Hello!
After all the gadding about of the past few weeks, I think it’s time for some serious knitting again. I hope you’re up for it.
I first heard of domino knitting from a Danish woman I once met on a campsite in Rondane, Norway. She was sitting in front of her tent knitting back and forth on very short wooden needles. I was intrigued and asked her what she was making.
As is often the way with knitters, she was only too happy to talk about it. She told me that she was making a scarf for her sister-in-law from a pattern in the booklet Domino Strikk, by Danish designer Vivian Høxbro.
As soon as the booklet came out in English, in 2002, I bought it.
Looks like fun knitting! I love finding out about all the fascinating techniques that are out there. Thanks!
It really is fun. At the moment I’m knitting row upon row of just 10 stitches back and forth to shape the armhole.
This appears to be the same basic sock yarn blanket . Is there any difference?
Hi! You’re absolutely right! I haven’t made a sock yarn blanket myself, but several knitting friends have. They were a huge hit several years ago. Did you make one? They followed the principle of either of the two pot holders I made (numbers 2 and 4 in the Domino Knitting book). But there is more to domino knitting than that. Looking at the overview picture of the potholders (6th photo from top of post), you can see that there are many other variations. What they all have in common is that they work in sections that are knit together as you go along. The difference is the direction in which this is done. Some work with mitred squares in various combinations (sock-blanket style), while others work with horizontal and vertical strips. Entrelac is, in fact, also a variation on this theme. In her forword to the book, Hoxbro acknowledges that she didn’t invent the technique. She writes: ‘For more than a century, people have knitted this way.’ Thanks for reminding me of those sock yarn blankets – they were fun!
I have the top book and love domino knitting. I am wondering whether there is a way to make it two-sided, rather than having a right and wrong side (due to picking up stitches)? Thank you.
That’s a great question! It would be very nice to have the ‘wrong’ side look just as good as the ‘right’ side for shawls, blankets etcetera. But to honest, I wouldn’t know how to achieve that. There is a tutorial with tips and tricks for domino (aka entrelac) knitting that also explains how you’ll get neater seams on the wrong side. It can be found here. Hope this helps a little.