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Crescent Shawl Lace Patterns

Most knitting charts come as rectangles but shawl shapes vary. Today I show you how converting charts for crescent shawls works, and share my knowledge about how to make crescent shawl charts work with you.

This post is part of my two article series about adapting stitch patterns and how to knit crescent shawls.

Lace Patterns And Crescent Shawls

There are many variants of crescent shawl construction methods, and each one has its special rules of how to add lace or other stitch patterns to them. In this post I’ll explain how to create crescent shawls with lace patterns for the following construction methods:

Adding Stitch Patterns to Short Row Crescent Shawls

As written about extensively in my posts The Complete Guide to Short Rows and Short Row Crescent Shawls, this shawl shape constructed using short rows is built out of a triangle – or triangles as shown below. The crescent shape is achieved by blocking.

Short row crescent shaping

The same principles as for including charts in triangle shawls apply when adding stitch patterns to short row crescent shawls. The area you have available for your stitch pattern is determined by your short row shaping.

In the chart shown below the white area is available as drawing canvas for your stitch pattern. The little loopy symbol indicates a short row turning stitch (a wrap & turn, or a wrapped stitch like the German short row “double stitch”). Squares in grey are no stitches.

Charts for short row crescent shawls

Here’s another article about short row shaping to help you with short row calculations: Short Row Calculations Made Easy.

You can start your short row crescent shawl at any side – working both top-down as well as bottom-up are possible. If in doubt, just rotate the chart around.

Stitch Patterns in Crescents Worked Sideways

Crescents worked sideways are constructed using two triangles (increases on only one side) and a rectangle in between.

Shawl Shapes Trapezoid Crescent

If you choose to stay within this framework, you can use any stitch pattern you like. To adapt stitch patterns to the left and right parts shown in the picture above – the triangles – you need to create a drawing canvas in a chart editor (or a spreadsheet) with your desired increase rate similar as in triangle shawl chart adaptations. The center part uses a rectangular chart.

Winged Crescent Stitch Patterns

Winged crescents are a combination of a half circle with the principles of winged triangle shawls. Start adding wing shaping after about half of the circle has been finished, and blocking takes care of the rest. You can learn more about this construction methods in my shawl design articles Winged Triangle Shawls, How to Knit Crescent Shawls and How to Knit Circular Shawls.

Stitch Patterns for Increase Crescents

The Increase Crescent shawl construction method is a rather new one I came up with during a recent knitting summit, Austrian Yarn Club’s Wollness Weekend. I wrote more about this shape and construction in my earlier article about Austrian crescents.

Summary

You can adapt stitch patterns for all kinds of crescent shawl constructions. As long as you know the underlying basic shape you only need to stay within this framework to succeed.

Do you want to adapt stitch patterns for a new crescent shawl design? Give it a try and let me know how it goes by leaving a comment below!

Lace Knitting and Crescent Shawls

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