I had an email this morning from Sue. Sue asks
Hello,
While at the Stiches fest this weekend, I purchased a pattern of your entrelac baby blanket. I have a question about the yarn yardage -- is the yarn required a regular worsted weight and I would need about 1700 yards?
Thanks,
Sue C.
Sue did not leave me her email address so this is the best I could come up with for answering her.
Hi Sue,
The yardage requirements for the Entrelac Baby Blanket call for 4 skeins of Solana. Solana has 320 yds/skein, so you will need 1280 yds total. Solana is a worsted weight yarn that gets 5 sts/inch on a US# 8 needle.
Hope that helps,
Alissa Barton
Knitting Fairy Yarn Studio
2100 N. State Hwy 360 suite 1904
Grand Prairie, Tx 75050
(214)412-2889
Thursdays mean the Knitting Fairy Yarn Studio is open for business. We have a drop in knitting class from 7-9pm, hope you can join us. What will Alissa be knitting? Likely it will be this:
Our Entrelac Baby Blanket. Now that the original has gone to it’s home and awaiting the arrival of Alicia next month it is time to make another from display.
Or maybe it will be a top down baby cardigan out of Perfection DK, or maybe an Iris Baby Dress out of Tatamy DK. Any are likely given the number of new arrivals expected among the friends of the Fairy! At least Baby knitting makes for good summer knitting.
Stop by the Knitting Fairy booth at DFW FiberFest for a peek at our newest patterns!
The Entrelac baby blanket worked in Perfection yarns, Triangulum, Counterspell and something so new it doesn’t even have a name yet! Of course, all of our other yarns, patterns and goodies will be there too.
When your energy starts sagging low after all that yarny goodness, come back for a chocolate fix and a hug. We are always glad to see our Fiber Friends!
Friday, Saturday and Sunday April 9-11.
There is still room in both of Alissa’s classes and it isn’t too late to sign up! Alissa is teaching Blocking Knitted and Crocheted Lace and Knitting with Beads.
Note, there will not be Stitchin’ at the Studio this Sunday, April 11th. We will be at FiberFest and hope you will be too!
Monique asked if I prefer to knit entrelac in solid or variegated yarns. The easy answer is YES! I like to knit entrelac. Which yarn depends on what effect I want to achieve. With hand-dyed yarns, like the wonderful goodness from Brooks Farm Yarns, you can get a neat look with less effort. I like the way Sherry dyes yarns and her dye patterns lend themselves well to entrelac because she uses shorter dye paths so I get thin stripes across the squares in a fairly repeatable pattern.
A few great examples of this are Natalie’s Scarf, Natalie’s Hat and the Entrelac Baby Blanket. All are show here in Brooks Farm Yarns Solana.
What I don’t like to use in hand-dyed yarns when working entrelac are spotty yarns with splotches of color of inconsistent size. That just looks like splotchy knitting, which frankly will look splotchy if I knit it in straight stockinette just as much as if I put the extra work into entrelac. Why bother?
Machine dyed, multi-color yarns with LONG color runs can get you some interesting looks too. Take Noro Kureyon for example. This is a shawl I knit from Scarf Style
called the Lady Eleanor Shawl by Kathleen Power Johnson. The long color paths of Noro made my squares LOOK like they were knit from different skeins of yarn without having to go to the bother of changing skeins. Neat!
These socks are a pattern that I wrote for a class on Entrelac Socks, I knit them from a self striping sock yarn (you can see what it would do in normal stockinette in the foot) and the blocks worked up as mostly solid colors. I was fascinated by how knitting entrelac in the round changed where the squares fell and made each side of the socks look different.
So, with all these wonderful looks from multi-colored yarn, why would I ever want to knit with solid colors? Predictability, price and fabric care. The entrelac blanket I am currently knitting is machine washable, a big plus for first-time mommys and it comes in the color selection I wanted to use for this girl baby. Cost is also a big factor in this project, I have 4 baby gifts needed in fairly short order. Dropping $100 per on yarn is more than my budget allows. Knit from Perfection this blanket is half that price.
Thanks for asking, Monique. I hope that answered your question. If you have a question you want to ask, feel free to leave a comment. I will answer them either publicly or privately depending on my mood and the nature of the question. 
Alissa, KnittingFairy
I am still totally in love with entrelac and with the Entrelac Baby Blanket I 
designed and knitted with hand-dyed yarn by Brooks Farm Yarn but now I want to knit it in a yarn that we are carrying.
I don’t have a particular baby in mind but I have several candidates.
I decided to think girlish thoughts and start with pink. The original blanket was knit in one color, I want to use three. Butterfly, Bloom and Fluff. Of course, you could use any number of colors – knit a whole rainbow if you like.
The pattern has 25 rows of triangles and squares, so my 3 should work out just fine. 8 repeats of my three colors and I will end the blanket with another row of Butterfly triangles. Perhaps I shall edge it with Butterfly as well. I’ll keep you posted on its progress.
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