How to do entrelac knitting

A step-by-step tutorial on the entrelac knitting pattern for beginners. Plus tips and tricks for a neat finish

Have you seen a beautiful scarf or hat with interwoven squares in many different colors? And now you are wondering how to knit the entrelac knitting pattern? Well, then you came to the right place because this tutorial is all about it.

I have been knitting entrelac for many years and it’s actually one of my favorite patterns/techniques ever. It’s just so fun to knit! And I truly feel it has been misunderstood for way too many years. Because if done right, you can achieve some truly stunning effects. Lots of books sadly show you flawed techniques that only yield less than ideal results.

Reading tip: My list of 5 entrelac tips for neater results.

What is the entrelac knitting pattern?

Entrelac is an advanced knitting technique that results in a diagonal basketweave pattern. It boils down to knitting many tiny little rectangles using short rows and picking up stitches from their edges in the next row to stack a new tier of rectangles leaning in a different direction upon them.

The entrelac pattern can be knit using one or multiple colors. It’s easier to knit in the round but can be adapted for flat knitting with some minor modifications. While the instructions for the pattern has many little steps, it does not require complicated knitting stitches.

The rectangles and triangles are simple stockinette stitch. You also need to know two simple decreases and one easy increase.

The term entrelac itself is french entrelacer for “to interlock, to interweave” and has been used to describe interwoven patterns of all kinds starting from the 19th century. It’s sadly not a reversible pattern.

Let’s show you how to knit the entrelac pattern!

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Instructions for the entrelac knitting pattern

Entrelac is best thought of as a general technique and not a set-in-stone pattern. As such you will find many modifications. This is the version that yields the best results in my opinion. But they all share one commonality. Entrelac is always knit in tiers and it always consists of rectangles.

The size of the individual rectangles is up to you. They can be as small as 4 stitches and as big as you want. For this tutorial, I will work with 5 stitches.

Tip: Kindly use my knitting glossary if abbreviations are unfamiliar and check out this tutorial on how to read knitting patterns in case you need to catch up.

Tier 1: Starting the base triangles

Before you can start with the actual entrelac knitting pattern, you need to knit one setup row. These are often called base triangles.

1. Cast on as multiples of the size of the rectangles you decided on with a longtail cast on around two needles for a stretchy edge. In this case, I will cast on 15 stitches.
2. Row 1 (right side): Knit 1 stitch and turn the work around without finishing the row.
3. Row 2 (wrong side): Purl 1 stitch and turn the work around immediately again.
4. Row 3: Knit 2 stitches. turn.
5. Row 4: Purl 2. turn.
6. Row 5: Knit 3. turn.
7. Row 6: Purl 3. turn.
8. Row 7: Knit 4. turn.
9. Row 8: Purl 4. turn.
10. Row 9: Knit 5 and do not turn.
    

Note: Depending on your stitch count per rectangle, you will have to repeat increasing by one stitch per row on the right side and stop once you reached the desired number. Always stop in a right-side row. This applies to the rest of the pattern as well.

From here, you have to repeat these instructions over and over again until you reached the end of the row. You may place a stitch marker here.

So, knit one stitch, turn, purl one stitch, turn, knit two, turn, purl two, turn, knit three, etc.

Important reading tip: If you want to avoid turning your work around all the time, you can also learn how to knit backwards!

Tier 2: Left Slanting Rectangles

Now that you finished the setup row, you can start knitting the entrelac pattern in earnest. But there is one little problem when knitting entrelac flat you need to circumvent. You can’t just pick up rectangles from the edges.

You start the second tier on the wrong side. I’ve seen a lot of tutorials showing you to do it on the right side (and the far right). But this obviously doesn’t work when you are knitting in one color only.

Filler triangle on the left

Before you can start with the second entrelac tier proper, you need to knit one filler triangle so you end up with a neat and straight edge.

• Row 1 (on the wrong side): (join a new color) and purl front & back (pfb) and turn the work around.
• Row 2 (RS): k2. turn.
• Row 3: Pfb and purl the next two stitches togther (p2tog). The first stitch should be from the increase in row 1 the other should be the first stitch of the last base triangle. turn.
• Row 4: k3. turn.
• Row 5: Pfb, p1, p2tog. turn.
• Row 6: k4. turn.
• Row 7: Pfb, p2, p2tog
• Row 8: k5. turn.
• Row 9: p4, p2tog (attention: no increase in the last row!)

You should have 5 stitches on your needle (or however many stitches you decided on).

Right-leaning rectangle

From here, you can start with the actual entrelac pattern. Again, there are many different versions of this, but I’ll show you the one that yields to the neatest results in my opinion.

Preparation: Ignoring the 5 stitches on your left needle, pick up 5 stitches from the edge of the base triangle evenly. There are four rules you need to observe meticulously.

1. You need to pick up the stitches from the front – either using your knitting needle or a crochet hook. I always skip the first stitch and I always pick up stitches through the top loop of the edge stitch. But you can also go underneath the V of an edge stitch (that’s what most books will tell you. I just fell that’s less neat).
2. You have to pick up the stitches as evenly as possible.
3. The last stitch you pick up should be through the corner to avoid creating a hole. This will create a slightly slanted stitch. If you are okay with a tiny little hole, you can also go through the last stitch of the edge.
4. Make sure that your picked up stitches are tight and there is not a lot of slack in between them.

Once you picked up all stitches, the pattern continues like this:

• Row 1 (RS): Knit across the 5 stitches you picked up. turn.
• Row 2 (WS): p4 and p2tog (so that should be one stitch in the new color and one in old). turn.
• Row 3: k5. turn.
• Row 4: p4, p2tog. turn.
• Row 5: k5. turn.
• Row 6: p4, p2tog. turn.
• Row 7: k5. turn.
• Row 8: p4, p2tog. turn.
• Row 9: k5. turn.
• Row 10: p4, p2tog.

