Old Shale Shawl Knitting Pattern by Amanda (Shuttermonkey): A Complete Guide to This Timeless Lace Design

There is something deeply satisfying about a knitting pattern that has stood the test of time. The Old Shale stitch is one of those rare techniques that has been passed down through generations of knitters, originating from the Shetland Islands off the northern coast of Scotland, where fishermen’s wives and daughters developed intricate lace patterns that would eventually captivate knitters all over the world. When Amanda, known in the online knitting community as Shuttermonkey, created her Old Shale Shawl pattern, she took this beloved traditional stitch and transformed it into a modern, wearable accessory that suits both beginner lace knitters and experienced crafters looking for a meditative, rhythmic project.

This guide walks you through everything you need to know about the Old Shale Shawl pattern by Amanda (Shuttermonkey), from understanding the history of the stitch to gathering your materials, reading the pattern, and finishing your shawl with confidence. Whether you discovered this pattern on Ravelry, stumbled across it on a knitting blog, or had it recommended by a friend in your local yarn shop, you are in for a genuinely rewarding knitting experience.

The History Behind Old Shale Lace

Before diving into the pattern itself, it helps to understand where the Old Shale stitch comes from, because its origins are part of what makes knitting it feel so special.

Old Shale, sometimes called Feather and Fan, is one of the oldest recorded lace stitches in British knitting history. The name “Old Shale” is believed to reference the shale rock formations along the Shetland coastline, where the undulating waves of the stitch pattern are said to mimic the layered, curved lines of the stone. Some historians and knitting scholars argue that the stitch was developed as a practical exercise in creating stretch and drape in wool fabric, particularly useful for shawls and wraps that needed to move with the body.

The Shetland knitting tradition placed enormous value on this kind of flowing lace. Shawls were knitted so fine and delicate that they could be pulled through a wedding ring, a standard that became known as “ring shawls.” While Amanda’s Old Shale Shawl is not quite that gossamer-thin, it carries that same spirit of elegance and craftsmanship that defined generations of Shetland lacemaking.

Why Amanda’s Old Shale Shawl Pattern Stands Out

There are hundreds of Old Shale patterns available to knitters today, so what makes Amanda’s (Shuttermonkey’s) version particularly worth your time?

The answer lies in how thoughtfully the pattern has been constructed for a modern audience. Amanda has taken the four-row repeat that forms the heart of Old Shale lace and built it into a crescent-shaped shawl with thoughtful increases that create a graceful, wearable shape. Rather than a simple rectangle or square, the finished piece has a sweeping curved edge that drapes beautifully around the neck and shoulders.

The pattern is also praised in the knitting community for its clarity. Amanda writes her instructions in plain language, with helpful notes for less experienced lace knitters. The pattern includes both written instructions and a chart for those who prefer visual guidance, making it accessible to a wide range of knitters. It has been downloaded and completed by thousands of knitters on Ravelry, where the project page is filled with beautiful finished objects in every imaginable colorway, from deep oceanic blues to soft blush pinks to rich, russet autumnal tones.

Materials You Will Need

One of the great joys of this pattern is that it does not demand expensive or hard-to-find materials. Here is what you will need to get started.

Yarn: Amanda’s pattern calls for a fingering or laceweight yarn. The yardage requirement varies depending on how large you want your finished shawl, but most knitters find that somewhere between 400 and 800 yards is a comfortable range for a full-sized shawl. The stitch pattern shows up beautifully in solid or semi-solid colorways because the undulating waves of the lace are allowed to shine without competing with a busy variegated colorway. That said, many knitters have used long-repeat hand-dyed yarns to stunning effect, so do not be afraid to experiment.

Wool and wool-blend yarns are the most popular choice for this pattern because they have the elasticity and memory that make lace knitting forgiving and that make blocking (a critical final step) dramatically effective. Some excellent yarn choices that knitters in the community have used include Malabrigo Sock, Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light, Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, and a variety of independent hand-dyed fingering weights from small-batch dyers on Etsy.

If you prefer plant-based fibers, a bamboo-blend or Tencel-blend yarn will give you a beautiful, drapey fabric, though blocking will work a little differently than with wool.

