Crocheting Entrelac

My first attempts at this Entrelac technique. I hadn’t dared to try it before. I gave it a shot, and it’s really fun. However, I still need to get a long crochet hook, size 2.5 / 3.0. With the thick yarn, I used these plastic hooks—they worked great.

Here’s the swatch


and here’s the finished pillowcase (front and back)



Buttons for the opening

Wow, Andrea, that looks great! Very neat work and such fresh colors, too. I bet you’ll be making more of these, right? What I also like about this technique is that you can see your progress right away—square by square. And I like that both sides of the pillow are different—that way you can switch it up depending on how you’re feeling that day. I really like the non-Entrelac side, too. I could hardly decide. Although today I’d probably go with the one with red on the front—with all this dreary gray outside, I’m really in the mood for some color.

Best wishes, Ina

Hi Andrea

You did a great job, compliments.

I’ve tried it too, and I like it as well.

I’ve become totally enthusiastic about Tunisian crochet and have already tried out a few patterns. 

I hope you continue to have fun with it.

I tried this out once, too. With not too many stitches, I thought it worked pretty well. But if I wanted to make larger pieces, it wasn’t really my thing. Still, I think the crocheted look is very pretty. It’s great, Andrea, that you’re showing this to us here right away.

It always makes me happy when I can bring joy to others, too.
It’s fun, but with this technique, your hands get tired quickly, so I need to take more breaks.

I’m not sure exactly how this works for larger pieces—I’m stumped there. Crochet hooks aren’t even that long, are they? :-)
As you already said, Ina, it’s no problem at all with the small squares.

Hi Andrea, the entrelac crocheters surely know the answer to that better than I do. But I seem to recall that there are crochet hooks—so to speak—that have a cord attached to one end. The cord has a stopper at the back. That way, you can crochet lengths that extend beyond the actual crochet hook. Maybe someone here with hands-on experience could show us a picture of such a tool—that would be great.

And you, Andrea, just stick with the little squares for a little while longer. As your pillow shows, you can make beautiful things with them, too.

I can show you a tool like this.

I’ve used it to crochet a pillow and some sweaters; I have a set with different thicknesses and lengths.

Oh, so that’s what it looks like. Thanks for showing me. You never stop learning.