Hand Knit Garden Trellis

An overdose of lace and fingerling yarn sent me flying into the arms of giant needles and giant projects.  It also launched a fascination with knitting with construction twine that is now waning rapidly.

One of my first projects was this trellis to cover a bamboo tripod that usually supports bean plants with a spread of romaine lettuces below.

It's knit out of nylon twine on US 35 needles. While the nylon doesn't stretch like wool yarn does, the huge gauge has loads of give. The piece was knit flat with ties along one edge.  It is tied to the tripod along one leg.


On some early samples for a knitted plant trellis, I experimented with lace patterns.  They look lovely, but I realized two things:

1. Once the plants grow up the trellis, the pattern is lost, and 
2. The plants and leaves need space to grow in and out of.

I used a pattern for a shawl: k1, yo, k2tog and then repeat. I got lost a number of times: the yarn-overs drifted over other stitches on occasion. As this was a speed project that won't be visible when the beans grow over it, I didn't worry about precision knitting. The end result is a little crazy, but fine for its purpose.

And there's a therapeutic aspect to being sloppy.

Over at Etsy is a woman who sells huge gauge wool yarn and custom make huge wooden needles and circulars.  Very tempting!