Of all the ridiculous misconceptions I’ve had about knitting, perhaps the most ridiculous of all is that knitting a shawl is a really complex thing. Any shawl. Of any kind. Must be tricky. Must have crazy complex increases and decreases to make those shapes, and must be beyond my capabilities.
Told you it was ridiculous.
But just in case you’re still hanging out in the cave of knitting fear, I’ve designed what may in fact be the world’s easiest shawl. The Math of Love Triangles shawl.
The world’s easiest shawl. Probably.
Ok, maybe not the very easiest – because that would probably have a whole load of nothing but garter stitch going on – but this has got to be right up there. It’s a lovely, sideways triangular shawl with a few textured panels to keep things a bit interesting. And – and this is the really key bit of information – it’s way, way easier than it looks.
(Small aside: I briefly considered making “way easier than it looks” my business tagline, but then realised that’s probably a bad idea.)
Anyway. The thing that’s so magically simple about the Math of Love Triangle shawl is that it only needs three skills beyond your classic knit and purl stitches – and two of those skills are basically the same. That’s it’s. So, if you can cast on, cast off, knit, and purl, you’re ready to take on this guy.
If you’re a total beginner and want to have a crack at just doing those first, then I recommend having a little look at the kits and patterns that Lauren Aston Designs and Moloney Makes put together. But seriously, this shawl is really not much harder than a beginner scarf.
And why am I so confident in that? Because I’m about to show you those two extra skills that you need.
How do I “slip 1 purlwise with yarn in back”?
Sounds a bit complex, doesn’t it? It’s really not. Let me show you.
You see that? It’s so straightforward I made it a gif! Because all you have to do for this one is put your right hand needle into the next stitch as if you’re going to purl it, and then just slip it off your left hand needle. Then carry on.
It’s so easy that you don’t even have to bother knitting the stitch.
And how about “slip 1 purlwise with yarn in front”?
Now, when I said that two of the skills were kind of the same skill, this is what I meant. At its core, you’re doing the very same thing here that you did above – inserting right hand needle as if to purl, and then slipping it off the left hand needle.
But because you’re working on the wrong side of the shawl at this point, you need to do a little bit of yarn jiggling to keep it looking pretty. But it’s only very little. Let’s have a look, shall we?
So, for this one you work to the stitch you’re going to slip, move the yarn forward, slip the stitch, and then move the yarn back again.
It ends up lying across the stitch you’ve just slipped, but as we’re on the wrong side of the shawl here, so you’re all good.
And how about this “knit front and back” thing?
Now, this one is every so slightly more complex. But only in that you actually have to do some knitting with it.
And what knitting do you have to do? Well, pretty much what it says; you knit into the front of the stitch, and then into the back of it. Now, if you’re not super familiar with knitting yet than it can be a bit tricky to work out exactly what this means, so yet again I’m going to show you.
Let’s break that down. Starts off normal; you knit into the front of the stitch, as per usual. But then, instead of slipping that stitch off the left hand needle, you go round the back of the stitch and knit into it again.
Once you’ve done that, you’ve got two stitches instead of just the one. That’s exactly what you’re meant to have; these increases are how the shawl gets its lovely triangle-y shape.
So now you’ve watched those demonstrations, you’re all ready to get going with a bit of shawl knitting. The Math of Love Triangles shawl comes out on Thursday 5 November, so not long to wait.