Back In The Entrelac Saddle

AFTER
(Opposite end from Instagram pic)

This weekend I had the honor of teaching at the Madison Knitter's Guild Knit-In.  It was the first time I had taught a knitting class since moving to Wisconsin almost six months ago, and what a great re-entry it was.

One of the two classes I taught was Intro to Entrelac. Although I have taught this class dozens of times, I found myself a sample short.  I have entrelac hats and purses galore, but the class project is a scarf.  And the only scarf I have is in a gorgeous but discontinued Noro yarn.  So I assembled a pile of all my Noro Silk Garden scraps and got to work.

BEFORE

The class project is designed to be worked in standard scarf structure - cast on a few stitches and knit rows until you cannot stand it anymore.  But I was concerned that this structure was not going to work well with such an collection of yarns.  As you can see in the pile, some yarns were much brighter than others, and I was concerned that the results would be blotchy.

So, I decided to turn my scarf on end.  I cast on over two hundred stitches and worked in long rows.  I began each row with a new color and worked with it until it ran out.  I tried to not worry excessively about how the rows blended with the colors above or below.  The result was a scarf that is decidedly brighter at one end than the other!  And what's the solution to that dilemma?  Wear the scarf folded and tucked with only one end visible.  Then it looks like I have two scarves instead of one.

 The scarf was a hit.  And I do have to admit that I am really pleased with the greater contrast between rows that was achieved here than in the typical short rows scarf.  I shall have to get to work on a pattern for Ravelry.