Needles: The pattern typically calls for US size 4 (3.5mm) or US size 5 (3.75mm) circular needles, though your gauge swatch will guide your final choice. Using circular needles is essential here, not because you are knitting in the round, but because a shawl of this size will have too many stitches to comfortably sit on straight needles.

Additional supplies: You will need stitch markers to help you keep track of the increase points, a tapestry needle for weaving in ends, and blocking wires and pins for finishing. A yardage counter or row counter can be helpful, particularly if you are scaling the pattern up or down.

Understanding the Old Shale Stitch Repeat

The Old Shale stitch is built on a four-row repeat, and once you understand the logic behind it, the pattern becomes almost automatic. This is one of the reasons so many knitters describe Old Shale projects as meditative — after the first few repeats, your hands begin to know what comes next without your eyes having to verify every stitch.

The classic Old Shale repeat works across a multiple of 18 stitches (sometimes adjusted to 17 plus a selvedge stitch, depending on the specific pattern version). The four rows break down like this:

The first row is typically a right-side knit row, plain and simple. You knit across all stitches, which allows you to settle into a rhythm and examine your work before moving into the more complex rows.

The second row is a wrong-side purl row, again straightforward. This creates the smooth stockinette fabric that forms the “wave” of the lace.

The third row is where the magic happens. This is the decrease and yarn-over row, where you work a series of two or three decreases, followed by a series of yarn-overs, followed by another series of decreases. The decreases and yarn-overs balance each other mathematically so that your stitch count remains the same, but the fabric begins to ripple and shift in a characteristic wave pattern.

The fourth row is another purl row, locking in the lacework and setting up the next repeat.

What Amanda’s pattern does so cleverly is build these four-row repeats into a shaped shawl structure with strategic increases at the spine and edges, so the fabric grows outward from a central starting point, creating the lovely crescent shape that makes the finished shawl so wearable.

Reading the Pattern: Tips for Success

If you are relatively new to lace knitting, or even if you have knitted lace before but sometimes struggle with keeping your place, here are some practical strategies to help you work through Amanda’s Old Shale Shawl with confidence.

Use stitch markers generously. Placing markers at the beginning and end of each lace repeat section helps enormously. When you are working the yarn-over and decrease row, you can quickly verify that your stitch count within each section is correct before moving on. If something goes wrong, you will catch it in that section rather than at the end of the row.

Keep a row counter. The four-row repeat is simple, but it is very easy to lose track of which row you are on, particularly when you put your knitting down in the middle of a row and come back to it later. A physical row counter on your needle, or even a simple tally in a notebook, eliminates the guesswork.

Work a gauge swatch and block it. This cannot be overemphasized for lace. Lace fabric before blocking often looks crumpled, tight, and nothing like the finished product in the pattern photos. After blocking, the yarn-overs open up into beautiful eyelets and the whole fabric relaxes into its natural shape. Your gauge swatch will also tell you whether you need to go up or down a needle size to match the pattern’s intended dimensions.

Read your knitting. As you become more familiar with the Old Shale repeat, you will start to recognize what each stitch “should” look like given its position in the pattern. This skill, often called reading your knitting, helps you catch mistakes early and correct them quickly.

Gauge and Sizing

Amanda’s pattern produces a shawl that, after blocking, typically measures approximately 54 to 60 inches across the top edge and 20 to 24 inches deep at the center spine. These dimensions can be adjusted by working more or fewer lace repeats before the bind-off, which makes this a very flexible pattern.

Gauge for most versions of this pattern is in the range of 22 to 24 stitches per 4 inches in stockinette, though because lace fabric is so dramatically affected by blocking, you should consider your blocked gauge the meaningful measurement. Many knitters find that they can work at a slightly looser gauge than the pattern suggests, which gives the finished shawl more drape and openness in the lace pattern.

Casting On and Getting Started

The pattern begins with a simple garter tab cast-on, a technique that creates a small, clean tab of garter stitch at the center back of the shawl from which stitches are picked up and the main body of the shawl begins. If you have not done a garter tab cast-on before, it can feel a little confusing the first time, but Amanda’s instructions walk you through it clearly, and there are numerous video tutorials online that illustrate the technique step by step.

