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Pi Shawls for Pi Day

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It’s March 14, also known as Pi Day, so who could resist thinking about some pi-shaped (or pie-shaped?) shawls?

The most famous Pi Shawl is of course Elizabeth Zimmermann’s. Originally shared in her print newsletter, it’s been republished in Knitter’s Almanac, where it’s the project for July because it’s “good travel-knitting.” She likes this particular project for its simplicity, with only six increase rounds in the whole project.

Towards the end, by the time your state of mind has become more and more frayed, and your need of mindless comfort greater and greater, your knitting will be nothing but almost endless rounds of hundreds of stitches, with no thinking required, at all. You will end up with an heirloom.

Looking for more Pi Shawl patterns to knit? Check these out on Etsy.

Sounds pretty good, right?

There are lots of great pi shawls out there in the world now; here are a few.

The Simply Pi Shawl form Kay Meadors is really simple, almost all straight knitting. An optional beaded edging gives it a little sparkle and weight.

Ravelry user MMario’s Easy Peasy Lace Shawl uses simple eyelets throughout, while his Pi-napple Strudel gets points for the cute name and lovely design.

The Flower Pie Shawl by Megan Elligner adds a bold flower pattern to the basic shape, while Jan Henley’s Pi in the Sky I is actually a semi-circle using the same concepts.

If you’re willing to pay a bit for a pattern, check out Mindy Vasil’s Camellia, Susan Pandorf’s Evenstar (you’re going to want to look at the amazing variations on this one, including a knit dress), the Butterfly Pi shawl from Linda Farrelly, Margrit’s Pi Shawl by Tanja Luescher and the Diamond Rings Pi Shawl by Donna Druchunas, who inspired me to collect this roundup in the first place.

And if you want to go your own way with a circular shawl worked from the center out, Holly Peacock has a great calculator in a Google document that you can use. Just plug in how many stitches you want to cast on and it will tell you where to increase, how many stitches you should have once you’ve increased, and how many usable rounds you have between increase rounds for plotting out your pattern. Awesome.

Comments

  1. I am knitting Jared Flood’s “Leaves of Grass” pattern right now, it is a beautiful paid for pi pattern. I am making it in worsted weight so it should be more like a blanket. I am loving it, I love pi shawls

Have you read?

Book Review: Circular Knitting for Beginners and Beyond

When I discovered Kate Atherley’s book Circular Knitting for Beginners and Beyond, I wasn’t sure there was enough to say about circular knitting to fill a book. It’s a pretty short book (144 pages) and includes 10 patterns to practice working in the round on small projects, and it provides a decent introduction to the various ways of working in the round. 

The book covers using double pointed knitting needles, flexible double points and circular knitting needles with cables. It talks about working using the full circumference of a circular needle and various ways to work smaller circumference projects, such as using DPNs, magic loop and knitting with two circular knitting needles. 

In addition there’s a discussion of preventing problems like twists and ladders, swatching in the round without actually swatching in the round, grafting, blocking and weaving in ends. 

More specialized techniques likes knitting from the center out, stranded colorwork, helical knitting and jogless stripes are also explored, as well as working pieces like socks or mitts two at a time. 

There’s also some information about seamless sweaters, including the different sweater designs that can be worked seamlessly (and why you might want seams in your sweaters) and how they are worked from the top down or the bottom up. 

There are 10 patterns in the book, including a basic stockinette stitch cowl and one with a deliberate twist, wrist warmers, mitts and a pair of colorwork mittens, a hat worked in a solid color or in helical stripes, toe up and top down socks and a beret. It would have been nice to have a basic sweater pattern, too, since the book does talk about working larger garments with circular needles, but it’s still a nice collection of basic patterns worked in the round. 

If you’re already comfortable working in the round in different ways, I’m not sure there’s much for you to learn in this book, but it is a good reference for people learning circular knitting or who maybe haven’t tried all the techniques yet or need skill building projects to try. 

About the book: 144 pages, paperback, 10 patterns. Published 2026 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $24.99.