Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Kitty footprints

On Saturday morning, Myria invited me to come over and look at something on her desk.

There’s no doubt these are Jade’s footprints; they’re way too small to have been made by Goldie’s hooves :) She doesn’t get up on the desk very often but, apparently, some time Friday night she got curious about something, jumped up, traipsed through the dust behind the monitor and then exited via the mouse pad.  Of course this may say more about my (lack of) housekeeping skills than I would prefer but the footprints were so cute that I had to share.

I have been obsessing again - of course!

About entrelac :) Anybody surprised?  Heheh…

I have been trying to find out about the origin and history of the technique.  I discovered two one-sentence references to entrelac being a Finnish technique (and saw it referred to once as Finnish Basketweave) and that’s about it.  I managed to find the Finnish word: konttineule, but using it as a search term only brought me to Finnish knit-blogs - of which there are many.  Though they presented much beautiful work, there was no history of entrelac, no story of origin.

Also, evidently, Finnish nouns are required to be at least a half-mile long.  While it’s entirely possible that I may learn enough terminology to, say, follow a Finnish pattern (have you seen the Finnish on-line knitting magazine - Ulla?), I don’t expect to be speaking it any time soon :)

I still have a few things I want to check out, but if anyone who happens to read this blog can point me in the right direction, would you please?  I can live with almost anything but an un-satisfied curiosity :)

Now, back to the footprint thing…

Since I seemed to have cat feet on the brain (and when Goldie climbs up to roost on the back of my chair that becomes a literal rather than a figurative!), I went looking for paw print lace patterns.  I found two with possibilities.

This pattern is adapted from one that was done in garter stitch - I think the stockinette version looks nicer.  It’s the newer of the two versions and is more the kind of thing I had in mind.  The other…





...is based on an old Shetland pattern.  The knitting of it (after a bit of fiddling around, of course) didn’t give me what I was looking for but did produce a rather nice pattern.  I was trying for a...well...a cat-leaving-dusty-footprints kind of effect and had staggered the repeats within the 11 stitch wide area I was experimenting with.  What I got was a sort of zig-zagging garland effect - not what I’d hoped for, but worth remembering for later use :)

Lastly, there’s this which I found here in Jennifer Fleury’s Cat’s Face Lace Socks…

I’d had the thought that the face and the first paw print above might combine well in an entrelac presentation.  Initially I was thinking about a lace scarf but the designs seem a bit whimsical for that.  Perhaps a child’s blanket?  Definitely something I want to play with :)

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1. The cat paw lace looks like fun, whatever you end up choosing.  Good luck with the Finnish.  Can’t help with the history of it, sorry.  Hope you find your answers.

   Posted by Chris  on  07/15  at  11:02 AM
   Location :



2. Chris - Thanks!  I know the answers are out there.  It’s just a matter of looking in the right place or asking the right person.  I’ll find them :)

   Posted by Robbyn  on  07/15  at  11:14 AM
   Location : On top of old smokey...



3. The second cat’s paw looks more like flowers to me. The first one looks pretty good. Hope your dad is still getting better.

   Posted by  on  07/15  at  03:33 PM
   Location : California



4. Kathy - The second looks like flowers to me too :)

   Dad is definitely feeling better - thanks for the good thoughts.  I won’t relax until he gets some weight back on, but he is improving - thank goodness!

   Posted by Robbyn  on  07/15  at  03:56 PM
   Location : On top of old smokey...



5. oh, i think that whimsy and scarves combine nicely! the thought of kitty paws interspersed with wee kitty faces might be quite the conversation piece-

   i *think* (we’re getting into problematic waters here with that word) i have a book buried among the knitting paraphernalia in one of the offices that has a large-ish section on entrelac and it might contain some historical references- i know the book is a very old one i bought on ebay years ago and glanced at, and i’m sure i haven’t really read through it, but it has to be around somewhere- i’ll dig through the piles and search it out over the weekend if i can- i’m still contemplating the idea of the mosaic/entrelac combo you mentioned and trying to come up with something useful- the idea of a bag is looming large, but i’d want to felt it which would involve extreme blacking to keep the lines straight- my brain just isn’t as creative as yours!!

   stay happy-

   Posted by  on  07/16  at  01:49 PM
   Location : right here practicing procrastination



6. Barb - I like your idea of a whimsical scarf - I hadn’t specified, but I was thinking lace weight yarn.  In DK or worsted, I think it would work better.  Besides, in lace-weight, I’d be afraid the kitty face would be to small too see.

   I’ve got the mosaic/entrelac idea firmly in the mental queue but I’m trying to get a handle of a couple of things first.  Felting is a great idea!  One I’m happy to let you explore, however :)

   Posted by Robbyn  on  07/16  at  04:21 PM
   Location : On top of old smokey...

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