Crescent shaped shawl is worked from the center top down

Did you ever wonder how to knit a crescent shaped shawl? I did. Now I know that the knitting of a crescent shaped shawl starts at the center of the top edge. In the beginning you cast on only few stitches. These stitches form the edges and through increasing stitches the shape spreads out like a fan in between the edges. During blocking the edges are placed in one continuous line as the top edge. The stitches can be increased various ways, radially or worked in the lace pattern itself. Or the most incredible way, by increasing stitches only at the sides. What? How can that be?

Crescent shawls have always confused me. They seem to have no stitches increased at all in the fabric. If the stitches are increased only at each side, on all logic the shape should be a triangle, not round. I had to dig into this mystery and find out how the crescent shape is made. The result you see here, my new design Tuuli Shawl.

Tuuli

Tuuli Shawl

Tuuli means Wind in Finnish. This thin and airy shawl moves softly like gently falling leaves in autumn breeze. It is an easy knit project, no stitch charts needed.

Tuuli is a crescent shaped shawl worked from the center top down. Stitches are increased at each side on every row. Tuuli is made of just one skein of lace weight yarn. The body is worked is stockinette stitch and the border of the shawl features delicate Daisy pattern.

The pattern can be worked in heavier fingering weight yarn as well. The pattern includes altering instructions for heavier yarn.

Blocking instructions and a schematic are also provided.

Thin crescent shaped shawl is knitted as triangle

What? How can crescent shaped shawl be knitted as triangle? In the pattern of Tuuli the stitches are increased at sides on every row right next to the edge stitches. This should create a triangle shape, shouldn’t it? Well, in fact the shape is a wide triangle.

While blocking the shape is fanned out. This is possible because knitted fabric has more rows than stitches per inch. The edges kind of gather the stiches together tighter than normally and the cast-off edge is too wide for the triangle measurements. The blocking spreads the stitches out into a round shape. This is not possible with all yarns. Light and stretchy yarns are okay, but heavy and rigid yarns need more stiches at the center of the shawl. For this reason, I have added in the knitting pattern of Tuuli Shawl instructions how to variate the pattern for the heavier yarns.

What yarn should I use for knitted lace shawl?

Lace shawls are the most beautiful when the yarn is very light. Tuuli is made of lace weight 1 ply Alpaca yarn with wild Silk collected from Kalahari Desert. This yarn is made by a small spinnery Ruukin Kehräämö ja Puoti in South-West Finland. I have a very special bond with this yarn, since I was there when it was made! I can almost say that I have made this yarn by myself. I will tell you more about this in another blog post. If you want to see the alpacas whose wool this is, have a look here.

Use for Tuuli Shawl lace weight Alpaca or Wool, preferably with Silk. Here are two good alternatives. Lamana Piura Arte or Teetee Elegant. Both work excellent for this pattern.

Pattern of Tuuli Shawl

The knitting pattern of Tuuli Shawl is now published and for sale on my Ravelry-store Piia Maria Designs. Please tag me on Instagram or Ravelry when you have knitted your Tuuli or send me an email. I would love to see this pattern made of different materials and colours.

Wish you happy knitting and all the love from the darkness of Finnish November, Piia Maria