Pomelo Shawl in Cascade 220® Fingering - FW225 - Downloadable PDF

Pomelo Shawl in Cascade 220® Fingering – Pattern Summary (FW225)

The Pomelo Shawl is a beautifully airy, large-format crochet shawl designed by Elisabeth Davis de Herraiz and published by Cascade Yarns as a free downloadable PDF pattern (FW225). Despite appearing in a knitting-adjacent product line, this project is worked entirely in crochet, making it an excellent choice for intermediate crochet makers who want to explore elegant lace-style construction in a lightweight fingering-weight yarn. The finished shawl is a generous 70 inches wide by 34 inches long after blocking, expanding significantly from its pre-blocking dimensions of 54 inches wide by 28 inches long — a testament to how dramatically blocking can open up lace crochet fabric.

What Is Being Made

The Pomelo Shawl is a wide, triangular or crescent-style shawl and wrap designed to drape elegantly over the shoulders. Its generous finished dimensions make it a versatile accessory suitable for layering in cooler weather or wearing as a decorative wrap for special occasions. The design takes its name from the pomelo citrus fruit, likely evoking the open, airy structure of the lace pattern that resembles a delicate, segmented texture. It is worked as a seamless, flat, bottom-up construction, meaning the piece is crocheted in rows from the lower edge upward toward the center or neck edge, with no seaming required at any point.

Techniques Used

• Bottom-up construction: The shawl is built from the widest edge upward, allowing the lace pattern to develop naturally as rows progress toward the top.
• Worked flat: All rows are worked back and forth rather than in the round, giving the piece its flat, shawl-like drape.
• Seamless finishing: No seaming is required, keeping the construction clean and straightforward.
• Lace crochet: The pattern features an all-over lace stitch pattern built from repeating units of V-stitches and shells, creating an open, decorative fabric that benefits greatly from wet blocking to reach full dimensions.
• Stitch marker usage: A stitch marker is moved up with each completed center chain space, helping the crocheter track the central spine of the shawl accurately throughout construction.
• Two-color design: The pattern uses two coordinating colorways worked across separate skeins, adding subtle visual depth to the finished piece.

Stitches Used

The Pomelo Shawl relies on a core set of standard crochet stitches combined into a repeating lace pattern. The primary stitches and abbreviations used throughout the pattern include:

• Chain (Ch): Used to build foundation rows, turning chains, and the decorative chain spaces integral to the lace structure.
• Double Crochet (Dc): The backbone stitch of the shell and V-stitch pattern repeats; the beginning chain-3 counts as the first double crochet in most rows.
• Single Crochet (Sc): Used for joining, edging, or transitional elements within the pattern.
• Treble Crochet (Tr): A taller stitch incorporated into the lace pattern to create height variation and open-work effects.
• Slip Stitch (Sl): Used for joining and moving across stitches without adding height.
• V-stitches and Shells: The defining stitch combinations of the pattern — V-stitches create open, airy pairs of double crochets separated by a chain space, while shells cluster multiple double crochets into a single space to create fan-like motifs. The gauge is measured as 4 V-stitches plus 4 shells over 9 rows equals 4 inches in the unblocked pattern stitch.

Materials and Yarn

The pattern calls for Cascade Yarns® Cascade 220® Fingering, a 100% Peruvian Highland wool yarn in the 4-ply (fingering weight) category. Each skein contains 50 grams (1.75 oz) /