Many of my shawl patterns are end-to-end shawls, meaning that they start at one tip with a few stitches and end at the other tip with a few stitches. They increase to the middle and decrease back down to the opposite tip. They are a triangular shape and some are deeper than the others.
Most of my patterns like this are garter stitch and lace where the lace edge is knitted along with the garter stitch body. A couple of them have stockinette stitch bodies. The garter bodies do a better job of laying flat. Stockinette stitch tends to roll. The Zigzag Diamond Shawl is an example of a stockinette body. It has a row of eyelets along the long edge to help keep it from curling.
Deep End-To-End Shawls
Several of my end-to-end shawl patterns are deeper than the others because they have a wider lace edge. This design creates a deeper V-shape and a shorter length. My Beautiful Blossoms and Tumbling Waves patterns have deep lace sections.
My recent Salt Water and Sea Stars pattern does too.
Slim End-To-End Shawls
End-to-end shawl patterns with a slimmer lace edge end up being longer and skinnier, almost scarf-like in some cases. Examples include Dazzling Daffodils and Herb Garden Shawl.
Yarn
This type of shawl pattern is easily adaptable to the amount of yarn you have on hand. It’s a perfect one-skein pattern. All of my examples shown above were knitted in one skein each of fingering/sock yarn. But because the shawl is increased to the middle and then decreased back down to the end, any amount of yarn may be used. Weigh your yarn before beginning and divide the weight in half. Use half of it to knit to the middle of the shawl and the other half to knit to the end. You can divide your yarn into two balls if you wish or use a scale to keep checking until you reach the halfway point. All of these patterns have instructions for this.
Beginner End-To-End Patterns
If you’re a beginning knitter and are worried that these patterns may be too complicated for you, don’t worry, they’re really not. But if you want to start with an easy one then my best-selling end-to-end shawl pattern might be the one for you. Sweet Summer Shawl is almost 10 years old but is still a strong selling pattern. It’s not hard at all. It has a slim lace border and a garter stitch body. And my second best-seller is Little Summer Shawl, also a garter stitch shawl but with a lace border that’s a little bit deeper. These two patterns are simple and classic and never go out of style.
I’d love to hear which of these patterns is your favourite. Comment below. Or, post photos of your LMD shawl on Instagram or Facebook with #leahmichelledesigns. I can’t wait to see them!
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What is good length (end to end) to aim for when knitting a shawl?
That’s a great question! Unfortunately there isn’t one answer. It really depends on your personal preference, the pattern, and the amount of yarn you’re using. For the shawls mentioned here the lengths range from 61 to 73 inches for the deep end-to-end shawls and 78 to 82 inches for the slim ones. Now, if you were to use more yarn than called for in the pattern your length would be longer. It really depends on what you prefer.