I am a beginner knitter (of sorts) I should have assumed that the patterns would be primarily lacy which is not a personal style choice for me. For those people who like that style these are beautiful patterns. For my level of knitting I think these patterns are too difficult for me. I do not know many abbreviations, but i thought it was quite over whelming and complicated to use the book. I think its cleaver in the way you can some what design your own with selecting edging, shape etcetera. but going back and forth through the book seems complicated to me. This is not a book I would buy.

This is an excellent resource for knitters who want to learn how to design their own shawls. The author provides a breakdown of the various components of the garment along with a variety of lace patterns for each section. She provides twenty sample shawls using “recipes” with selections for each component along with two projects with complete instructions to help the reader begin the design process. The book is very well organized with clear instructions and excellent stitch sample photography. With this book in hand, every knitter will have the tools necessary to easily undertake their own designs. Highly recommended for public libraries and all knitting enthusiasts!

It can be overwhelming if you want to begin designing your own shawls. Melissa Leapman's newest book – a combination master class on shawl design and dictionary of over 200+ knitting stitches – will help you begin.

Her customizable technique steps the knitter through the different parts of a shawl to create unique new designs by building on wedges, stitch/texture, cast-on, border/edging, and bindoff. The first part of the book explains how to shape a shawl by combining different key parts. In addition, tips on yardage, lifelines, and charts to help determine which stitch multiples are best used for different silhouettes are included to help create success.

The second part is a stitch dictionary which is both written and charted. It is organized by the part of the shawl where the stitch will be used from edgings, wedges of different stitch counts, insertions, and borders. The complete designs that appear are explained and the various steps used are detailed. This is a valuable resource for the knitter looking to learn how to combine skills in new ways.

This review also appeared in issue 65 | deep fall 2018 of knitty.

I loved this book; I can see myself using this taking different parts from different modules to make my own, as well as the ones that are in the book. It was well presented, with photographs, diagrams and explanations and patterns.

Great collection of patterns, all can be mixed and matched so you can get some pretty unique projects.

A remarkable and original idea to create many different garments from a basic modul. Superb stitches given in detail, which could be used in other projects too. The stitches are fully written as well as charted.

Modules are referred to as wedges, multiplied in size by different amounts of stitches.

As a reference book it’s excellent. Lots of illustrations, well photographed and in a well organised manner.

If you are a shawl knitter do discover this lovely new book.

#KnittingModularShawlswrapsandStoles #NetGalley #Fall2018

Perfect for this fall. This book contains a large collection of pattern to create warm shawls, colorful wraps, and amazing stoles. The tutorials are easy and the color suggested are wonderful. Also, Melissa shares awesome tips and techniques.

This is a useful stitch reference that builds up to multiple shawl variations. Ideal if you like a particular shawl and want to modify the pattern to something that is more appealing. It is essentially a reference guide with projects. I did not feel the need to use the projects but liked the range of design variations that have been carefully categorised so it is easy for you to choose different patterns based on your original.
Aimed not at the beginner, this book could be a useful reference guide to designers and those who like to tweak their shawl patterns.

Melissa Leapman has carefully crafted Knitting Shawls, Wraps, and Stoles. She introduces a plain triangle wedge and goes on to add wedges and patterns to build on it. The result is a beautiful book with many possibilities for knitted shawls, wraps and stoles. I especially like that specifics are given for the photographed garments. The creative options are endless. This is a great book for the knitter who is looking to create a customized design.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Storey Publishing, and Melissa Leapman for an ARC in exchange for a review. My opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advanced copy.

Shawls are one of the most versatile pieces you can have in your wardrobe. They are an excellent layering piece, can be worn many different ways and are easy to make. You can use almost any different yarn weight so you can use your special lace weight skein that you bought when you were somewhere special, or a worsted weight that you have laying around in your stash. They make beautiful gifts and the knitted shawls of today are not what your grandma used to make.

If you are new to knitting you might not know that Melissa Leapman is a very well known and prolific designer. Her patterns have been in all the major publications for both knitting and crochet. She has written many books herself, some of which I own and I really do love her designs. Part of wanting to check out this book was because I saw that she was the author. She does not disappoint.

This book is truly amazing. There are so many components to it, so I’ll try and break it down for you. First she has 7 steps in creating the perfect shawl. First you choose your silhouette. She breaks down the shawl into the smallest component - the wedge. Then, depending on how you want your shape, you decide how many wedges you want. Two wedges creates the triangle shawl. Once you start adding on, there are different ways you can put the wedges together to get different shapes. You can use up to six wedges. The second step is the choose the stitch pattern. She has many in the book, but you can use any stitch you want, from any stitch pattern book. She has accounted for how to adjust to different number of stitches in the stitch pattern, so really anything can work. Then you decide on your background texture. Choosing between a knit background or a garter stitch background will really make a difference to the appearance of the stitch pattern. Step four asks you to choose your edging and step five a cast on tab, which goes hand in hand with the edging you have chosen. Step six means choosing a border and step seven a bind off and that completes the steps in constructing a shawl. You can choose a solid fabric or decide on a lacy, more openwork design, the choices are endless, but by breaking it into these easy steps nothing is overwhelming.

