Hello!
Today we're going to go over how to incorporate lace and texture into your Pi Shawl pattern template so that you can design a one-of-a-kind shawl. Knowing how to read charts is helpful for this portion, but not required so don't worry if that's not one of your strong points. It's also good to keep in mind that these shawls can be as simple or complex as you like so don't feel obligated to cover every inch in a daunting lace stitch if you really just want to knit a beautiful yarn into a stockinette circle.
If you're interested in learning a bit more about Pi Shawls themselves & their origins, please take a look at the first blog post that I did in this series: Intro to Pi Shawls. And if you need to know the basics behind the shaping of this type of shawl you can check out my Pi Shawl Recipe or play around with my free pattern for the Stash-Berry Pi Shawl.
Now, onto the good stuff...
Adding Lace & Texture To Make a Custom Pi Shawl Pattern
Now that we know the basic framework to create a Pi Shawl, we can start playing around with adding in stitch patterns of our own choosing and design. This is where the fun of designing Pi Shawls really comes into the light because we'll be working within those "Non-Increase Sections" from our Pi Shawl Recipe. Since these sections don't have changing stitch counts, we can select a stitch pattern that is worked over a number of stitches that is a multiple of our total stitch count.
What does this mean?
As an example, let's say that we're looking for a stitch pattern for the 2nd Non-Increase Section in our Pi Shawl. At this point in the pattern we would have a total of 36 stitches and we know that this section will be a total of 6 rows/rounds tall. So, we can look for stitch patterns that use an amount of stitches which are multiples of 36 and that are no taller than 6 rows/rounds. Here are some stitch patterns that would work:
Stitch Guide for All Sample Patterns:
K - knit
K2tog - knit the next 2 stitches together as one
Ssk - Slip 1 stitch, slip 1 stitch, knit the 2 slipped stitches together as one
Yo - wrap the yarn over the the right needle front to back
Sample Pattern 1
We could use a stitch pattern that has a 2 stitch repeat & is 2 rows/rounds tall like this one. The 2 stitches in each row/round would be repeated 18 times across/around over a total of 6 rows/rounds to fill in the entire Non-Increase Section.
In-the-Round Written Instruction for Sample Pattern 1:
Round 1: *Yo, k2tog; repeat from * around.
Round 2: K around.
Sample Pattern 2
We could also use a stitch pattern that has a 4 stitch repeat & is 3 rows/rounds tall like this one. The 4 stitches in each row/round would be repeated 9 times across/around over a total of 6 rows/rounds to fill the entire Non-Increase Section.
An easy trick to add interest is to incorporate colored stripes in your patterns, I've done that with this pattern. If you keep the amount of rows between the colors small, you don't have to break each color as you go. Just carry it up the back of your work until you are done with the color for more than 3-4 rows/rounds.
In-the-Round Written Instructions for Sample Pattern 2:
Round 1: Using color 1, *k1, yo, ssk, k1; repeat from * around.
Round 2: Using color 1, *k1, k2tog, yo, k1; repeat from * around.
Round 3: Using color 2, k around.
Sample Pattern 3
Another option would be a stitch pattern that uses a 6 stitch repeat & is 6 rows/rounds tall like this one. The 6 stitches in each row/round would be repeated 6 times across/around over a total of 6 rows/rounds to fill the entire Non-Increase Section.
In-the-Round Written Instructions for Sample Pattern 3:
Round 1: *Yo, ssk, k4; repeat from * around.
Round 2: *K1, yo, ssk, k3; repeat from * around.
Round 3: *K2, yo, ssk, k2; repeat from * around.
Round 4: *K4, k2tog, yo; repeat from * around.
Round 5: *K3, k2tog, yo, k1; repeat from * around.
Round 6: *K2, k2tog, yo, k2; repeat from * around.
Do I have to do lace?
In the sample patterns I shared above, I chose to keep to some very simple lace patterns. Lace is an openwork stitch pattern that will be enhanced by larger needles and a good blocking when you're finished with it. This makes it an excellent choice for incorporating into Pi Shawls. Stockinette also lends itself well to this design because it stretches & the yarn will generally fluff-up a bit to fill in the gaps after washing/blocking.
You can choose to use textured stitches, cables, colorwork, whatever your heart desires, just keep in mind that some of these stitch patterns "suck-in" your fabric and will require you to do more than just double your stitch count on your increase rows. You really should make a swatch for stitch patterns that will make the fabric more dense (lookin at you fair isle) because they may not work as well as you would hope without some extra mathing on your part.
Coming up Next Week
Next week we'll be wrapping up our discussion on Pi Shawls with a photo tutorial for a knitted-on edging. You don't have to use this kind of edging for your shawls, but it is a fun technique to have in your pocket so that you can add some more variety to your projects if the mood strikes.
If you haven't already, be sure to sign-up to receive my emails so that you'll get notified every week when a new blog post goes up or a pattern is released. Have a great week!
Happy Knitting,
Shaina ^_^
Try It Out!
It's best to put a new technique into practice right away so that you can remember it in the future. Here are some of my patterns based on the pi-shawl technique.
Free!
$5.00 USD
$5.00 USD
Full Disclosure: Links shared in this post may be affiliate links. They don't cost you any extra money, but if you use my links when you make a purchase I'll earn a small percentage of the sale & you'll be helping to support more posts like this in the future. Thank you!
Comments