Crescent Shawls: Size and Shape Adjustments

Sometimes you stumble upon a perfect pattern for a knitted crescent shawl but it is just not the right shape or size – now what? Well, just reshape it – or resize it! Crescent shawls size and shape adjustment is easy if you know how to approach the subject. It really isn’t a miracle, and this article teaches you how to adjust both size and shape of crescent shawls.

This article is part of the Complete Guide to Knitting Crescent Shawls.

Size and Shape Adjustments

Adjustments to the size of a crescent shawl (in fact, of any knitted shawl) can be done in two ways:

• Altering your knitting gauge, or
• Changing your stitch counts.

The first one is easy: Just use larger needle sizes for bigger gauge, or change your yarn accordingly. Ths method is suitable for subtle size alterations.

How to approach the second one – changing your stitch counts – depends on your chosen construction method.

Crescents Worked Sideways & Austrian Crescents

For crescents worked sideways and Austrian crescents it’s straightforward: Either work more increase rows or change your increases per row. The regular increases are one stitch every other row (crescents worked sideways) or two stitches every row (Austrian crescents). You can choose to work more increases to get a wider crescent, or to leave your increase rate as-is and just work more of them to get a longer one.

Short Row Crescents & Triangle Crescents

When it comes to shape, the same principles as for the ones mentioned above apply: Changing  shape is done via altering the stitches between your short row positions (for short row crescents) or the decrease rate (when working triangle crescents). Your size is determined by the number of stitches you cast on at the beginning – the more stitches, the bigger your shawl will be.

Winged Crescents

For winged crescents it’s a bit different. Size adjustments are made by working more increase rounds in the half circle part. Shape adjustments can be done by altering the number and position of the winged part – the higher your increase rate, the pointier your crescent will become.

All Questions Answered?

I hope all your questions about resizing crescents have been answered in this article. If you still got any questions please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below!