Tunisian Knit Entrelac: Oh, the Possibilities!
Tunisian Entrelac is a fun technique adapted from Entrelac knitting and is suitable for many projects. It allows you to work a project in many colors without seams. Practice making this swatch to get the hang of it, then consider making a scarf or blanket. It’s a fine way to use leftovers from your stash. I recommend this for people who already have some experience with Tunisian crochet. The technique shown here uses only Entrelac squares. Once you are comfortable with this, you can move on to a more advanced variation, where the side edges are filled in with Entrelac triangles. With the Entrelac technique, the main body of the work consists of squares aligned at an angle to the edges of the work. Squares of one color are worked all across the width, then another “strip” of squares is made with a second color. You can use as many colors as you like when working these strips of squares. For our purposes here, we alternate two colors. You can also vary the size of your squares by making them any number of stitches and rows you wish. In the trial swatch, each square consists of 7 stitches across and 7 rows. To make the squares lay at an angle, we begin the Return row differently; instead of beginning by pulling through 1 loop for the very first stitch, we begin by drawing the yarn through 2 loops at the start of the Return row. This means that on your Forward Pass you will have 8 loops on the hook, but when you finish your Return Pass there will only be 7 stitches. The last stitch of the Forward Pass will be made in the next unworked chain of the foundation chain on the very first strip. That’s why we need 14 foundation chains for each square, 7 to serve as the base chains for the first row of stitches, and 7 to form the side edge of each square. In subsequent strips the last stitch of each row is worked into the side edges of the next square. That is how one square gets attached to the next, and it’s one of the most intriguing aspects of Entrelac method. Once all 7 rows of a square are completed, we work a row of Tunisian slip stitches across the last row in order to complete the square, ending on the lefthand side in preparation to begin the next square. Unlike normal Forward rows, we don’t want to leave loops on the hook to be worked off on the return row. Instead, insert the hook between the front and back vertical bars just as if you were making another Tks, draw up a loop and then draw the loop through the loop on your hook. Note that since the first slip stitch goes from the first to the 2nd Tks, there will only be 6 slip stitches made across the row even though we have 7 stitches in total.
SPECIAL STITCHES
The 2 stitches used in this swatch are:
Tunisian Knit Stitch (Tks): Insert hook between front and back vertical bar and draw up loop.
Tunisian Slip Stitch (Tsl st): Insert hook as in Tks in next st, draw up loop and pull through loop on hook. Always work these loosely, as we will be working into them later. Start with 2 colors of worsted-weight yarn and a size L/11/8mm hook. It does not need to be a Tunisian hook. That’s because we will be working with only 7 stitches at a time, so the long hook usually used for Tunisian crochet is not necessary.
FIRST STRIP
Foundation ch: Ch 43 (multiple of 14 for each square, plus 1). First Square Row 1: Forward: Draw up a lp in 2nd ch from hook, draw up a lp in next 6 chs (8 lps on hook); Return: [ Yo, draw through 2 lps] 7 times. (7 Tks) All Return rows are made as in row 1.
Rows 2–7: Draw up a lp in next 6 sts, draw up a lp in next unworked ch of foundation ch, (8 lps on hook), return pass as for row 1.
Row 8: Tsl st in next 6 Tks, sl st in next unworked ch. You should end with 1 lp on your hook. First Square completed.
2nd Square
*Now working again into unworked ch of foundation ch, draw up a lp in next 7 chs. Work the Return row as before. Rep rows 2–7 of First Square, for the 3rd and last square of this strip, rep from * once. Fasten off. You will find that your little squares have a tendency to curl. This is the nature of Tunisian crochet, especially Tks stitches. There is a very easy way to flatten your work, however: steam blocking. This simply means to fire up your steam iron and hover it over your swatch, very close but not touching the fabric, and blast steam on it for several seconds. Here is a photo of my first strip after steam blocking. I recommend doing this once you’ve finished the first strip so that it’s easier to see and work the remaining strips.
2ND STRIP
The next strip of squares requires some variations for both the very first and very last square. There will be a total of 4 squares in this strip instead of 3.
Row 1: Join 2nd color in the first square at row 1, inserting your hook under 2 lps at the side of the first st. Ch 7, draw up a lp in 2nd ch from hook and in the next 5 chs, insert hook in same place as join and draw up a lp (8 lps on hook); work Return row as usual. (7 sts)
Row 2: Tks in next 6 sts; now inserting hook under 2 lps draw up lp in side edge of row 2 of square below.
Rows 3–7: Rep row 2, always drawing up last lp of Forward row by inserting hook under 2 lps in side edge of comparable row of square below.
Row 8: Tsl st in next 6 Tks, sl st in top of first st of row 7 of next square. To begin the next square, draw up lps in the sl st row of the square below. Those sl sts are easy to see as they are tilted toward you. You can insert your hook under both lps of each sl st. However, it may be easier and look even nicer if you insert your hook under the back lp (see Stitch Guide) and also under 1 lp just behind it. That gives the top of the square below a nice finish, as you can see in the photo. The last lp in the Forward row is drawn up in the side of row 1 of the following square below, inserting hook under 2 lps. [Draw up a lp in next Tsl st] 6 times, draw up a lp in side of row 1 of next square (8 lps on hook), work Return row as usual. For the remainder of this square, rep instructions for the previous square from rows 2–7. Tsl st in next 6 Tks, sl st in corner of last square of previous strip. The very last square of this strip must be worked differently, because there is no square below on the outside edge. This square uses the same Forward row as others, but the Return row is worked by drawing through only 1 lp at the start of the Return row.
Last Square Strip 2
Row 1: [Draw up a lp in next Tsl st] 5 times, draw up lp in last bar. (7 lps on hook) Return: Yo, draw through 1 lp, *yo, draw through 2 lps, rep from * 6 times. (7 sts) All return rows on this square are made as in this row.
Rows 2–7: Tks in next 6 sts, inserting hook under 2 bars in side edge of analogous row of square below, draw up lp in last st. Tsl st in next 6 Tks. Fasten off. On all even-numbered strips, the last square will be made this way.
STRIP 3
First Square
Row 1: Join color A in the first square of the previous strip, in the top of the first st of the last row. You can insert under the back lp only or under 2 lps to match what you did on earlier squares. [Draw up a lp in next Tsl st] 6 times, inserting under 2 lps draw up a lp in side of first st of row 1 of next square
(8 lps on hook). Work Return row as usual.
Row 2: Tks in next 6 sts; now inserting hook under 2 lps draw up lp in side edge of row 2 of square below.
Rows 3–7: Rep row 2, always drawing up last lp of Forward row by inserting hook under 2 lps in side edge of comparable row of square below.
Row 8: Tsl st in next 6 Tks, sl st in top of first st of row 7 of next square. To finish this Strip, work 2 more Squares in the same manner. When finishing the last Square of the Strip, sl st in top of row 7 of next Square below. Fasten off. To make additional Strips, rep Strips 2 and 3. When you’ve completed your swatch, steam-block it once more. If you are using worsted-weight yarn and L hook as I did, you may find the width of your swatch works perfectly for a scarf. All you have to do is keep going! To use your swatch as the basis for a throw, measure the width of your swatch, then decide how wide you want your throw to be. Simple math will help you figure out how many squares will be needed for your throw. Whatever you use Tunisian Entrelac for, remember to have fun with color!