The Lunatic Fringe

I managed to block the Hex Afghan yesterday. It turned out lovely. And now to the fringe.

The instructions in the pattern rather obliquely read "...knot Fringe as shown in diagram." I am then presented with a picture of knots. But not how to knot the knots. It appears the author either thinks this is very apparent or something that any knitter should have picked up years ago. I'm not one of those knitters.

I started by doing square knots. I didn't want them to slip. I even made little cardboard triangle and diamond-shaped space holders to knot the yarn around so that I could get some consistency. Unfortunately, the two ends didn't drape together after knotting. Rather, they stuck straight out, looking like little Pippi Longstockings.

So I undid them and found a web site with instructions on how to make knotted fringe. This is the method I decided to go with. I'm still not entirely happy, because one strand is being knotted around another, but the other strand is just there -- it's not incorporated into the knot. Hence, the knotted strand, unless pulled tightly, can slide up and down the other strand like a ring on a shower rod. But, it does allow all the strands to hang straight down after the knotting, so I'm going to go with it for now. And, surprisingly, I've been able to eyeball things enough to keep the knots in a nice little row. Let's hope that keeps up.

Here's what I'm doing -- illustrated with rather murky photographs.

Step 1.

The right-hand strands are stretched the left, the crochet hook placed over them, and then the left-hand strand are draped to the right.

Step 2.

All the work is done with the left-hand strands. Here they are pulled under both the right-hand strand and the crochet hook, and then pulled to the left.

Step 3.


Then, the strands are draped to the upper right and caught by the crochet hook to be pulled back through the loop that has been formed.

Step 4.

Finished!

I'm kind of flying by the seat of my pants here, folks, so if anyone wants to chime in before I get too committed to this method, please speak up. Until then, I've got to put in 80 strands of fringe, and make 320 knots...