Free Knitting Pattern: Pear Sorbet Shawlette

📝 Updated 2026-05-27: Refreshed with the full framework v2… new intro, “What You’ll Love,” Quick Pattern Overview, “Love the Pattern but Want an Ad-Free PDF?” section, “Is This Pattern Right for You?,” Build Your Skills, fresh yarn substitutes with affiliate links, FAQ + JSON-LD schema, internal links to other Marly knit lace shawls, and the designer note baked right into the Finishing instructions so no one ends up with a curling edge. ❤️ Marly Bird

The Pear Sorbet Shawlette is a free knit lace shawl pattern by Marly Bird, designed for advanced-beginner knitters. Worked top-down from a garter tab cast-on, it features a stunning lace center panel surrounded by stockinette wings and finished with a wide border lace edge. Knit in fingering-weight yarn (~440 yds) on US 7 (4.5 mm) circular needles, the finished shawlette measures 50″ wingspan × 26″ depth. The original sample is in Drew Emborsky’s “Inappropriate” yarn (90% merino, 10% nylon), but it works in any smooth fingering weight wool or wool blend.

Hand-dyed fingering weight yarn + a single hank + a beginner-friendly lace chart = the kind of free knit lace shawl pattern that turns into a beloved drawer staple. The Pear Sorbet Shawlette has been one of my most-favorited designs since 2014, and I’ve finally given her the framework refresh she deserves. Lace center panel, gentle stockinette wings, a wide border lace edge, and a built-in fix for that “lace shawl rolling at the bottom” problem we ALL know too well.

Hey, bestie 💛

I designed the Pear Sorbet Shawlette to be the project I’d give a knitter who told me she had “one beautiful hand-dyed skein and no idea what to do with it.” We’ve all been there. You see the yarn at the festival, you fall in love, you take it home, and then you scroll Ravelry for three months trying to find the pattern worthy of it. Pear Sorbet is that pattern. One skein. A lace center panel that shows off the color play of a hand-dyed yarn. A border lace edge that makes the whole thing feel finished and intentional. And the kind of soft drape that has you reaching for this shawl every time you grab your tea mug.

Cast on with me, bestie. This is the lace shawl that’s going to live in heavy rotation in your wardrobe.

What You’ll Love About the Pear Sorbet Shawlette

• 💛 It’s a one-skein wonder. Roughly 440 yards of fingering weight yarn gets you a full 50″ × 26″ shawlette. Perfect for that single special hand-dyed skein.
• 💛 The garter tab cast-on teaches you a foundational shawl skill. Once you understand how a garter tab generates stitches in three directions, you can knit literally any top-down triangle shawl pattern.
• 💛 The lace center panel is the showpiece. Sixteen rows of repeating lace down the spine, surrounded by easy stockinette wings, finished with a wide border lace edge. Three different lace experiences in one shawl.
• 💛 Charts AND written instructions are included. Read whichever format makes your brain happiest.
• 💛 The shawl shows off hand-dyed yarn beautifully. Stockinette wings let semi-solid or speckled colorways shine while the lace center adds visual interest.

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Quick Pattern Overview

• 🎯 Skill level: Advanced Beginner (comfortable with knit, purl, increase, decrease)
• 📐 Finished measurements: 50″ wingspan × 26″ depth (after blocking)
• 🧶 Yarn weight: Fingering (CYCA #1)
• 🧶 Yarn used in sample: Drew Emborsky “Inappropriate” (90% merino, 10% nylon, 440 yds / 113 g per hank)… 1 hank in 90’s-decade colorway “Psych!” (the sample weighs ~110 g, so the full hank should be plenty; with hand-dyed yarn an extra hank is always smart insurance)
• 🪡 Needles: US 7 (4.5 mm) 36″ or longer circular needle, or size required for gauge
• 📏 Gauge: 17 sts × 22 rows = 4″ (10 cm) in stockinette stitch, after blocking
• 🧷 Notions: Stitch markers, tapestry needle, fiber wash for blocking

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Love the Pattern but Want an Ad-Free PDF?

