Crescent-Shaped Shawls

Allow me introduce you to two sisters: Shoals & Shore. They’re crescent-shaped shawls worked from the bottom up; Shoals (as her name implies) is shallow, while Shore is deeper and rounder like a sandy beach. They both begin with a lace border, but Shoals‘ body is smooth stockinette, whereas Shore‘s is an undulating garter stitch.

Shoals + Shore
PDF Patterns + Worksheet
£8.00

Shoals‘ lace looks like waves, and swaying seaweed, and seashells all at once. She’s a dainty little creature who will keep the sun off your shoulders while you relax on the beach with a book. Knit in a vibrant colour like turquoise, she’ll add a flourish to a plain outfit, especially useful if you’re travelling with a limited wardrobe. She could totally pull off white too, though.

Shore is sand lilies, mermaid’s purses, fishtails, and fins. Being a bit larger, she makes a good cover-up for the beach, tied nonchalantly around your hips or jauntily at your shoulder. She’ll also keep the chill off after your swim.

BONUS!

But I haven’t even told you the best part yet! The sisters bring with them a CRESCENT SHAWL SHAPING WORKSHEET which shows you the exact formula I used to design them in the first place. All you have to do is decide how rounded you want your shawl to be, fill in the blanks, and follow the pattern.

What does this mean to you?
1. It means that you can design your own crescent-shaped shawls using any stitch pattern you like for the border.
2. It means that you can modify patterns you already own to be shallower or deeper or A DIFFERENT SIZE!
3. It means that you can expand your knitting repertoire to include this intriguing knitting technique.

The worksheet elucidates the technique used in the beautiful Annis Shawl, designed by Susanna IC. I love this technique so much; it’s quite brilliant! If you haven’t tried it before, it works by decreasing at the end of each short row, so essentially the shawl is shaped in two ways. I think this worksheet will be of great value to you, because figuring out how these shawls work is by no means intuitive.

Don’t worry if you’re not good with maths, either. I’ve laid out the worksheet (which is 1 page, with an additional explanatory page) clearly and simply, so all you have to do is fill in the blanks, and perform some basic division. Perhaps you could use an abacus. :)

See? Life’s a breeze when you have the formula; now I have all this spare time to relax on the beach. :)

many moons

If you’re as fond of visual puns as I am, then you will appreciate how many themes are ripe for a crescent shawl…

How about…
a crescent-shaped shawl for a honeymoon, whether it’s your own, or a friend’s?
a Luna Lovegood shawl to celebrate the final Harry Potter film?
a “cheer up” shawl for a loved one who’s been mooning about?
a shawl inspired by the croissant, for elegant brunches at a café?

Details

Shoals & Shore each have 4 sizes, and both written & charted instructions.

Shoals
Circumference: 140 [168, 196, 252]cm / 55 [66, 77, 99]in
Width at widest point: 21 [23, 25, 29]cm / 8 [9, 10, 11.5]in
Yarn: Sport-weight cotton or cotton blend, approx. 200 [235, 260, 290]m / 220 [260, 285, 320]yds.
Needles: 5mm.
Gauge: 14sts / 22 rows over 10cm / 4in in stocking stitch.

Shore
Circumference: 140 [196, 252, 308]cm / 55 [77, 99, 121] in
Width at widest point: 28 [35, 42, 49]cm / 11 [14, 16.5, 19]in
Yarn: Sport-weight cotton or cotton blend, approx. 240 [310, 350, 370]m / 260 [340, 385, 405]yds.
Needles: 5mm.
Gauge: 14sts / 26 rows over 10cm / 4in in garter stitch.

The sisters are only available as a pair, as they complement each other so well. The best part is that if you don’t like my sizes you can use the worksheet to create your own, so altering any of the shawls to work with other yarn weights and gauges is easy. You can also effortlessly configure Shoals to be more curved, and Shore to be shallower. The possibilities are endless! One thing’s for sure, you’ll be blocking your own shawls in no time…