Up-Down Entrelac–Getting Started

I’m now about to tackle the toe-up socks in Sock Knitting Master Class. The first pair is Kathryn Alexander’s Up-Down Entrelac socks (page 122), which are technically knitted both from the top down and from the bottom up.

These socks involve about a million colors (well, 30 to be exact) worked in a combination of stripes and entrelac. If I hadn’t committed to knitting every pair of socks in the book, I probably would never knit these socks. I love the kaleidoscopic look of the colors but for years I’ve said that you’d have to put a gun to my head to get me to knit entrelac–all those ends and all that fussy knitting back and forth!

I decided that if I knit these socks, I want them to be every bit as sharp as Kathryn’s originals. So, rather than digging up lots of mis-matched sock yarn leftovers, I ordered the yarn as a kit directly from Kathryn’s website (you can see kits on her website, but you have to contact her directly to purchase them).
The yarns are so beautiful that I’m a bit reluctant to start knitting with them (maybe I’m just procrastinating the entrelac…).

10 thoughts on “Up-Down Entrelac–Getting Started”

  1. I love Kathryn Alexanders designs.
    Last year, I knitted her Sweater with a doo dad hem, and I felt like you. The yarn was so beautiful. It took me a long time to spoil the keins and start knitting.
    The socks are also funny.
    Good luck. I will look forward to see the result.

  2. One of my oldest unfinished project is the Kathryn Alexander shawl in Scarf Style. I hated the yarn, I couldn’t deal with all the different techniques (I think it was my 4th or 5th project ever), and now I wonder if I could ever go back and resume. I may be scared off for life!

  3. Entrelac isn’t so fussy if you learn to knit backwards! Then you don’t have to turn the project every 10 stitches (or whatever) I learned from a Knitty article.

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  7. Hi Anne
    I am wanting to start these shortly and discovered that I can’t find the kit anywhere.
    Is Kathryn still producing her beautiful yarns?

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