Under the wings

Under the Wings Shawl by Christiane Burkhard

What is Being Made

Under the Wings is a knitted shawl designed by Christiane Burkhard that captures the bold, beautiful, and majestic qualities of eagles. This intermediate-level knitting project is constructed as a seamless piece worked from the right wing outward, eliminating the need for seaming and creating a unified, flowing garment.

Construction and Design Approach

The shawl employs a join-as-you-go technique combined with short row shaping to build the design without traditional seaming. This method allows strips to be knitted together simultaneously as the work progresses, creating structural integrity while maintaining design flexibility. The join-as-you-go approach is particularly effective for shawl construction as it allows the knitter to shape and control the drape of the finished piece organically.

Stitches and Stitch Patterns

The shawl combines two fundamental knitting stitches to create visual interest and textural balance:

• Garter stitch — created by knitting every row, producing a reversible fabric with distinctive horizontal ridges
• Stockinette stitch — created by alternating knit and purl rows, producing a smooth, classic knit fabric with a V-pattern appearance on the right side

The strategic combination of these contrasting stitches adds depth and visual movement to the shawl design while maintaining balance throughout the piece.

Techniques Used

Join-as-you-go (Sl & attach): This specialized technique integrates new strips into the existing fabric without seaming. The method involves slipping the final stitch of a new strip knitwise, picking up and knitting a corresponding stitch from the already-completed strip, and passing the slipped stitch over the picked-up stitch before turning the work. This creates a seamless join that is both structurally sound and visually clean.

Short row shaping: This technique involves working partial rows rather than complete rows across all stitches, allowing the knitter to add shaping and dimension to specific areas of the shawl. Short rows are essential for creating the wing-like structure and sculptural quality of this design.

Materials and Yarn Requirements

The shawl requires fingering weight yarn (also known as 4-ply weight), a fine yarn that creates delicate, detailed fabric suitable for shawl construction. The pattern calls for approximately 500 yards in a primary color (Col1) and 250 yards in a secondary color (Col2), allowing for striking color contrast and visual definition between design elements.

The original shawl pictured was created using Kauni Effektgarn in black solid for the primary color and EME yarn for the secondary color, demonstrating how two distinct yarns can be combined to enhance the eagle-inspired design.

Needles

The project requires two circular needles in different sizes to accommodate the varying stitch counts as the shawl develops:

• US Size 2, 32-inch circular needle — used for sections with higher stitch counts
• US Size 1, 24-inch circular needle — used for sections with fewer stitches

Circular needles are essential for this join-as-you-go construction method, as they provide flexibility in managing multiple active stitches and accommodate the seamless joining process.

Skill Level

This pattern is rated as intermediate difficulty, making it suitable for knitters who have mastered basic stitches and are ready to explore more advanced shaping techniques. Familiarity with short rows and comfort working with circular needles is beneficial for successfully completing this project.