Beautiful shawls knit from the top down and wonderful scaves. A gem for gift knitting. ( )

When I discovered that a "traditional" Faroese shawl pattern required me to cast on 463 stitches in laceweight yarn, I decided to knit one of Stahman's shawls instead. She has kept the traditional shaping and adapted it to a less onerous, neck-down, technique. I like her patterns, but (very minor quibble) would have appreciated her providing information about the gauge and yarn requirements of each shawl upfront, with the pattern, instead of having to search through the back of the book to estimate the necessary yardage. ( )

Stahman provides instructions for knitting faroese shawls in this book. She begins with a general overview of how a faroese shawl differs from a regular shawl, and gives some general instructions about how to knit a generic faroese shawl.

What is unique about this book is that Stahman worked out a system for knitting shawls from the top down. Personally I am a great fan of knitting everything from the top down. It allows you to "try on" your knitting and vary things as necessary. Barbara Walker wrote a wonderful book, Knitting from the Top Down" that explains the virtues of this technique. Stahman makes a contribution to the knitting literature by figuring out how to knit faroese shawls from the top down.

All but the first shawl in this book have some lace pattern. Each of the shawls have an accompanying seamen's scarf with the same stitch pattern as the shawl. A seamen's scarf has a narrower ribbed portion that goes around the back of the neck, allowing the front of the scarf to lay flat against the check. I suppose if you are a seaman, it keeps your torso warmer, and it allows the stitch pattern to be more prominently displayed. There are 14 faroese shawls presented in this volume and slightly more seamen's scarves.

I have knit some shawls from this book. My only complaint is that the gauge she is using for a particular shawl is not clear. I've had some false starts working out the gauge issues.

Overall this is a delightful book, and knitting faroese shawls is relaxing. ( )

Very good book for these types of shawls and Seaman's scarves. ( )