Fiber Fool

entrelac addict.

I do not know why I hadn’t tried entrelac before. I’ve adored all of the Lady Eleanor stoles (Ravelry) and market squares bags (Ravelry) I’ve seen around blogland over the years. But, for some reason I never jumped in until now. But now I’m sucked in thoroughly. I even *adore* knitting backwards to avoid having to constantly turn my work. I may find myself knitting backwards on other things like heels! Who would have guessed?!?!?

If you’re wondering what I photographed above, it is a slight variation on Kathryn Alexander’s Peak Brim Flare Crown Star Top Hat (Ravelry). Amanda knit one recently. She upsized it slightly by adding one extra triangle/square to the circumference, but it still didn’t look good on me stretched that much. So I’ve increase my gauge to 4.5 sts per inch (I believe, though I haven’t rechecked since swatching) and also added one round of normal entrelac to increase the depth before beginning the dimensional entrelac. I’m knitting it from Noro Silk Garden Lite and now I’m dreaming of coordinating gloves and wishing Noro weren’t quite so expensive so that I could also knit a matching scarf! LOL!

I am really glad I have had Amanda to tap for info and her hat to reference though. It is not an intuitive pattern for me. Perhaps it would go smoother if I had knit a traditional entrelac pattern first. But you know me — jump in with both feet! At this point I’m mostly working off of the pictures in the pattern and Amanda’s hat and how I know the flat and dimensional entrelac to work more so than the written pattern.

The pull of entrelac has made me put some deadline knitting on the back burner though. I need to instate a bribery system I think. That said, I want the hat done by February 29th for the mad hatter tea party we are attending. It’s an odd group that gathers so I don’t know if I’ll take the prize for craziest hat, but it will quite likely be the craziest handmade hat around the tea table!