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Book Review: 50 Knitted Wraps and Shawls

March 8, 2023 by Sarah White

Some people are just shawl people. They love to knit them and wear them and give them as gifts (it is a project you can make for anyone and know it will fit, after all).

If you’re one of those people who can’t get enough shawls, you’ll love 50 Knitted Wraps and Shawls by Marisa Nöldeke.

I will say from the start that I’m not that much of a shawl person. I’ve knit a few and I wear them sometimes but I don’t feel a burning need for more of them. And I felt a little overwhelmed by this book because there are just so many options.

It feels like Nöldeke tried to come up with as many different variations as she could in terms of construction, techniques, use of color, size and shape. Which is of course a great thing, because it gives the knitter lots of options. But it’s also hard to summarize a book like that because there are so many different options.

The “knitting basics” section at the beginning of the books shows a bit of what readers can expect. Where a lot of knitting books cover the basics like how to cast on and bind off, knit and purl and perform basic increases and decreases in this sort of section, this book’s basics section starts with a lesson in provisional cast on and goes on to include things like how to increase and decrease in brioche, double knitting and three different bind offs, among other things.

It’s great to have a reference for all these things but I don’t know if I’d call them basic.

After that, the book delves into the 50 patterns, with no organization in terms of construction, techniques used or skill level, which encourages you to flip through to see what you like. Patterns are rated on a scale of one to three, and by my count there are 15 rated one, 19 rated two, and 16 rated three.

About half of the patterns are shown on the original German book’s Ravelry page, which will give you some idea of the range and style of the patterns. There are stripes, cables, double knitting, mosaic, brioche, dropped stitches, lace and textured stitches. Many of the patterns are triangles of various shapes, as well as rectangles and part circles.

The project on the cover is worked in two colors of mohair yarn, with slipped stitches to form the colorwork. It’s a triangular shawl made of striped triangles.

There are a lot of really pretty shawls here, and if shawls are a genre you like to work in you will definitely find lots of fun stuff to try here. Even as a knitter who doesn’t make a lot of shawls, I’m a little tempted to relearn double knitting to make one of the two-color diamond triangular shawls found here.

About the book: 168 pages, hardcover, 50 patterns. Published 2020 by Stackpole Books. Suggested retail 29.95.

 

 

Next Pattern:

  • Everyday Wraps: Colorful Knitted Shawls
  • Book Review - Dreamy Baby Wraps
  • Book Review: Knitted Baby Blankets and Cuddle Bags
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Have you read?

Book Review: Cable Knitting Stitch Dictionary

Stitch dictionaries are a fun way to learn new-to-you knitting stitch patterns or to take a deep dive into a particular technique. Debbie Tomkies offers 100 cable stitch designs and thoughts on how to incorporate them into projects in her Cable Knitting Stitch Dictionary.

Each stitch pattern is shown in a large swatch photo and with written and charted instructions. Any special stitches are included on the page. The stitches are rated on a difficulty scale of 1 to 3, and the pattern notes also indicate how many extra stitches you should add to a project if you’re going to work this cable (since cables pull the fabric closer together you need to compensate for that) as well as how many stitches and rows are in the repeat if you want to design a project yourself.

The cables are arranged into sections: classic cables, combinations, all-over panels, creative cables, motifs and panels and cabled edges and borders.

It’s fun to flip through the designs to think about projects you can add a single cable or two to or make with an allover cabled design. Or you could make swatches of different cables and sew them together into a pillow cover or a throw.

At the back of the book there’s a section on general cable knitting techniques, reading charts, working swatches and avoiding errors (though it mentions working the wrong number of rows between cable turns, it doesn’t share how to count rows between cables to avoid this mistake).

It also talks about how to design your own cables, combine cables in a project, choose the right yarn and needles and determine how many more stitches you need to cast on when working cables instead of stockinette stitch. There’s also a glossary of symbols and abbreviations you may find in cable knitting and other patterns.

The book provides a good overview of things you can do with cables, as well as some fun things you might not have tried like infinity cables and horizontal cables. It’s a great book for a designer who likes to work with cables or a knitter who wants to play with different stitches in their projects.

About the book: 176 pages, paperback, 100 stitch patterns. Published 2024 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $26.99.

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