There are fixed patterns that you can follow step by step with picots of what the end product looks like. What is even better is that there is a gallery of shawls at the back set up so that you can see how each of the seven steps apply to each of the patterns. Simple substitution and small tweaks give you another jumping off point to creating your own design. Of course, you can be as creative as your imagination and remember, if you don’t like it, you can always undo it! There are no mistakes. I love that you can all take baby steps and get more creative as you become more comfortable with experience. There are many diagrams and charts that clearly help you map out what style you would like to make. Even with the most basic design, and a simple stitch pattern by simple changing one or two small elements like the border, or the edging, you can end up with a completely new looking shawl. The possibilities are endless!

This book is so easy to use, full of inspiration and really limitless in ideas, I think it will become a staple that you will refer to many times for many years. I am so excited! I can’t wait to cast on my first project. Now hmmm, which yarn shall I choose??

Extremely friendly and inspiring: knitting books that treat patterns more like recipes than laws are my favorite, and this is a particularly excellent example.

This wasn't quite what I was expecting based on the title. Not a bad thing, just a surprise. In essence, this is a stitch dictionary with instructions for combining various stitch patterns to create the shawl or wrap of your dreams. Think of this as a "choose your own adventure" for shawl knitting! There are also 20 complete recipes for beautiful shawls utilizing this method so if one of those suits your fancy, you're all set! But I know I usually have changes I want to make when I knit a design and with this method, changes are simple - just plug and play. Each stitch pattern includes a photo, written instructions and a chart. The stitch patterns are split up by stitch count (2, 4, 6, etc stitch repeat) and there is a nice variety of stitches represented. Of course, once you know the magic, you can also use stitches from your favorite stitch dictionary to come up with even more designs.

I love when designers make the process of designing your own item more accessible to the masses. Having written a few of my own knitting/crochet patterns, I understand the work that goes into it. This book would be an amazing resource for budding designers as well as the average knitter who has an idea for a shawl/wrap floating around in his/her/their head and doesn't quite know how to get from idea to creation.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storey Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this book. All comments are my own, unbiased opinion.

This is a great book but you need to be aware that it's essentially a stitch dictionary. It's one specifically for modular shawls and offers stitches for a lot of triangles, borders and straight panels you can place between the triangles.

There are some patterns but they only tell you 'Use triangle X on page Y, combine with border Z' so if you want to knit one of them you'll have to leaf forth and back a lot. (Well, you'll have to do that anyway if you want to combine any of the patterns...)

This book is the shawl knitter’s equivalent to being a kid in a candy store! It’s totally unique in that all the stitch patterns are charted out with the increases to make a triangle, saving the knitter a whole lot of trouble in designing their own shawl. The stitch patterns are gorgeous and there are tons to choose from; main stitch patterns, horizontal insertions and knitted edgings. There are complete instructions for making a variety of different shawls from start to finish. It’s basically a choose your own adventure shawl book and is sure to become a classic!
I received an arc copy of this book via netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Melissa Leapman has created a book for the knitter or budding designer that likes to create their own shawls.
The book is set up into sections that take you through each part of the process. Deciding on a shape, choosing a cast on stitch for the main body of the shawl, a border and then a cast off. There are several finished shawls pictures along the way to show you how a certain pattern will look when completed. A great little resource with plenty of stitch patterns to choose from. This book will definitely get your creative juices flowing!

Thanks to Net Galley and Storey Publishing for the advance copy!

Great book! Lots of very fun and interesting looking project to do, something for all levels to try with easy to understand instructions!

This new instruction book from Melissa Leapman shows knitters how to create their own personal modular shawls, wraps and stoles. Each section includes written and graphed instructions, and also has a sample knit shown so that you know in advance what it will look like should you include it in your pattern. It is basically a recipe book, giving you as a knitter flexibility which simple guidelines, so that you end up with exactly what you'd like.

This is one of the worst instructional craft manual I have ever seen. The layout is like the shawls. Start at the end.

I am not going to review this online because it is so awful it would take an hour to catelogue all its faults.

Storey you should pick out this book and reknit.

This is a complete guide for making amazing shawls.
Love the modular shaping to get the modern styles and out of the ordinary long rectangular ones we are used to.
The different stitches and designs will feed your imagination for new patterns and awesome projects.
Easy to understand and follow instructions.
This is a perfect gift for any knitter.

The big picture concept is fairly simple: combine triangular shawls to make larger garments. Many of us love to knit shawls but end up having too many of them. This concept helps with figuring out what to do with all these shawls.

An unexpected surprise of this book was all the many, many stitch patterns on offer. I’m always looking for a fairly straightforward (and easy to remember) stitch to give my work a little kick, and this book has plenty. Honestly, the value of this book is more in the patterns than in the concept of combining various shapes of shawls to make bigger ones. Lots of ideas for making and designing your own shawls.