Note: For those working with more stitches; Repeat rows 3+4 until you used up (decreased) all stitches from the last base triangle ending on the wrong side.

From here, you need to repeat these instructions over and over again and stop before the last base triangle. So, pick up 5 more stitches in the exact same way from the next edge (through the front!), and start with row 1 all over again.

Filler Triangle on the right

Now, there is one last edge left but it’s facing the right side of your work. So, you can’t add another full rectangle here as it would stick out beyond the edge. Instead, you have to add another filler triangle here to get a neat and clean edge.

• Step 1: Pick up another 5 stitches from the edge the way you did so far.
• Row 1 (RS): k5. turn.
• Row 2 (WS): p3, p2tog. turn.
• Row 3: k4. turn.
• Row 4: p2, p2tog. turn.
• Row 5: k3. turn.
• Row 6: p1, p2tog. turn.
• Row 7: k2. turn.
• Row 8: p2tog. turn.

Note: For those working with more stitches per rectangle. Repeat decreasing in every WS row until you have 1 stitch left.

Congratulations, you just finished your first entrelac pattern row!

Tier 3: Left-slanting Rectangles

From here, you can start knitting the third entrelac tier right away. And the good news is, you don’t need any filler triangles on the edges and you can work from the right side (so much easier to pick up stitches).

• Step 1 (RS): Join new color and pick up 5 stitches from the edge of the filler triangle the way you did before. So skip the first stitch, 4 from every second edge stitch coming from the front as well, and one through the corner. You should have 6 stitches (so one more) on your needle now.
• Row 1 (WS): p4, p2tog (so the first stitch you picked up and that single last stitch remaining from the second tier). turn.
• Row 2 (RS): k4 and SSK (one stitch in the new color and the first stitch from the first full rectangle one tier below). turn.
• Row 3: p5. turn.
• Row 4: k4, SSK. turn.
• Row 5: p5. turn.
• Row 6: k4, SSK. turn.
• Row 7: p5. turn.
• Row 8: k4, SSK. turn.
• Row 9: p5. turn.
• Row 10: k4, SSK.

Note for everyone knitting entrelac with more stitches: Repeat decreasing in every RS row until you used up all stitches from the first rectangle of the second tier).

Next, pick up 5 (or however many stitches you need) from the next edge and repeat all over again start with row 1. There’s one important difference. As there is no stitch remaining from the second tier, you have to knit row 1 like this:

• Row 1 (WS): p5 and turn.

So you just skip the last p2tog and ignore the stitches that remain from the first rectangle of that tier. Repeat until you picked up stitches from every edge of the tier below.

I do have to say that I usually don’t knit an SSK for the left rectangle. I will do a k2tog and I actually believe it creates the neater join as you won’t end up with any color bleeding through. But that’s just my personal preference. The fabric will, however, lay less flat.

From here, you can simply start with a tier of right-slanting rectangles all over again followed by a tier 3 and so on. Repeat however many times you see fit.

How to finish entrelac knitting

Once your project reached the desired length it’s time to bind off. But how do you finish entrelac knitting? You cannot simply bind-off as that would create a zig-zag line you don’t want, plus there’s not a continuous line of stitches, to begin with.

Well, the answer is, how could it be different, another set of filler triangles.

I always start binding off after a tier 2 as I feel it’s much easier and neater. If you want to finish after a tier 3 that leads to all sorts of problems. On top of needing triangles to fill the top, you also need special filler triangles on the left and right side and those will always look wonky and you don’t want that.

• Step 1 (RS): Pick up the 5 stitches from the edge as you normally would. turn.
• Row 1 (WS): p4. p2tog. turn.
• Row 2: bind off 1 stitch, k2, SSK (one in the new color and one from the tier below). turn.
• Row 3: p3, sl1. turn.
• Row 4: bo1, k1, SSK. turn.
• Row 5: p2, sl1. turn.
• Row 6: bo1, SSK. turn
• Row 7: p1, sl1. turn.
• Row 8: bind off one stitch and ssk at the same time. (So, knit one, ssk, and slip the stitch you knitted over the ssk.) don’t turn.
• Row 9: Slip the remaining stitch from the previous rectangle knitwise, slip the remaining stitches back to the left needle and knit them through the back loop.

From here, pick up another 5 stitches from the next edge and start with row 1 all over again. Repeat until you reached the edge. Turn the workaround, and bind off with a moderately stretchy bind-off of your choice. If you want, you can purl across one more row before you bind off.

Important: I’ve seen a lot of tutorials showing you to bind off right away – mostly through decreasing the last two stitches of the wrong side. I do not feel this creates a very neat edge. But if you want that you could do it like this:

• Row 1 (WS): p5, p2tog (the stitch from the previous row). turn.
• Row 2 (RS): k5, SSK
• Row 3: p4, p2tog
• Row 4: k4, SSK
• etc..

I personally feel that finishing the entrelac pattern like that will create a wobbly edge with not so neat transitions. But, as always, I leave it up to you.

Last steps

If you have been knitting entrelac in multiple colors as I showed you, you will end up with quite a lot of tails – one for each tier. And the bad news is: You have to weave them in the traditional way.

I always do that on the wrong side using a sharp tapestry needle and going diagonally (and then one more time in another direction). You can check out my full tutorial on how to weave in ends here. You could also go through the pick-up edges instead. This will reinforce them even further, though, but it might be a bit easier for you.

Note: I earn a small commission for purchases made through links in this article.

Anyway, that’s how to do the entrelac knitting patter. Comment below in case you need any help