✨ The complete Pear Sorbet Shawlette pattern is right here on the blog, completely free.

But if you’d love a clean, printable, ad-free version you can take with you to the yarn store or pin to your project bag, well, we are working on that.

And while you’re here… pop your email in the box below so I can send you information about brand-new free patterns the moment they hit the blog 💌

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Is This Pattern Right for You?

The Pear Sorbet Shawlette is your match if…

• ✅ You’re an advanced-beginner knitter who’s confident with knit, purl, basic increases, and basic decreases (k2tog, skp, sk2p).
• ✅ You have one beautiful hand-dyed fingering-weight skein you’ve been hoarding and you want to finally cast on with it.
• ✅ You want to learn the garter tab cast-on (the foundational top-down shawl skill).
• ✅ You love the look of a lace center panel framed by softer stockinette wings.
• ✅ You’re ready to commit to a fingering-weight project (estimated 40-60 hours of knitting).

This pattern is probably NOT for you if…

• ❌ You’re brand new to knitting and have never done a yarn over or k2tog before. Start with the Asymmetrical Knit Lace Shawl first to build confidence.
• ❌ You want a fast project. Fingering weight + a 50″ wingspan = a real time investment. If you want lace fast, try a bulky-weight lace wrap (like one from the Free Knit Lace Shawl Patterns roundup) instead.

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Build Your Skills: What You’ll Learn Knitting the Pear Sorbet Shawlette

This pattern is a beautiful “skills bridge” project. By the end of it, you’ll have practiced:

• 🧶 The garter tab cast-on. This is the magic that turns 3 cast-on stitches into a top-down triangular shawl. Once you understand it, you’ll feel like a wizard.
• 🧶 Reading a lace chart alongside written instructions. Both formats are included so you can build chart-reading confidence with the written version as your safety net.
• 🧶 Working a lace pattern panel inside a larger stockinette context. The Center Panel sits between two stockinette wings… you’ll learn to use stitch markers to keep your lace position straight while you increase around it.
• 🧶 The sk2p double decrease. Slip 1 knitwise, k2tog, pass slipped stitch over. It’s a centered double decrease that makes the lace point beautifully… and it’ll show up in lots of future patterns.
• 🧶 Blocking lace. The before-and-after on this shawl is dramatic. You’ll see exactly what wet-blocking does to open up yarn-over holes and define the lace motif.

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Yarn and Materials

The Yarn Used in the Sample

The original Pear Sorbet sample is knit in Drew Emborsky’s “Inappropriate”… a 90% merino, 10% nylon fingering-weight hand-dyed yarn. Each hank is 440 yds / 113 g, and the sample shown is in the 90’s-decade colorway called “Psych!” The 1 hank used in the sample weighed about 110 g, so the full skein should be plenty.

Yarn Substitutes

If you can’t find Drew Emborsky’s Inappropriate yarn (it’s a small-batch indie dyer, so availability varies), any smooth fingering-weight wool or wool-blend yarn with roughly 400-450 yds per skein will work beautifully. Here are my top substitute recommendations:

• 🧶 Malabrigo Sock … my top hand-dyed substitute. Kettle-dyed superwash merino fingering with semi-solid colorways that mimic the painterly look of the original. 440 yds per skein… a 1:1 yardage match.
• 🧶 KnitPicks Gloss Fingering … 70% merino / 30% silk fingering. The silk halo makes the lace pop, and the smooth ply shows every stitch clearly.
• 🧶 KnitPicks Stroll Fingering Sock Yarn … budget-friendly superwash merino/nylon. Comes in dozens of solid colors if you want a more graphic, single-color version of Pear Sorbet.
• 🧶 Cascade Heritage … 75% merino / 25% nylon fingering. Smooth, strong, blocks like a dream.
• 🧶 KnitPicks Capretta Superwash Fingering … merino/cashmere/nylon blend. The cashmere makes the finished shawl extra soft. Splurge option for a special-occasion shawl.

