How many yards/meters of yarn does it take to knit a shawl?
It depends on a lot of factors, but my preference is at least 450-500 yards (411-457 meters) of yarn.
You can read about some knitting yardage rules of thumb in “Shawls to Play With.“
Can you knit a shawl with less yardage? Yes.
I have.
“Wafian” is knit with 420 yards (384 meters) of Tosh Merino Light – a fingering weight yarn – on a US 7 (4.5mm) needle.
However those shawls tend to end up on the smaller side. More scarf-like than shawl-like. But I like my shawls on the giant side of huge.
That being said, the sky is the limit with shawl yardage.
“Tumbling Deco” takes 980 yards (896 meters) of a lace weight yarn.
“Eirwen” takes about 1600 yards (1463 meters) of lace weight.
“Ingrid’s Baby Bridal Knot” (one of the first lace shawls I ever tried knitting – it didn’t go so well…) calls for 3825 yards (3498 meters) of lace weight yarn.
And “The Queen Susan Shawl” calls for 6562-7108 yards (6000-6500 meters) of yarn. I’ve never tried knitting this shawl, but it’s the largest I could find with a quick search in the Ravelry database.
“Modern Heirloom” is a close second with 5000-6000 yards (4572-5486 meters) of yarn.
So the sky really is the limit. You can knit a shawl as large as you want, with as much yardage as you can stand. What’s the largest shawl you’ve ever knit?
The Self-Made Wardrobe Week 2
The Self-Made Wardrobe is a project where I only wear garments I’ve made, for one year.
You can read more about the project here.
And see past updates here.
I’m trying a different room plus a different photo set up, and liking the results much better than last week’s.
Unfortunately this specific set up means I can’t take photos of myself standing up, but it’s easy to use, fast to set up, and something I can live with.
I’m going to get a reflector so I can look to my left without my whole face being in shadow, but other than that I’m more or less happy.
That being said, you can’t see the clothes to their best advantage, so I’ll be taking photos where you can see the garments and posting those separately.
I’m also working away furiously on the sweater I posted about Tuesday, which is a very, very good thing. The mornings here are starting to get a little crisp. I’m also going to try to pick up fabric for some over-shirts and maybe a jacket soon.
I posted a list of the basic categories all of my clothing fit into yesterday, and since I’m ok on skirts (at least for awhile) I’m going to try and shift my focus to cranking out some more tank tops (since I now have a basic tank pattern that I love), and sewing up some over-shirts & jackets.
And as always, if you want to follow the project you can get the blog posts sent to your inbox by signing up for my newsletter here.
the basic plan is balance
Last time, I started the self-made wardrobe project with a laughable number of garments. (4 skirts. 2 sweaters.)
So there was usually a bunch of scrambling* to find something to wear every morning.
*and by scrambling I mean sewing.
This time I’m beginning with.
2 dresses. 4 shirts. 8 skirts. 3 sweaters. 1 sweater-dress/tunic. 1 kimono.
And a plan. (Or at least the beginnings of a plan.)
Everything I really wear fits into one of these categories:
: over-shirts/sweaters/jackets (all of them)
: tank tops & camisoles (I basically live in “tank top + jeans/skirt + something”)
: jeans (eep.)
: maxi skirts (as a jeans substitute)
: skirts (for looking cute)
: dresses (2 might be enough?)
: winter coat (double eep!)
So, if I (more or less) evenly distribute the garments I make into one of these categories, I should be ok.*
*and by “ok” I mean “always having something to wear…”
Of course I’ll be making more tank tops than over-shirts/sweaters/jackets, and I haven’t figured out how many pairs of jeans I’ll try to make yet…
But if I basically try to balance these categories, I should end up with a mostly balanced wardrobe.
We’ll see how it goes.
The plan = Balance (more or less)
(I mean really, what could possibly go wrong?)
