•This easy peasy pattern is a great way for beginners to knit their first shawl, but also makes a good tv or knit night project for more seasoned vets who just want something simple to show off that beautiful yarn we all know they’ve been hiding!

•Have fun with stripes and color blocking, or even use this as a stash buster! There are tons of ways to customize this piece and make it your own!

•This shawl is constructed from the top down, beginning with a garter tab cast on, and utilizes a simple 2-row repeat for the body before ending in a garter stitch border. 

•Designed in our lovely soft Sincere Sock yarn, it flows and drapes and hugs the shoulders beautifully. But choose any fingering weight yarn you love, even mixing and matching fingering yarn bases within the same project. 

•Great for tv knitting with your cat or chatting at knit night!

•Works with all colors of yarn: solids, semi-solids and wild variegates. The simple body lets all colors shine.

•Size is easily adjustable; keep knitting for a larger shawl, or switch to the garter stitch border early for a smaller shawlette. Size is totally up to you. (Smaller sample shown used 1 skein each of Moss, Nimbus and Nutmeg Sincere Sock yarn.

•This pattern is named after American composer Aaron Copland. In thinking of a simple pattern for a beginner shawl, my music-oriented mind kept flitting to Copland’s “Appalachian Spring,” and the “Simple Gifts” motif that enters later in the piece. “Simple Gifts” is actually a Shaker song from the mid-19th century, but I always think of it in terms of Copland’s grand orchestra. I admire Copland’s skill in taking something so simple and turning it into something so seemingly vast, so it seemed fitting to name this shawl pattern for him. It’s as simple or as grandiose as you make it.

•Click the Videos tab to watch a tutorial on this design.