Once your tab is established and you have picked up your initial stitches, the increases that shape the shawl are worked on right-side rows at the center spine and at each end of the needle. These increases are typically yarn-overs placed adjacent to stitch markers, so they serve double duty as shaping elements and as part of the lace fabric’s visual language.

Finishing Your Old Shale Shawl

When you have worked through all of your planned repeats and reached your desired size, the bind-off is an important step that deserves as much care as the knitting itself. A bind-off that is too tight will prevent the shawl from blocking out properly and will leave the edge of your lace looking cramped and uneven. Amanda recommends a stretchy bind-off method, and many knitters favor the classic bind-off worked with a needle two to three sizes larger than the working needle, or a variation such as the Russian bind-off or the sewn bind-off.

Blocking is the transformation step that takes your shawl from a crumpled heap of knitting into the beautiful, airy piece you have been imagining since you wound your first skein. To block a lace shawl, soak it thoroughly in cool water with a small amount of wool wash, then gently squeeze out the excess water (do not wring or twist), roll it in a dry towel to remove more moisture, and then pin it out on a blocking mat.

Using blocking wires threaded through the top edge of the shawl will help you achieve a straight, even line along the spine. The lower edge, with its characteristic Old Shale wave pattern, can be pinned point by point to accentuate the undulating lace. Leave the shawl to dry completely before unpinning, which can take anywhere from a few hours to overnight depending on your climate and yarn fiber.

Yarn Substitution Ideas

Amanda’s pattern has been worked in an enormous variety of yarns by knitters around the world, and part of the joy of browsing the Ravelry project page for this shawl is seeing the range of interpretations. Here are a few directions you might consider for your own version.

For a classic, traditional look that honors the Shetland roots of the stitch, seek out a Shetland-style fingering weight wool such as Jamieson’s Spindrift or a similar woolen-spun laceweight. These yarns have a characteristic halo and slight rusticity that evoke the original context of the stitch beautifully.

For a more luxurious, heirloom-quality shawl, a silk-merino blend or a cashmere-blend laceweight will give you extraordinary drape and a subtle sheen that makes the lace pattern glow.

For a summery, lightweight version, a bamboo or cotton-blend fingering weight works surprisingly well, producing a shawl that is perfect for warm-weather evenings or air-conditioned offices.

Community and Inspiration

One of the best parts of knitting a pattern with the popularity and community following of Amanda’s Old Shale Shawl is the wealth of inspiration and support available to you. The Ravelry project page for this pattern is an invaluable resource, full of notes from other knitters about yarn choices, needle sizes, modifications, and tips for tricky sections. Reading through project notes before you begin is a great way to anticipate challenges and benefit from the collective wisdom of knitters who have been there before you.

Amanda (Shuttermonkey) is an active member of the knitting community, and her design philosophy reflects a genuine love of accessible, wearable knits that celebrate traditional techniques without being intimidating. Her pattern is a great entry point for knitters who want to try lace for the first time and an equally satisfying choice for experienced lace knitters who want a project that rewards consistent, rhythmic effort with a genuinely beautiful result.

Final Thoughts

The Old Shale Shawl by Amanda (Shuttermonkey) is more than just a knitting pattern. It is an invitation to connect with a centuries-old tradition of fiber artistry, to slow down and find rhythm in repetition, and to create something genuinely beautiful from a ball of yarn and a pair of needles. The finished shawl is versatile, elegant, and deeply personal in the way that only handknitted things can be.

Whether you are casting on for the first time or returning to this pattern for a second or third interpretation in a new colorway, you are participating in a tradition that stretches from the windswept Shetland coast all the way to your own knitting chair. That connection across time and geography is one of the quiet gifts that patterns like this one offer, and it is part of what makes the Old Shale Shawl by Amanda (Shuttermonkey) a pattern worth returning to again and again.

Gather your yarn, sharpen your needles, and cast on. The waves are waiting.