Leaf shawl prototype and pattern
I have been digitizing some old printed patterns and among them, I found an old lace shawl pattern. It caught my attention because it is a pure text file (no pictures) and in the text, it says that it is a pretty shawl. My curiosity was picked and my expectations raised.
First a few more words on the source of the pattern, as I have charted out a pattern that is not of my design. Years and years ago, I was on a lace knitting list serve and this pattern was sent out to the list. The sender was Michelle and she was sharing an old pattern she had inherited from her grandmother. That is where my knowledge about the origin of that pattern stops. If I am inadvertently violating some sharing rights, please let me know and I will promptly take this post down.
The pictures are mine and so are the charts. Also, the instructions are my own. It's just the lace pattern that I got from that list serve.
OK, so here is the prototype, answering my curiosity (what does the lace pattern look like?). Indeed, pretty.
Before we delve into the details of the lace pattern, let's give some thoughts to yarn size, texture, and overall style of the shawl. The original pattern calls for worsted yarn, which is what I used for my prototype, with oversize needles (size 13). Generally, when knitting lace, it is good to go up in needle size rather than down, to open up the lace. While lacy, this is a shawl that is going to be for warmth. The original pattern also calls for fringes, which I will try. This will make it a casual shawl.
One could also use lace weight yarn, make lots of small leaves and skip the fringes for a more dressy shawl.
I still have to go yarn shopping for this shawl so I can't tell what my ultimate inspiration will be, but for now I am leaning toward the chunky fringed shawl.
General construction of the shawl
The shawl is worked from the point shown on the picture above, upward. When charted, it looks like a triangle, where one casts on a large number of stitches and gradually decreases that number down to 1, which then gets casted off. Decreases worked on the sides and along the middle line create the point. There is a point at the top too. Overall, my prototype has the shape of a sting ray (sorry, not poetic, but an accurate description).
In terms of deciding how many stitches to cast on, the key measurement is half the bottom edge of the shawl (from the point to the tip of one "wing"). It is roughly equal to the length of the shawl down its middle line (10% longer). So in other words, you need to decide how long you want the shawl to be and determine how many stitches to cast on based on this and your swatch.
The general structure of the full shawl, as called for in the original pattern looks like the following
Each color coded box corresponds to a lace pattern. They are labeled with their code name, to match them up with the stitch charts. The left triangle is the mirror image of the right triangle. Separating the two triangles is one column worked in stockinette stitch. The background to the leaves is worked in reverse stockinette stitch. On either side of the two triangles, there are edge stitches. The original pattern calls for these stitches to be knit on all rows, but there is a special technique (tip #2 on this blog post) that leads to edges with stitches that are easier to pick up for finishing (in this case for a row of single crochet).
The very first row goes from right to left, the next row left back to right, the next one right back to left, etc.. That means that to begin this pattern, after casting on all the needed stitches, you begin with the purple box of the right triangle, labeled "AR1", then work leftward through boxes "BR", etc... It is a good idea to cross off boxes on the schematic above as you go, scanning from bottom to top, left to right then right to left..., as illustrated below:
One can easily adjust the size of the shawl by starting on a different row (or even adding rows!). To make my prototype, a mini-shawl, I started on row 6 (counting from the bottom). But you should always begin with pattern AR1. So for my prototype, I worked, in order, AR1, BR, BR, CR1, CL1, BL, BL, AL1, AL2, CL2, CR2, AR2, and then topped it off with the "cap" pattern (yet another chart!).
Explanation of symbols:
For AL2, CL2, CR2, I was too lazy to black out all "dead" stitches. Ignore the clean rectangles at the corners, there is no knitting there.
In terms of deciding how many stitches to cast on, the key measurement is half the bottom edge of the shawl (from the point to the tip of one "wing"). It is roughly equal to the length of the shawl down its middle line (10% longer). So in other words, you need to decide how long you want the shawl to be and determine how many stitches to cast on based on this and your swatch.
The general structure of the full shawl, as called for in the original pattern looks like the following
Each color coded box corresponds to a lace pattern. They are labeled with their code name, to match them up with the stitch charts. The left triangle is the mirror image of the right triangle. Separating the two triangles is one column worked in stockinette stitch. The background to the leaves is worked in reverse stockinette stitch. On either side of the two triangles, there are edge stitches. The original pattern calls for these stitches to be knit on all rows, but there is a special technique (tip #2 on this blog post) that leads to edges with stitches that are easier to pick up for finishing (in this case for a row of single crochet).
