One of the things I love about making shawls is the variety of stitches that you can use! Here’s a few of the major types of shawls.

Lace

Shawls done in lace can range from simple lace (e.g., basic eyelets) to quite complex.

The warmth of lace shawls can be managed by the yarn (e.g., linen or wool) and its thickness (e.g., laceweight or bulky weight).

Garter Stitch

This is just about the knitting version of garter stitch.

A shawl made in garter stitch can be very squishy when you squeeze it. This can also make it warmer and more insulating.

Please keep in mind that garter stitch will tend to grow more slowly. People will often joke that they knit for an hour and it hasn’t grown at all.

Having said that though, it can be:

• easier to knit (it’s just the Knit stitch).
• great for blending colors because of the way the stitch is formed.
• opportunity to introduce a second color
• shallower than other shawl shapes because garter stitch doesn’t grow as quickly length-wise.

Texture

This type of shawl can bridge the gap between a lace shawl and a garter stitch shawl. It might have ribbing or another basic texture such as moss stitch.

Texture shawls can often look more modern than a shawl in, say, a frilly lace. They can be in a single color or several colors.

Additionally, the texture can help keep the maker entertained and break up large swathes of a single stitch.

Cable

A shawl with cables can look quite complex to the non-crafter. Given the fact that cables overlap or twist, they can also be warm. The warmth can be lessened by also using eyelets in the stitches as well.

Look at all that variety!

I haven’t even touched on some other ways that shawls are great:

• Variety of yarn types and dyeing styles.
• Flexibility of the size of the wearer, making it great for gifts or even for yourself.

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