Free Lace Shawl Knitting Patterns

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I’ve created a roundup of some beautiful free lace shawl knitting patterns. Lots of these are in my own Ravelry queue! Of course, you can always browse the massive archive of free patterns on Ravelry to find more free patterns. Many of these patterns are by established designers, so they shouldn’t have errors and should be well written. However, I have not tested them, so always check for errata to prevent future headaches! Trying out a designer’s free pattern is a good way to get to know how the designer writes, so if you like his or her instructions and methods, you might feel more comfortable purchasing another pattern of theirs.

From left to right, top to bottom:

Te Manawakura Shawl by Francoise Danoy

Te Manawakura Shawl (Te reo Maori for The Muse) is an asymmetrical triangular shawl with alternating bands of garter stitch and lace. The lace bands are textured with cables that form large floral motifs. This shawl uses 841-969 m of fingering weight yarn. ArohaKnits is at the forefront of making knitting patterns accessible, and has introduced a pay-what-you-can model for her paid-for patterns.

Pekhom Shawl by Naurid Kashpia Senjuti

The Pekhom Shawl is a crescent shaped lace shawl inspired by peacock feathers, and uses 775-1091 m of fingering weight yarn. In Bengali, the word “pekhom” means “tail feathers of a peacock.” The Pekhom Shawl is the interpretation of the beauty and texture of peacock’s train. This shawl will be beautiful when knit in a colour gradient. The designer also recommends embellishing this shawl with beads and tassels, but I think it looks great even without!

Estuary by Tin Can Knits

The Estuary Shawl by Tin Can Knits was first published in Knitty, First Fall 2012. The pattern for this lace shawl calls for 549-732 m of fingering weight yarn, but the size is adjustable. This pattern includes charted lace instructions only, the chart is not written out. Check out all the other free patterns that Tin Can Knits has published!

Smells Like Decaf by Carrie Briggs

Smells Like Decaf is a fingering weight pattern by Carrie Briggs. As per its Ravelry page, technically it’s a baby blanket, but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t use it as a shawl instead! It has a beautiful stitch pattern, and the blanket is beautiful on both sides of the piece. This project requires 2 skeins of MC and one skein of CC. The side borders are knitted using the intarsia method. Carrie Briggs recommending splitting the skein of CC into two skeins to knit the border along with the blanket.

Tender Shawl by maanel

The Tender Shawl by maanel uses 538-549 m of fingering weight yarn. The pattern includes charts and written instructions. Due to the repetitive nature of this rectangular shawl, it can be knit with more or less yarn. Tomiko is working on this right now!

The Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief by Orange Flower Yarn

Not all the shawls here use fingering weight yarn! The Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief calls for 210-219 m of DK weight yarn. The pattern is written in English, German, and Italian. The writer states that you can easily make this pattern with fingering to worsted weight yarn. By simply adding more repeats of the stockinette and garter ribbed eyelet sections, you can make a kerchief or lace shawl as large as you wish. However, yardage requirements will vary with different yarn weights.

Traveling Woman by Liz Abinante

Traveling woman is a very popular shawl pattern – there almost 9000 projects recorded on Ravelry! The pattern page calls for 229-549 m of fingering weight yarn, but you can customize your shawl. Liz includes a table that lets you choose the size of shawl and the weight of yarn. It has options for five weights of yarn and five sizes. The pattern also includes charts and written instructions.

Wendy’s Fern by Princesse Grenouille

Wendy’s Fern is a triangle-shaped shawl that uses 400 m of fingering weight yarn. This is the perfect pattern to use up that one special skein of sock yarn that you may have been saving! The pattern is available in French, English, and Spanish, with charts and written instructions.

Campside by Alicia Plummer

This pattern is a wonderful collaboration between Alicia Plummer and Julie Asselin Hand Dyed Yarns for the Pom Pom Quarterly blog! It is available in both English and French. The shawl calls for 640-713 m of DK weight yarn. Also, if you like the stitch pattern of the Campside Shawl, Alicia Plummer also has coordinating paid designs including the Campside Drop, Campside Wrap, Children’s Campside Cardi, Campside Pullover, and the adult Campside Cardi.

Check out these other free knitting pattern roundups:

• knit hat patterns
• stranded colourwork knitting patterns
• cardigan knitting patterns
• summer knitting patterns
• sweater knitting patterns

• cable knitting patterns
• miscellaneous knitting patterns
• sock knitting patterns
• mitten knitting patterns
• vest knitting patterns

• adult pant and legging knitting patterns
• entrelac knitting patterns
• linen knitting patterns