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| All photographs by Joe Hancock for F+W Media, Inc. Used with permission. |
Last week I spent a whole afternoon with my knitting friends, something I haven’t done in three years. I missed them so much! We sat around the table at the middle of the yarn store and worked on our projects, chatted, ate candy, swooned over each other’s work, and planned our next yarn purchases. One of my friends, Renee’, was working on a beautiful shawl and I came home dreaming of making my own someday.
At home, I remembered receiving for review the book “Classic Knit Shawls – 20 Timeless Designs Featuring Lace, Cables, & More“, published by Interweave. Wait until Renee’ sees these shawls! The contributors to the book – designers with a long history of creating and publishing knitwear – delight us with a wide array of possibilities: intricate designs, simple stitches with lacework accents, medium weight or lace yarn, one or many-colored versions… it is all in there.
The gorgeous photography shows how shawls can be worn to accent any outfit, not only as a functional apparel. Lace designs add romance to a summer dress or complement an evening gown, bright colorwork lends dimension to a monochromatic dress or winter palette, and garter stitch (with lace edgings) warms and turns formal into sassy.
Although I may begin my foray into shawl knitting with the Madeleine Shawl above, the following patterns suggest I will definitely knit more than one:
