Pacific Lace Shawl with Lace Pattern in Gründl - Downloadable PDF

Pacific Lace Shawl with Lace Pattern in Gründl – Free Knitting PDF Pattern

This free downloadable knitting pattern from Gründl guides knitters through creating a beautifully elegant lace stola (shawl) featuring an intricate ajour (lace) pattern. The finished shawl measures approximately 41 cm wide and 200 cm long, making it a generously sized wrap that drapes gracefully around the shoulders or neck. Despite its sophisticated lace appearance, this pattern is rated as beginner-friendly, making it an ideal introduction to lace knitting for those who are ready to move beyond basic stitches.

What Is Being Made

The project is a rectangular lace stola, sometimes referred to as a shawl or wrap. Its long, scarf-like proportions make it incredibly versatile — it can be worn as a classic shawl, looped around the neck as a lightweight scarf, or draped over the shoulders as an evening wrap. The open, airy lace structure gives the finished piece a delicate, semi-transparent look that is both timeless and fashionable. The shawl is worked flat on circular needles from one short end to the other across its full 200 cm length.

Yarn and Materials

The pattern is designed specifically for Pacific Lace yarn by Gründl, a 3-ply yarn with a luxurious fibre blend of 80% acrylic, 10% alpaca, and 10% wool. This combination gives the yarn a soft, lightweight hand with a subtle warmth and sheen. Each ball contains 100 g / 550 m, and the pattern requires approximately 200 g in colour 03 (hibiscus) — a warm, rosy pink shade — meaning two balls are needed in total.

The recommended needles are circular needles in size 3.5 mm to 4.0 mm (UK sizes 9/10 to 8). Circular needles are used here for their ability to comfortably hold the full width of stitches, even though the piece is worked flat in rows rather than in the round.

Stitches and Techniques Used

Lace (Ajour) Pattern

The main body of the shawl is worked in a lace (ajour) pattern from a provided stitch chart. The lace repeat is based on a multiple of 12 stitches plus 1 stitch plus 2 selvedge stitches, resulting in a cast-on of 101 stitches total (99 stitches plus 2 selvedge stitches). The pattern repeat spans 10 rows, with only the right-side (RS) rows charted. On wrong-side (WS) rows, all stitches and yarn-overs are purled, keeping the technique accessible for beginners learning to read lace charts.

Lace knitting uses a combination of yarn-overs (yos) and decreases to create deliberate holes and eyelets in the fabric, forming decorative open patterns. The yarn-overs add stitches, while paired decreases remove them, maintaining a consistent stitch count throughout. This rhythmic, repetitive structure makes the pattern easy to memorise after just a few repeats.

Garter Stitch Border

Flanking the lace panel on each side is a single garter stitch column, created by knitting every stitch on both right-side and wrong-side rows. Garter stitch provides a neat, stable edge that prevents the lace fabric from curling and adds a subtle textural contrast to the open lacework.

Slip Stitch Selvedge Edge

The outermost edges of the shawl are finished with a slip stitch selvedge (Knötchenrandmaschen). At the beginning of each row, the selvedge stitch is slipped knitwise with yarn in back, and at the end of each row it is knitted. This technique creates a clean, chained edge that is particularly attractive when the shawl is worn and gives a professional, polished finish without any additional edging or crochet border.

Blocking

The tension swatch — and by extension the finished shawl — is measured after blocking, which involves dampening the piece, pinning it to the correct dimensions, and allowing it