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Video Tutorials

If any of the techniques in this pattern are new to you, my YouTube channel has free step-by-step video tutorials covering:

• 🎥 Long-Tail Cast-On (great starting cast-on for the garter tab)
• 🎥 How to Knit Lace (yarn overs + decreases explained)
• 🎥 How to Add a Lifeline (highly recommended for this pattern)
• 🎥 How to Tink (Un-knit) (your lace knitter best friend when you catch a mistake one stitch back)
• 🎥 Wet Blocking Tips
• 🎥 How to Bury Ends

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Pattern Details

Abbreviations

• K … knit
• P … purl
• RS … right side
• WS … wrong side
• St(s) … stitch(es)
• Yo … yarn over
• K2tog … knit two stitches together (right-leaning decrease)
• Skp … slip 1, k1, pass slipped stitch over (left-leaning decrease)
• M1 … make 1 (lift the bar between stitches onto the left needle and knit it through the back loop)
• Pm / Slm … place marker / slip marker
• Pu&k … pick up and knit
• Rep … repeat

Special Stitches

Sk2p: Slip 1 stitch knitwise, k2tog, pass the slipped stitch over the k2tog stitch (2 stitches decreased). A centered double decrease that makes a clean point in the lace.

Stitch Pattern: Center Panel

Worked over a panel of 23 stitches.

• Row 1 (RS): K2, *yo, skp, k1, yo, sk2p, yo, k1, k2tog, yo, k1; rep from * to last st, k1.
• Row 2 and all WS rows: Purl.
• Row 3: K3, *yo, skp, yo, sk2p, yo, k2tog, yo, k3; rep from * to end.
• Row 5: K2, *[yo, skp] twice, k1, [k2tog, yo] twice, k1; rep from * to last st, k1.
• Row 7: K1, k2tog, yo, k2, *yo, sk2p, yo, k2; rep from * to last 3 sts, yo, skp, k1.
• Row 9: [K1, k2tog, yo] twice, k1, yo, skp, k1, yo, sk2p, yo, k1, k2tog, yo, [k1, yo, skp] twice, k1.
• Row 11: K1, [k2tog, yo] twice, k3, yo, skp, yo, sk2p, yo, k2tog, yo, k3, [yo, skp] twice, k1.
• Row 13: K2, *[k2tog, yo] twice, k1, [yo, skp] twice, k1; rep from * to last st, k2.
• Row 15: K1, yo, skp, k2, *yo, sk2p, yo, k2; rep from * to last 3 sts, k2tog, yo, k1.
• Row 16: Purl.

Repeat Rows 1-16 for Center Panel pattern.

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Stitch Pattern: Border Lace

Worked over a multiple of 10 stitches + 13.

• Row 1 (RS): K1, k2tog, yo, k2, yo, *sk2p, yo, k2, yo; rep from * to last 8 sts, sk2p, yo, k2, yo, skp, k1.
• Row 2 and all WS rows: Purl.
• Row 3: [K1, k2tog, yo] twice, *k1, yo, skp, k1, yo, sk2p, yo, k1, k2tog, yo; rep from * to last 7 sts, [k1, yo, skp] twice, k1.
• Row 5: K1, [k2tog, yo] twice, k1, *k2, yo, skp, yo, sk2p, yo, k2tog, yo, k1; rep from * to last 7 sts, k2, [yo, skp] twice, k1.
• Row 7: K2, [k2tog, yo] twice, *k1, [yo, skp] twice, k1, [k2tog, yo] twice; rep from * to last 7 sts, k1, [yo, skp] twice, k2.
• Row 9: K1, yo, skp, k2, *yo, sk2p, yo, k2; rep from * to last 3 sts, k2tog, yo, k1.
• Row 11: K2, yo, skp, k1, yo, *sk2p, yo, k1, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, skp, k1, yo; rep from * to last 8 sts, sk2p, yo, k1, k2tog, yo, k2.
• Row 13: K3, yo, skp, yo, *sk2p, yo, k2tog, yo, k3, yo, skp, yo; rep from * to last 8 sts, sk2p, yo, k2tog, yo, k3.
• Row 15: K4, yo, skp, *k1, k2tog, yo, k5, yo, skp; rep from * to last 7 sts, k1, k2tog, yo, k4.
• Row 17: K5, yo, *sk2p, yo, k7, yo; rep from * to last 8 sts, sk2p, yo, k5.
• Row 18: Purl.

