As a long-time knitter, shawls seem to be the go-to project to use beautiful yarns, practice a new stitch pattern or work a new technique.

Shawl Benefits

The construct of a shawl is optimal for design work for a knitter wanting to experiment with any technique or stitch or yarn in knitting.

While there are certain restrictions, the architecture of a shawl has probably the fewest that constrain a knitter.  There is no specific gauge you need to meet. The finished dimensions don’t need to be exact for a proper fitted shawl. Blocking can make a huge difference in the finishing size of a shawl and a knitter can experiment with color with reckless abandon.

Designing a shawl allows me to drag out all my stitch pattern library books and my tomes on lace knitting (or knitted lace) to garner new ideas or things I might find fun.  Shawl projects also give me the opportunity to rummage through my stash for fun and exciting yarns.

The one thing I do recommend is having a decent book of shawl designs. It must help with ideas and help determine sizes, shape and gauge of a shawl.

Interweave has come out with just the ticket.  Classic Knit Shawls (20 Timeless Designs featuring Lace, Cables, & More) is a perfect library of all things “shawl”!  You can get ideas on shape (triangle, crescent/semi-circles or rectangles).  You can get ideas (as the title indicates) on lace, cables or other knitting techniques (like elongated stitches).

The book includes designs by Megi Burcl, Nancy Bush and Kristin Omdahl.  While some of these patterns have been published in other Interweave books, this publication pulls them all together in one consolidated shawl library. It is a great resource for anyone wanting to play in the shawl designing (or knitting) arena.

This is my favorite garment from this book.

Current Knitting

Is a “wrap” considered a “shawl”?  I will say it is. Especially since I have finished the Koigu Old Shale Wrap. And it is rather stunning.

The final dimensions are approximately (since it’s a very loose gauge wrap that stretches) 60″ x 18″. This is exactly what I was hoping for.  I used four hanks of Koigu KPPPM on US 7 needles on a total of 360 stitches (worked lengthwise).  Here is the link to the stitch pattern I used as well.