Knitted Shawls that don't call for circular needles?

[Psycho Butterfly]

Hey all... I joined a while ago but never posted ^^;; I've been knitting since ... eeeeh... july? a few weeks before july? yeah...

anywhooo... I wanna knit myself a shawl but I don't have any circular needles that alot of patterns call for... and I can't exactly go and buy myself them because I ain't got any money TT^TT;

so does anyone have any shawl patterns that use straight needles? Thanks in advance~

oh and for those that wanna know.. Michaels is having a yarn sale..

http://www.michaels.com/art/online/static?page=yarn_event06


EDIT: okay so yeah ... guess there really ain't any patterns for two needle shawls ^^; so I'm gunna see ifI can't squeeze somemoney out of my mom >_>; and I have a pattern in mind that I'd love to do and it calls for Berroco Zen yarn.. I can't find anywhere how much a skein will cost and it calls for 8 skeins... so yeah.. I don't want to do it if it comes out to be to much because the needles are going to be expensive as is ;-;  

[Keiyla]

Shawls are usually knitted on circulars instead of straights because of size, as opposed to style or technique. You most likely won't be joining the shawl in the round, for example. What you will need is the extra 36 inches of needle to put all those stitches on. It will also get very very heavy if you try to cram all those stitches onto a staight.

You can also use "flexible straights," but it's unlikely you would have those if you don't have circulars, as the "flexible" part is usually a cable from a set of circulars in the first place.

I have discovered that I could spend way more on knitting needles than I ever did on crochet hooks. For crochet, all I needed was one hook in each of maybe 7 sizes. I got a pack of a dozen or so plastic ones at Joann's for like five bucks. Knitting needles, on the other hand, come in at least 17 common sizes, in straight, circular, and double pointed. And god forbid you have a 16-inch circular size 8 when you need a 40 inch cable length to use a magic loop technique...

I recently got a "Needlemaster" system from Michael's. Using a 40% off coupon, it ran me about 40 bucks, and should cover nearly all the common bases. I can put together straights of circulars in whatever size I need. Knit Picks, online, also has a kit like it. Otherwise, I'd be spending 5-10 bucks every time I needed a new needle.


So, to sum up a long winded answer: imho, you need the circulars for a shawl. You might try Salvation Army, yard sales, or thrift stores if you don't have cash for new needles. Good luck!  

[kochi~mochi]

You could do a patchwork style shawl... Knit it in pieces and then put the pieces together. This would work well if you want to have a striped shawl (i made one for my friend out of leftover yarn, and did rows of like... 20 - 50 stitches and then sewed them together, it came out rather awesome cause i had different shades of grey. sadly, i don't have pictures, and my friend is in new jersey with no contact with me for many years. sweatdrop )

If you want a solid colored shawl, you might try seeing how many of the stitches you can get on one needle. it might be cramped, but if you have long needles you might could do it. i know somebody you did everything on straights, and had some that were like.. 2 feet long.  

[Maer^ier]

The Book The Yarn Girls' Guide to Simple Knits has some good ones. You can probably get a copy from your library.  

[Catcheen]

Saku Ai

EDIT: okay so yeah ... guess there really ain't any patterns for two needle shawls ^^; so I'm gunna see ifI can't squeeze somemoney out of my mom >_>; and I have a pattern in mind that I'd love to do and it calls for Berroco Zen yarn.. I can't find anywhere how much a skein will cost and it calls for 8 skeins... so yeah.. I don't want to do it if it comes out to be to much because the needles are going to be expensive as is ;-;

Zen is on sale here for $10.89 a ball.

http://www.woolneedlework.com/Yarn/Zen Colors_by_Berroco_Yarn.shtml  

[Psycho Butterfly]

woooow... zen is expensive D: hopefully michaels carries it because it'd be on sale ^^;


but wow... it'd cost me $80+ for a shawl... damn o_o;  

[Catcheen]

Saku Ai

woooow... zen is expensive D: hopefully michaels carries it because it'd be on sale ^^;


but wow... it'd cost me $80+ for a shawl... damn o_o;

Believe it or not? That's pretty normal for that type of yarn. Most large projects cost around the $60-$100 range unless you use acrylic.  

[Zahra Ovaci]

What size shawl are you wanting to make? What kind of construction are you comfortable with? What size yarn are you using, and what composition? I know Orenburg-type shawls are done on two straight needles, they do the bottom edging first, pick up along one edge, knit the bulk of the shawl, then the top eding. They're usually done in gossamer-weight down/silk yarns, but once you've got the technique down, you should be able to use anything you like.

And in fact, most triangle shawls can be done on straights, regardless of whether they're top-down or bottom-up. The only ones I can think of that absolutely need circs are the ones are joined in the round, like the shetland ones often were, and even on those you could use long DPNs if you have them.

What kind of a pattern were you looking for?  

[Keiyla]

Don't forget, you don't HAVE to use the yarn the pattern says to use. Just because it calls for Zen, doesn't mean you can't use something cheaper!  

[DarkHalcyon]

Keiyla

Don't forget, you don't HAVE to use the yarn the pattern says to use. Just because it calls for Zen, doesn't mean you can't use something cheaper!

Amen to that. I've ended up using acrylic for a few projects 'cause it's soft and cheap. The major downside is that you can't block it.  

[Psycho Butterfly]

well I'm looking at knitting Berroco's shawl named Nicky cause its actually very easy for me to do.

heres the link
http://www.berroco.com/exclusives/nicky/nicky.html

does anyone have any yarn that I could use that'd look a little like that?  

[Catcheen]

Saku Ai

well I'm looking at knitting Berroco's shawl named Nicky cause its actually very easy for me to do.

heres the link
http://www.berroco.com/exclusives/nicky/nicky.html

does anyone have any yarn that I could use that'd look a little like that?

Lion Brand's Increadible

http://cache.lionbrand.com/yarns/incredible.htm

It's less shiney, and I've heard some unpleasant things about their dye jobs, but you might be lucky and not run into that problem. It's also a different guage, so you might have to change needle sizes. For a ribbon yarn, the Zen is actually a pretty good price for the yardage. Any other ribbon yarns I could recommend would end up costing more.  

[kochi~mochi]

Ummm... lemme think... tape yarns, like TickerTape (which can get expensive, unless you catch it on sale), you can always knit ribbons, if you can get enough of it cheap enough (i've seen some nice stuff out of non-wired ribbons). You might look around KnitPicks for cheaper yarn, but know that with them, once its gone, its gone. But its cheaper.  

[Kanhoro]

well you can make a huge skarf like and than stitch together the end and the top of it kinda like this:

aaaaa___________________________
|...........................................................b
|...........................................................b
|(knit this much here.............................b
|...goign this way ---> wink ..........................b
|________________________________b

or just knit a triangel just to stockinet on a long needle and then you just increace at the end on both sides. and keep doing that  

[fashionista468]

check lionbrand.com they have tons of great knitting patterns.