Work Rows 1-18 for Border Lace pattern.

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Instructions: Pear Sorbet Shawlette Pattern

Garter Tab Cast-On

Cast on 3 sts and knit 50 rows (25 garter stitch ridges). Do not turn after the last row.

Rotate work 90 degrees and pick up and knit 25 sts along the side edge of the piece. Rotate work another 90 degrees and pick up and knit 3 more sts across the cast-on edge … 31 sts total.

Next row (WS): K3, pm, p1, pm, p23, pm, p1, pm, k3.

Begin Center Panel Pattern and Shape Sides

Inc Row (RS): K3, slm, yo, knit to next m, yo, slm, work 23 sts in Center Panel pat, slm, yo, knit to next m, yo, slm, k3 … 4 sts increased.

Next Row (WS): K3, slm, purl to marker, slm, work Row 2 of Center Panel pat over next 23 sts, slm, purl to m, slm, k3.

Repeat the last 2 rows 57 more times, then work Inc Row once more, ending after Row 5 of Center Panel pat … 267 sts total (3 edge garter sts each side, 119 stockinette sts each side, and 23 center panel sts).

Bind Off (Recommended Garter-Edge Version)

Work 3-5 rows of garter stitch (knit every stitch on both RS and WS rows), keeping the 3 edge stitches in garter and slipping markers as you encounter them. Then bind off all stitches loosely on a RS row.

Finishing

Weave in ends. Use a tapestry needle to bury all loose yarn tails through the wrong side of the fabric.

Wet block. Washing the finished shawl is a must… it cleans the yarn, allows it to relax, and opens the lace into its beautiful finished form. Soak in lukewarm water with a splash of wool wash for 20 minutes. Gently squeeze out excess water (do not wring). Lay flat on blocking mats and pin out to 50″ × 26″, opening all the lace pattern motifs as you pin. Let dry completely (12-24 hours) before unpinning.

I love using Allure Fine Fiber and Fabric Wash from Bijou Basin Ranch for blocking. It smells beautiful and was designed by my friend Eileen Koop, who’s both the owner of Bijou Basin Ranch and a chemist by training.

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Meet the Designer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Pear Sorbet Shawlette pattern really free?

Yes, absolutely. The full pattern (charts, written instructions, the works) is right here on the blog for free. If you’d rather have a clean, printable, ad-free PDF version, you can grab that from the buttons up above… and your purchase supports my free pattern library.

What yarn do I need for the Pear Sorbet Shawlette?

Honestly… you only need ONE skein of fingering weight yarn (about 440 yds). The sample uses Drew Emborsky’s “Inappropriate” yarn, a gorgeous 90% merino, 10% nylon hand-dyed fingering. If you can’t find it, any smooth fingering-weight wool or wool blend will work beautifully… Malabrigo Sock, KnitPicks Gloss Fingering, Cascade Heritage, and KnitPicks Stroll are all excellent substitutes.

How much yarn do I need for the Pear Sorbet Shawlette?

So here’s the thing… the pattern calls for one hank of Inappropriate yarn (about 440 yds). The original sample weighed about 110 g. However, since hand-dyed yarn varies between dye lots, I always recommend grabbing an extra hank just in case… better safe than sorry, right?

