Knitting

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Project Notebook: Maedwe Shawl

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my maedwe shawlRight before Christmas I participated in a really fun, spontaneous act of giving. Using the hashtag #getyouryarnwishesgranted, knitters requested yarns they’d like to play with and went about fulfilling other people’s wishes, too.

One of the yarns I wished for was something from Lorna’s Laces, because I feel like it’s shameful that I’ve never really knit with their yarn before.

I was gifted two skeins of Shepherd Sport Multi, and they arrived just before the holiday. On Christmas I set out to find something to knit with them. I knew I wanted to knit a shawl, but beyond that I wasn’t sure.

I finally settled on making a version of Maedwe, a short-row garter stitch shawl by AnneLena Mattison found in the book Free-Spirit Shawls. It’s actually a pretty easy pattern once you get the rhythm of it, and I finished up mine in five days.

I really like the look of it, even though the original was knit in a much more subdued yarn. I’ve already worn it quite a lot and intend to throughout the season. maedwe and instahat

This is me wearing it on New Year’s Eve along with a quick as lightning hat I’ll tell you about next week.

What’s on (or recently off) your needles? I’d love to hear about it!

 

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Comments

  1. Beautiful shawl. I’m so sorry that I missed #getyouryarnwishgranted. I’ll have to keep an eye out for it next year as I’d love to participate.
    I’m currently working on an infinity scarf for my daughters best friends 30th birthday gift.
    I’m using the bulky Brown sheep co. Lambs pride.
    I purchased this yarn at the New York sheep an wool festival this past October.
    Knitting with this yarn reminds me of the great day that I had with my daughter.
    The Eucalyptus leaf color will look lovely on her.

Have you read?

Book Review: The Knitting Book

There are two schools of thought when it comes to instructional books about knitting. Either focus in one particular technique or kind of knitting (stranded knitting, say, or brioche) or try to cover a little bit of everything in a reference book that knitters will use throughout their careers. 

The Knitting Book by Frederica Patmore and Dr. Vikki Haffenden aims to be the second kind. The subtitle is: a step-by-step guide to creating imaginative projects for the home and to wear. I’m not sure it does that, exactly, but it does include a quick look at a lot of different techniques and stitch patterns you might use in your projects. 

A “guide to creating imaginative projects” sounds to me like it’s about design, but this book is not. There’s 1/3 of a page about altering patterns that only talks about how to add length to a sleeve and adjust where the increases go.

There’s nothing about measuring your body (the section on choosing a size in a pattern only suggests measuring a garment you already own), general garment construction, ease or stitch pattern multiples. The section on gauge (which is the last third of the page with choosing a garment size and altering patterns, discussed above) just says to knit a swatch, block and measure it to compare to a pattern, with no discussion on how you might use your swatch to design your own project or alter a pattern to meet your gauge. 

If you ignore the subtitle, what you will find is a lot of information about different kinds of knitting and various techniques you might want to try on your projects. There are 20 cast ons and 15 bind off options, for instance, all discussed before you learn how to knit or purl. (Another quibble I have with this book is the order in which things are presented, but that’s relatively minor.)

You’ll find quick hits on increases and decreases, twists and cables, lace, colorwork, textured effects like fisherman’s rib and brioche, loops, mosaic knitting, double knitting, decorative stitches, shadow knitting, bias knitting, mitered squares, entrelac and more. There are tips for selvedge stitches, knitting with beads, adding buttonholes, picking up stitches and more. 

A few patterns at the back give knitters a taste of some of the techniques included, but they’re not rated by skill level and the first one is a bias knit gradient scarf worked in six different colors of mohair, which isn’t a thing I’d wish on any beginner. 

And I guess that’s maybe what my issue with the book is. I don’t know if it’s meant for beginners and it doesn’t seem to, either. I feel like this book would be overwhelming to new knitters and doesn’t really give you a place to start or all the information you might need to do projects well.

The variety of techniques included is fun, and there are also stitch patterns in the back you can use on your own projects, but again it doesn’t really provide any guidance for how to design your own projects so I don’t know how helpful all of that is. 

I want to like books like this because having one reference that helps you with a lot of different things is great, I’m just not sure this is the one. If you can find it at your library or local book store and flip through it before buying, I think that would be a great idea to see if it’s a book that would be helpful for you. 

And if you have this book and love it please let me know! I’m sure it’s good for someone I’m just not sure who. 

About the book: 336 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by DK. Suggested retail price $40.