The wardrobe of a modern woman is quite diverse, but often only the use of additional accessories makes her image truly individual. Fashion is characterized not only by new trends, but also by the fact that long forgotten articles of clothing often acquire a new life. One of these accessories is a shawl.
A bit of history
With the current diversity of colors and a variety of tastes, choosing the right thing is not difficult. And hardly anyone today is thinking about where the shawl came from. Meanwhile, the history of the appearance of the first shawls takes us to the 15th century. They were made in one of the valleys of ancient Asia using the technique of hand weaving. It is known that several weavers worked at once to make shawls, and it took them several months to work. Depending on the complexity of the pattern and on who it was ultimately intended for, the timing of the work could be extended to a year.
It is believed that in Europe the shawl appeared thanks to Napoleon Bonaparte. From his campaigns, he brought as a gift to Josephine samples of various items of clothing. One of these samples was the shawl, the versatility of which was appreciated. True, if in Asia the shawl played the role, rather, of decoration, then the tougher European climate somewhat transformed it. Over time, the shawl from a simple decoration turned into a thing that has practical application.
New life shawls
Making warm shawls marked the beginning of their new life. In the cold season they became simply irreplaceable. Since European trends had a significant influence on the formation of Russian fashion, shawls firmly settled in our country. And despite the fact that steam engines and looms were introduced into production , things made with the use of manual labor are still considered the most valuable and unique. Today, the range of products is striking in its diversity. It can be dense monophonic shawls and capes, crocheted or knitted, openwork scarves made of various types of yarn, as well as assembled from separately manufactured elements.
Designer shawl
With the growing popularity of this garment, more and more diverse techniques for its implementation were offered. One of these techniques was proposed by the German designer Erich Engeln. The peculiarity of his solution is that the shawl is not a simple triangular, but a sickle-shaped. This shape allows the shawl to comfortably sit on the shoulders of its owner and not slip off them when moving. And it can also be easily draped around the shoulders, thereby modifying the image. Knit such shawls with knitting needles. The idea was borrowed from Erich Engeln by craftsmen from many countries of the world, and today such designer products are at the peak of popularity. A growing number of needlewomen are interested in the technique of their manufacture.
An unusual item of clothing did not immediately, but earned popularity and recognition, and also received a name by the name of the author - Shawl Engeln. The scheme and description of the work were first kept secret. They became ubiquitous much later. And today, almost every knitter considers it necessary to try to knit it.
To tie a shawl to the strength of everyone
At first glance, it might seem that it is incredibly difficult to complete such a masterpiece. However, the craftswomen are always ready to help beginners and willingly post Engeln’s shawl schemes on specialized forums. Of course, simply knitting here is not enough. You need to be able to understand the schemes, and also have enough desire and perseverance, because in order to get the desired result, sometimes you have to redo the work more than once. For knitting, three types of main loops are used, which are easy to master - their designation on the diagrams is always the same. Therefore, having learned the basics, you can always do more complex work.
A bit about schemes
Let's try to understand together how the shawl of Engeln is performed. The diagram and description below are standard for all varieties of this model. Therefore, you just have to decide which shawl you want to get: more openwork or dense. And also decide on the composition of the thread that you will use. If you want to get an airy product, you need the threads to be thin enough, for example, the length of the thread should be about 500 meters in 100 grams. And knitting needles for such threads need to be taken with a diameter of 3-3.5 mm.
Erich Engeln’s shawl patterns can be found in various knitting magazines and on forums where craftswomen communicate and post photos of their masterpieces. In these photographs, we clearly see that various knitting techniques are used to make the shawl. Therefore, the presence of several schemes is understandable.
Work process
At the beginning of the work, all the main rows of the shawl are performed, which are also called the body of the shawl, and then its business card, the border, is executed. And what seems incredibly complex at first glance is quite doable. Upon careful consideration of the shawl scheme of Engeln, we come to the conclusion that a certain system of adding loops is used to form the body of the shawl. So that the canvas does not look too loose, the hinges are added directly at the edge loops and also at the central loop. Conventionally, the body of a shawl is divided into two symmetrical halves, which fit in a mirror image.
Stage One - the basis of the shawl
To start work, 11 loops are typed on the knitting needles, and the first row is knitted with purl loops. Next, you need to conditionally divide the future shawl into two halves. To do this, it is proposed to highlight the central loop with a plastic pin, marker or just colored thread. Remembering the increase in loops, immediately after the hem from one loop, three should be knitted immediately as follows: front, yarn, front. We knit the next three stitches. Before the central loop and after it, respectively, we make a crochet. Then again, three facial, and from the penultimate loop, similar to the beginning of the row, knit three stitches. Edge completes the row. All loops in the wrong row are sewn on the wrong side. In such a simple way, at first, Engeln’s shawl is knitted. The scheme and description should always be at hand, this will greatly simplify the work.
Similarly, the shawl is knitted to 42 rows. Carefully monitor the addition of loops. They are added in 6 in each row - when knitting 42 rows on the knitting needles should be 137 loops. Such precision is very important when performing Engeln’s shawl. Schemes, description and comments of specialists allow us to control the correctness of work in this way.
Stage Two - Lozenges
The next stage of work - knitting openwork pattern - requires a little more skill and perseverance from the knitter. As well as more frequent access to the scheme. The requirements for adding loops remain the same. At this stage, the shawl begins knitting rhombuses, which will end on the 64th row of work. Here it should be remembered that only one part of the shawl is offered to our attention, and the other fits in with a mirror image.
Stage Three - Border Shawls
And the last step in the work is to tie the border. She gives the product a finished look and personality, and rightfully this stage of work is the most difficult. Its peculiarity is that there will no longer be a central loop here, and the addition of loops is carried out in accordance with the knitting pattern of the border leaves. In order to avoid mistakes and get a real Engeln shawl, the scheme and description on This stage should always be at hand. After all, any mistake can lead not only to the loss of the general appearance of the product, but also to disappointment.
As you can see, such openwork shawls knit. Engelna, whose schemes and descriptions of works we met above, is often called a wizard, and the products themselves - tablecloths and shawls - are compared with frosty patterns on glass. Let every thing you make give you a lot of warmth and pleasure from its use. Good luck in knitting.