Are you a beginner at knitting and desperately want to knit those shawls you see popping up on Ravelry or elsewhere?
Here are three of my patterns to help you start knitting a shawl and understand the different constructions – from the easiest to the most complicated.
Three Shawl Patterns for Stubborn Beginners
1. Z Shawl – a triangular shawl in stockinette and garter stitch
First of all, I present to you Z Shawl, a pattern that I put on sale in 2014.
I wanted an all-purpose, all-terrain shawl for both men and women. It was back in the day when we were big fans of the Walking Dead series. So the photoshoot took place in a derelict area of the Luxembourg province with zombies in the background.
1.1 Its construction
Its construction is simple, it is a construction that you will often encounter for triangular shawls.
You start with a Garter Tab Cast-On (so a garter stitch cast on) and you will then increase symmetrically at the edge and the central edge. And this, every knit row.
Here you will play with garter stitch and stockinette stitch simply to form the patterns that punctuate the construction of the shawl.
1.2. The wool used
To knit this shawl, I chose to use a fairly rustic carded wool: Brooklyn Tweed Loft. To knit this shawl, I needed a little less than 700 meters, or three skeins.
You can of course choose a less rustic and all-terrain wool if you want to give it a slightly more chic or feminine touch.
You will find this pattern on Raverly, Lovecrafts And Makerist.
2. Impulse, a triangular shawl with a little lace
Let's move on to something slightly more complicated.
You are at the stage where you understand how to make a simple triangular shawl by playing with garter stitch and stockinette stitch.
Let us now approach another construction: that of constructing a triangular shawl in shortened rows.
Impulsion is a simple garter stitch shawl, with a tiny bit of lace at the end of the row, the shape of which is achieved using shortened rows.
2.1. Sizes and wool
It is available in two sizes: a small one with one main color and stripes in a mixed color and a large one with a set of stripes in two colors and tassels to embellish it.
This pattern was updated a few weeks ago and is now offered to you with the newsletter subscription but it remains available on Ravelry, Lovecrafts And Makerist.
To knit the latest version of the pattern, I used two single fingering yarns in two contrasting colors (Grandier and Purple Blue) from Live or Dye Yarn. And I used all the available wool by adding tassels to the shawl. So no leftovers!
2.2. The techniques used
This pattern is ideal for teaching you how to make short rows, which are an essential technique if you want to progress in knitting. It will be useful for shawls as well as for sock heels, hollowing out a neckline, and playing with shapes.
There are many techniques but my favorites are the German shortened rows, you will find a tutorial here.
It also teaches you to make acorns, small accessory that can embellish crochet or knitting, bags, mittens or even hats.
3. Heat Wave, triangular shawl in garter stitch and mohair and silk
And finally, I present to you Heat Wave, another triangular shawl with once again a different construction.
3.1. Construction
This time, the construction is done by starting at the point and flaring the shawl row after row.
It is decorated with stripes and finished with a fairly simple delicate lace.
3.2. The wool used
I would say that the main difficulty with this shawl lies in the wool used: mohair. Indeed, when you are a beginner, it is not uncommon to make mistakes and therefore it is not uncommon to have to undo rows.
This is quite complicated with mohair, you have to be quite careful not to drop any stitches.
I therefore advise you either to put a lifeline regularly to secure your knitting or to use a quality that is easier to work with such as alpaca and silk or simply a merino and silk lace to keep this effect of two different yarn textures.
3.3. The wool used
For this pattern, I used 340 meters of Fingering Single yarn from Little Parisian Dots for the main color and 280 m of Mohair Silk from Petits Points Parisiens for the contrasting color.
And finally, a quick word about the photoshoot and the name of the shawl, its name is Heat Wave which means heat wave.
I chose this name because we did the photoshoot on one of the beaches on the island of Öland during one of the biggest heat waves Sweden has experienced in recent years. We could hardly believe we weren't in the South of France, the grass was so scorched by the heat.
You will find this pattern like all the others on Ravelry, Lovecrafts And Makerist.
4. Conclusion
I hope this selection will make you want to start knitting shawls, you'll see, it's very addictive and we quickly find ourselves with enough shawls in our wardrobe to change them almost every day in winter!
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See you soon,
Christelle
