Entrelac for the first time

I’ve had a few skeins of Noro Silk Lite yarn (the same as used for my first ever real knitting project) in my stash and I couldn’t decide what to do with them. While I love the magnificent colours of Noro yarns, I found this particular colourway a little too much, especially when it comes to pink shades. So I knew I didn’t want to use it for garments, but I had no idea what to do with it. I thought about a throw or another granny squares bag – but in the end, I decided that this yarn was just perfect to try entrelac knitting.

I’ve been thinking about trying entrelac for a while now, but I was convinced it was something complicated and tricky. Good news: it’s really easy, there is nothing super advanced about it, although it certainly requires some patience.

The pattern for this cushion cover is free on Loveknitting.com. It’s clear enough to learn entrelac from it without any additional tutorials, however when I saw my first row looking like that:

I was sure that something was wrong and I had to consult the VeryPink Knits video to check it. As it turns out, this is exactly what the first row of entrelac knit should look like! The second row is where the miracle begins to happen and the project starts looking like it should:

And then there’s a lot of knit and purl rows which as very short, as each rectangle and triangle is knitted at once, and we move to the next one after finishing it. This could get tedious quickly, but watching the new colours appear in the project kept me interested all the time.

Work in progress, both sides of the cover:

And this is what the wrong side looks like (before blocking of course) – I think it’s pretty cool too!

And finally, the finished cushion cover 🙂

As the pictures show, my stitches picking is not the best looking ever, but in fact as the work progressed, it improved a lot. I think the basic thing to remember, which is not mentioned in the pattern, is to always slip the first stitch. As soon as I added this “modification” to my knitting, it started to look much neater, so closer to the edges the cushion looks nicer than in the central part (unfortunately).

Well, since after finishing the cushion I still had almost a whole skein left, I removed the pinkish and purple parts and used the red-blue-green shades to knit a hat for myself. It’s very simple, but that’s how I wanted it. The pompom looks a little poor, because I didn’t have any more yarn for it left, but I like the final result and it will work well with my scarf 🙂

If I find a similar colourway of Noro (or other brand) in the future, I’m definitely going to buy it. I love this colour combination and I feel great in it 🙂