Ready for a knitting challenge? Try entrelac!

Many knitters fear entrelac, which isn't really fair. Just like anything else, it's only hard until you get the hang of it. Although admittedly up until that point, it can be very hard indeed.

Entrelac is a technique where you use short rows and picking up stitches to knit squares on the opposite bias. It's easier to show than tell - the work pictured above is classic entrelac. It almost looks braided, especially with the way that each square puffs out (thanks to the curling nature of stockinette). The piece above also shows how the colors change. This is what happens when you work one row of green, one row of mauve, and one row of blue. Each row is a series of squares (or rectangles) across.

My favorite entrelac project is still the first one I ever made, and one of the earliest projects I ever knit. What can I say? I didn't know enough to know that entrelac was supposed to be hard! It's Danica, a scarf pattern from Knitty. I alternated dark gray with light gray, and added the occasional green square just for a little accent color.

When starting with entrelac, understand that you will almost certainly have to rip some back at some point. It's just how it goes. Don't feel bad about it! Just accept it and move on. Luckily, you rarely have to rip back very much - just a square or two at a time, for most mistakes.

I highly recommend starting entrelac in stockinette. There are some very cool garter stitch entrelac projects out there, but it is a lot easier to get lost when you are working garter stitch, since both sides look the same. Stockinette is a lot easier to "read" in entrelac!

Image courtesy Flickr/ShanaRae