If you are a keen shawl knitter, it’s a good bet that you have knit shawls in a number of different ways - top down, asymmetric, maybe a Pi shawl or two. But the humble sideways knit shawl is often overlooked - unfairly in my opinion as it’s really one of my favourite ways to knit a shawl.
If you like to finish a shawl with minimal leftovers - maximising a lovely skein of sock yarn - and you don’t mind a bit of yarn weighing along the way then a sideways shawl might be just the thing.
Typically a shawl knit sideways starts with just a few stitches and increases on every right side row to form a triangular shape. By marking off a few edge stitches with a stitch marker it is possible to work a decorative border as you go - the stitch count in this portion remaining the same, and with the increases happening in the body of the shawl.
To achieve a basic triangular shape you simply work until you’ve used approximately half your yarn, then you start to decrease rather than increase.
The result? A bucket-load of motivation as you progressively have fewer and fewer stitches to work on, and a satisfyingly small amount of yarn leftover.
Depending on the yarn involved I’ve found that garter stitch tends to work best for the body of the shawl. It won’t curl no matter what you do to it and it tends to stretch a lot when blocking - giving you that all important length. No one likes a skimpy shawl after all.
In case I’ve tempted you to give a sideways shawl a whirl - a few of my sideways-knit shawls include:
This is an elongated triangular shaped shawl knit end to end, starting and finishing with just a few stitches.
The body is knit in simple garter stitch, the lace border is knit as you go.
The shawl is knit in thirds - you increase until you have knit a third of your yarn, work straight for a third and then decrease for a final third.
You will need access to reasonably accurate weighing scales for this.
Materials:
Needles: 4.0 mm (US size 6).
Yarn: 1 x 100g Banshee Yarns Yak Sock (fingering)
400m/437 yds. 70% superwash merino, 20% yak, 10% nylon.
Notions: Stitch marker, tapestry needle for weaving in ends.
Gauge: 17 stitches and 32 rows to 10cm (4") in garter stitch.
Size: Width 145 cm (57"), depth 48 cm (19").
You will get a PDF (1MB) file
Say hello to your Inner Zen - a sideways shawl designed to restore your peace and harmony.
Knit during the Covid-19 outbreak and the resulting turbulence I needed something calming to knit that wasn’t just acres of garter stitch.
This side to side shawl proved to be unexpectedly therapeutic. Starting from just a few stitches it is worked in sections - weigh your yarn first - with an increase section, a long straight section and then a final short decrease section.
The end result is a reversible, elongated crescent-ish shawl. Easy to wear and with negligible leftovers - always a bonus.
Yarn: Sockweight/fingering/4ply
Yardage: 360 - 400m (400-440yds)
Needles: 4.0 mm
Finished size: 142cm (56") wide x 30.5cm (12") deep
You will get a PDF (2MB) file
This is a shawl that is designed to make the most of that perfect skein of sockweight yarn that’s just too good to be hidden inside your shoes.
Knit from end to end this shawl starts and ends with just 2 stitches -
no tedious, never ending bind offs here.
You work the increase section until you have 50% of your yarn remaining and then it’s the downhill decreases all the way to the end.
K.I.S.S is a fabulous abbreviation for Keep It Simple Stupid and I have appropriated it here for the Keep It Simple Shawl.
The lace border adds a bit of fun and interest and as knit as you go, so once you have cast off the final two stitches you can fling it on with minimal finishing.
Two files are included in this download. One is the original stocking stitch version and the second is exactly the same but in garter stitch.
Yarn: Sockweight/fingering/4ply
Yardage: 360 - 400m (400-440yds)
Needles: 4.0 mm
Approx wingspan 60", depth 17"
Sometimes you just need to press pause, grab a coffee and sit down with a relaxing garter stitch shawl. The Do Not Disturb shawl is knit in garter stitch from side to side, creating an elongated triangular shawl which maximises the yardage you have available.
The decorative edge is knitted as you go, and the top edge of the shawl is finished with a neat integral i-cord edging - again this is knit as you go.
So once you reach the final few decreases of the shawl, all that remains is to cast off, weave in your two ends and you are done!
Yarn: 1 x 100g The Little Grey Girl Bio Sock, (100g/430m/470yds) Colourway Disturbia
Needles: 3.5mm needles
Gauge: 20sts and 36 rows to 10cm (4") in garter stitch (after blocking)
Finished measurements: 64" (162cm) length, 12.5" (32cm) width/depth
Errata: the original version had an error on row 3 of the increase section, this has been corrected in v1.1 It should read: Sl 1 wyif, kfb, K to m, sm, yo, K to m, Sl 3 wyif
