Shawl Design for Everybody
Have you ever dreamed about becoming a shawl designer?
You are not alone. Lots of shawl knitters dream of a design career, and about making a living from their knitting pattern designs. As somebody who achieved this – yes, I’m making a living from knitting – I’m telling you exactly what it takes to become a successful shawl designer.
Shawl Design for Everybody is your free shawl design online resource covering every shawl shape you can possibly think of – including pattern templates, calculation how-tos, and tips for creating better shawl knitting patterns.
This free tutorial on shawl design starts with the nuts and bolts of every design: Planning ahead. This means swatching, choosing yarn and needles, selecting a suitable shawl shape and the basics of calculations related to shawl design. We move on by diving deep into all shawl shapes and how they can be constructed.
Please note: This article is in the process of being updated starting in January 2019. Updates will be finished by March 2019. Thank you for your understanding!
Shawl Design for Every Shawl Shape You Can Possibly Think Of
The picture below provides an overview about the shawl shapes covered in this free online course. Here’s a PDF version for download: Shawl Shapes 2019.
Shawl Design for Everybody: Table Of Contents
Shawl Design Basics
- Your first shawl design: Where to start?
- What is Knitting Gauge?
- Shawl Design Calculations
- The Shawl Design Trinity: Yarn, Shape, Pattern
- Shawl Geometry: About Shawl Shape Construction Methods
Square Shawl Shapes
- Rectangles (Stoles)
- Square Shawls Hem to Hem (a.k.a. Shetland & Orenburg style)
- Square Shawls Center Out
- Square Shawls Worked Diagonally
Triangle Shawl Shapes
Circles, Circle Parts & Crescents
Stars and Polygon Shawl Shapes
Faroese Shawls and Winged Triangles
Innovative Shawl Shapes
- Vortex Shawls
- Boomerang Shawls
- Shawls With Slits
- The ultimate exotics: really weird & beautiful shawl shapes
By the way…
Did you know? Shawl Design in Plain English: The complete series on shawl design is available as PDF and on Amazon as Kindle and paperback editions. Find more information here!
The pattern I am referring to is for a pink shawl with rows of large petal flowers. Please send the free PDF??
Best regards,
Amelia
Dear Dr. Julia,
I am really hoping that you will send me the free pattern that you have had on your free pattern section. It was a beautiful shade of pink and it featured a row of large flowers side by side with a circular center and petals around the center. Would you please send me the free PDF for this pattern? I had difficulty obtaining the free pattern from this website. I would like to get started right away, Please????
I really, really, really, LOVE it! I hope that you will send the PDF instead of a link, please.
I am so happy to have found your site and articles.
Thank you!
Amelia,
I guess you’re referring to Powder Pink shawl. It was a Friday Freebie, those are free for 24 hours after sending out the email. I’ll never send PDF files, the Friday Freebies patterns can be downloaded for free until the timeframe ends. It usually starts at Friday evening but sometimes it’s Saturday (or even later), but there’s always an email announcing them.
Cheers
Julia <3
Can you provide instructions, or another wonderful article, please, about how and where to insert a stitch pattern of choice within each shape?? For example, I was thinking to start with simple intermittent rows of yarn overs within the given shawls templates. Then I was hoping to insert a cascading leaf pattern, a wavy pattern, or other pattern of choice, within the given shape template. I would also like to know how to do part of the shape in garter and part in another stitch, or how to insert stitch patterns in various segments within the various shawl shape templates. Is this something you can help me with, please? I have just started to knit a sideways asymetrical shawl. I wish I knew how to add a yarn over row of holes intermittently, or a pop out leaf design I like, in a segment of the various shawl sharpest. How can I adjust the shawl pattern so that it stays on, as mentioned by someone else in your comments section. I can’t wait to find your book about designing lace patterns. I love your template article. I can provide the pattern I am working on which I found on YouTube on noble knits and knitting bee. Thank you.
Amelia, we have a whole article series and a book about this topic: Shaping Lace.
Enjoy! Julia <3
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I like Ked would find a discussion on the different shawl shapes use and wearability very helpful. Perhaps the community can pitch in with examples from different cultural traditions. For example, in Sweden we have something called a heart-shawl. It is triangular but not equilateral. It has long wings similar to winged triangular shawl in the shawl shape overview. It was worn by working women (and perhaps some men) who crossed the wings to the back and tied the wings together. That way it stayed on but was out of the way for work. I am sure there are similar traditions in other countries.
Yes, there are. The Faroese shawl is a classic example!
Wearability of shawls is on my list for a long time and will get its own post here soon. Thanks for the suggestion!
Hi Julia,
I have quite a few shawls that i chose because of the texture or colour but many of them are asymetrical triangles. I dont like this shape as its hard to wear, falls off , etc.
Have you any advice on how to adapt the pattern to, say, a crescent or (symetrical) triangle. I want the shawl to stay on my shoulders.
Thanks
Kathleen
Yes I do but not in a single article Im afraid. This topic is very complex and includes both resizing as well as reshaping. I wrote a whole book about reshaping lace shawls, it’s called Shaping Lace.
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You talk about all these different-shaped shawls and how to knit them: it’s all VERY helpful! But you don’t say anything about why one would this- or that-shaped shawl. How does each shape lay on the body and fall around the body? Where can we find THAT information so we know what shape we would knit for any particular situation or need? That seems to be the FIRST decision one would need to make BEFORE all the other decisions.
Thank you for all your help!
Ked,
thanks for your helpful advice! I’ll put this on my to-do list, I’m sure its worth thinking and writing about.
Julia <3
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Thank you so much for sharing such a wealth of knowledge. I am so happy about what I found on your site that I joined Knitting Today.
Louise
Thank you!
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When will the Vortex shawls tutorial be released?
Within this weekend I guess!
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