The very first row goes from right to left, the next row left back to right, the next one right back to left, etc.. That means that to begin this pattern, after casting on all the needed stitches, you begin with the purple box of the right triangle, labeled "AR1", then work leftward through boxes "BR", etc... It is a good idea to cross off boxes on the schematic above as you go, scanning from bottom to top, left to right then right to left..., as illustrated below:
One can easily adjust the size of the shawl by starting on a different row (or even adding rows!). To make my prototype, a mini-shawl, I started on row 6 (counting from the bottom). But you should always begin with pattern AR1. So for my prototype, I worked, in order, AR1, BR, BR, CR1, CL1, BL, BL, AL1, AL2, CL2, CR2, AR2, and then topped it off with the "cap" pattern (yet another chart!).
Determining how many stitches to cast on
A good choice for a swatch is to work two BL (or BR, it doesn't matter) boxes side by side. Determine your gauge and decide how long you want the shawl to be. Then use the gauge to transfer the length measurement into a number of stitches. For instance, if you find that it takes you 12 stitches to make up 10 cm, and you want a 55 cm long shawl, then do the following:
To be precise, based on the above, first multiply 55 cm by 1.1. This accounts for the 10% mentioned above. You get 60.5 cm. That's one wing. Two wings make it 121 cm in total. To transfer that to a number of stitches:
121 cm x (12 stitches/10 cm) = 121 x 1.2 = 145.5 stitches or to round off, 146.
But we are bound by our lace pattern and we have to take that into consideration. Our foundation row will have 3 stitches for edges + middle stitch. The rest is pattern stitches.
On each row, we have two A boxes (be it AL1, AR1, AL2, or AR2) and two C boxes (again with the whole menu). All A boxes have the same number of stitches and so do all the C boxes. A boxes contain 15 stiches and C boxes 16 stitches. So that adds 2 x 15 + 2 x 16 = 62 stiches.
So now we are up to 65 stitches. In between the A and C boxes, there is a series of B boxes. Each B box contains 8 stitches. So let's see how many stitches we still need:
146 - 62 = 84 stitches
Now we need to find the closest multiple of 8. That's 88. And 88/8 = 11. So that leaves us with 11 B boxes. But that won't work, because we need an even number of B boxes to be split into BL and BR boxes. So here you make a choice: Go slightly bigger or smaller. It is probably safest to go slightly bigger, so let's make 12 B boxes.
The total number of stitches to cast on is:
3 + 62 + 12 x 8 = 161
Determining where to start on the triangles
So the plan is to start with a row of AR1, 6 x BR, CR1, CL1, 6 x BL, AL1. The row that has 6 B boxes in each triangle is row 4. You would start there. On all subsequent rows, use boxes AR2, CR2, CL2, and AL2, as indicated on the diagram.
Finishing
When you get to finishing the cap, cut the yarn leaving a tail long enough to thread on a darning needle and tuck that tail in. Thread the tail through the remaining 3 stitches and drop them off the needle. Secure and hide the tail into the knitting.
Beginning at one corner of the triangle and with right side facing, attach the yarn and use a crochet hook to work one round of single crochet once around. Round the corners of the shawl by working 3 sc in each corner. Join back into the first crochet stitch with a slip stitch.
Work a second row of sc along the bottom edge of the triangle (which really is the back of the wings and the tail of your sting ray). If desired, attach fringes along that edge.
The stitch charts
For the legend (explanation of the symbols), see below the charts. As you work on the shawl, it helps to keep the following in mind:
- All even rows are worked from right to left, all odd rows from left to right. This is reflected in the labeling of the row numbers on the charts. When two charts are shown side by side, row numbers are shown for both charts on the sides.
- The diagrams above and the charts below are drawn in such a way that we are facing the back side of the shawl, the one where the leaves are on a background of stockinette stitch (I did not know any better when charting this). Just flip your finished shawl over to wear it.
- The "spine" of the shawl (that famous middle column) is a good place to make sure you land back on your feet. Keep that straight. As you work the shawl, you will notice that the spine is really made up of 3 columns of stockinette stitch (on the right side of the shawl, reverse stockinette on the wrong side).
- Some tips to help keep track of where you are: print out the charts below, and the first diagram above. Grey out the rows you worked out with a pencil, put arrows/stickers, whatever helps, to indicate where you left off. Use stitch markers to separate out repeats (boxes) in your knitting.
The charts were made using the Kauri Knits font by Kauricat.
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| Left: AL1, Right: AR1 |
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| Left: BL, Right: BR |
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| CR1 with on the left of it, the setup for the middle column of stitches. Note that it starts with a purl stitch on the foundation row. |
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| CL1 |
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| Left: AL2, Right: AR2 |
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| CR2 |
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| CL2 |
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| Cap. Work to top off the shawl. This single chart combines both triangles. The column of white boxes on either side depict your edge rows. |
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For AL2, CL2, CR2, I was too lazy to black out all "dead" stitches. Ignore the clean rectangles at the corners, there is no knitting there.
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