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A Shawl to Knit for the Generations

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This design was inspired by a saying in Judaism, L’dor v’dor, which means, “from generation to generation,” when translated to English. Typically, it is understood to mean the transmission of the culture’s values, rituals, traditions, and history to the next generation.

While designing and knitting the Generations Shawl, designer Jessica Ays  says, she spent time thinking of the things we pass down from one generation to the next – the things that have been passed down to her, and those she is passing down.

I thought of the cookbook that my cousin Jenna made for my Bridal Shower filled with secret family recipes, including some in my Grandma Faye’s own handwriting. I thought of my Aunt Arlene who taught me how to crack an egg to help make her famous matzoh ball soup. I thought of my Mom and her favorite chocolate cake we’d make from scratch on rainy days and snow days … she always let me lick the batter from the bowl after we put it in the oven.

I thought of the little ways I pass on my values and traditions to my children, from the holiday traditions to the everyday little life lessons about how to be a good and kind human.

This asymmetrical shawl starts out with just a few stitches and is the perfect pattern for a gorgeous solid, tonal, or very gently variegated skein of fingering weight yarn. Want a larger shawl? Just keep knitting! This shawl is simple to adjust for a larger size by continuing on with additional repeats.

The lace is simple to follow, and the only stitches used are knits, purls, yarn overs, k2tog, ssk, and m1L.

The pattern is fully written and the repeat is charted, so you can take your pick to work from! And a stitch count table is included to help keep you on track.

It’s worked in superfine yarn, but you could also make a bigger shawl just by using heavier-weight yarn and larger knitting needles. It’s totally up to you!

You can grab the pattern for this pretty shawl on Ravelry or Payhip.

[Photo: Jennifer Ays]

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Make Your Knitting Machine Scarves Better

I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve shared any patterns for our circular knitting machine users. I know these devices aren’t for everyone but even though I much prefer knitting by hand, it is kind of fun to crank things out on these machines.

One of the most common early projects for a circular knitting machine is a scarf. Which makes sense, because it’s just one long tube and you can make it as long as you like.

One problem that comes from knitting scarves on the circular knitting machine, though, is that it can be hard to know how to finish the ends of the tube so that it looks like a finished scarf and not a tube of knitting.

If you’re not a knitter or crocheter, the most basic way to finish a circular knitting machine scarf is just by cinching up the ends and maybe adding a pompom to each end to cover up any hole that might still be visible at the end.

But if you have a little knitting or crochet skill or are willing to learn, there are a lot of different options for closing up the ends of a scarf. And this would also be true if you hand knit a tube scarf!

I recently wrote a post over at Our Daily Craft that includes five different ways to close up the ends of a tube scarf:

  • the simple cinching method mentioned above
  • sewing the stitches together
  • three needle bind off
  • grafting
  • crochet bind off

Grafting is my favorite because I feel like it gives the cleanest, closest to a seamless look. If you’re a knitter you may already know how to do it but even if you don’t it’s not that hard to learn.

Do you knit tube scarves by hand or machine? I’d love to know how you like to finish them!