelac fabric is often
felt
Felt is a textile material that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing fibers together. Felt can be made of natural fibers such as wool or animal fur, or from synthetic fibers such as petroleum-based acrylic or acrylonitrile or wood ...
ed to create the illusion of an
intarsia
Intarsia is a form of wood inlaying that is similar to marquetry. The start of the practice dates from before the seventh century AD. The technique of intarsia inlays sections of wood (at times with contrasting ivory or bone, or mother-of-pear ...
argyle pattern; the felting flattens the entrelac texture but leaves the different-colored squares, as if the object were knitted in different colors at the same time.
Other uses
The Entrelac technique can also be used in
Crochet
Crochet (; ) is a process of creating textiles by using a crochet hook to interlock loops of yarn, thread (yarn), thread, or strands of other materials. The name is derived from the French term ''crochet'', meaning 'hook'. Hooks can be made from ...
or
Tunisian crochet
Tunisian crochet or Afghan crochet is a type of crochet that uses an elongated crochet hook, hook, often with a stopper on the handle end, called an Afghan hook. It is sometimes considered to be a mixture of crocheting and knitting. As such, so ...
as shown in Toni Lipsey'
Entrelac and Keypattern.
References
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Knitted fabrics
Textile techniques