What skill level is the Pear Sorbet Shawlette?

It’s listed as Advanced Beginner. You’ll want a comfortable grasp on knit, purl, basic increases, and basic decreases (k2tog, skp, and sk2p… I include videos for any technique that might be new). The garter tab cast-on is the most “new” technique in the pattern, and once you do it once you’ll understand the magic that turns 3 cast-on stitches into a full triangular shawl.

My shawl is curling at the bottom edge. What can I do?

Oh, honestly… that’s a really common issue with lace patterns that bind off right after a lace row. The fix is simple: work 3-5 rows of garter stitch after Row 18 of the Border Lace pattern, BEFORE you bind off. The garter rows give the bottom edge structure and stop the roll. I’ve added this to the pattern instructions as the recommended bind-off approach.

How long does it take to knit the Pear Sorbet Shawlette?

Plan on roughly 40-60 hours of knitting time. Fingering weight + a 50″ wingspan = a real commitment, but not a marathon. Most knitters finish in 4-6 weeks of evening knitting. The Center Panel section is the longest stretch, but it’s deeply meditative once you’ve worked through the 16-row repeat a couple of times.

Are charts or written instructions included?

Both. The pattern includes both written line-by-line instructions AND visual lace charts for the Center Panel and the Border Lace pattern. Read whichever format makes your brain happier… or use both in tandem (written for verification + chart for the visual rhythm).

Do I have to block the finished shawlette?

Yes. Always. Unblocked lace looks like a sad, scrunched-up tangle. After a wet block, it transforms into the airy, drapey piece you fell in love with on Pinterest. Wet block the finished shawl by soaking in lukewarm water with wool wash for 20 minutes, then pinning out flat to 50″ × 26″ to dry. Blocking is non-negotiable for lace.

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More Free Knit Lace Shawl Patterns From Marly Bird

• 🧶 11 Free Knit Lace Shawl Patterns … the full roundup including Pear Sorbet and 10 others
• 🌟 Lehabah Fire Sprite Knit Shawl … fingering-weight asymmetrical right triangle lace shawl
• 🩸 Blood of My Blood Outlander Knit Shawl … lace-weight half-hexagon with cables + lace
• 🌳 Eowyn Cable Knit Shawl … textured right triangle with cables (less lace, more cable goodness)
• 🦋 Mariposa Textured Triangle Shawl … worsted-weight triangle with a lace spine
• 📚 Knit Shawl Patterns: Free Designs for Every Shape, Season & Skill Level … master hub for every free knit shawl on the blog

Want to Go Deeper With Knit Lace? Join Marly Bird House

If Pear Sorbet has you falling in love with lace knitting… I’d love to invite you into Marly Bird House, my online education community. We’ve got the BiCrafty Stitch Nite program (live shawl knit-alongs with me), full courses on lace construction and chart-reading, and a warm community of knitters cheering each other on. Come check it out.

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Final Thoughts

The Pear Sorbet Shawlette has been one of my most-favorited free patterns since 2014, and I’m so glad I finally gave her the framework refresh she deserved. New yarn substitute recommendations, new “Build Your Skills” walkthrough, the designer’s garter-edge fix baked right into the bind-off, full FAQ with schema, and internal links to her cousin shawls. If you’ve been eyeing a hand-dyed fingering skein on your shelf, this is your sign 💛

I’d love to see your finished Pear Sorbet Shawlette! Share it on Instagram with #MMMDI and #MarlyBird so I can find your project and cheer you on 💛

Queue it up and favorite the Pear Sorbet Shawlette on Ravelry here so your knitting friends can see what you’re making.

Pin this pattern for later, share it with a knitting friend, and happy knitting, bestie! 💛

Written pattern copyright Marly Bird Designs, a division of Yarnsports LLC © 2014. Refreshed 2026. Please do not reprint or repost this pattern, but please do link to this page to share it with others.

❤️ Your BiCrafty Bestie,
Marly Bird