Pacific and Chocolette
Chocolette and Pacific are both calm, comforting shawls to wrap up in - easy to make, simple to wear, and full of quiet texture. One has the warmth of soft chocolate shades, the other the freshness of ocean blues - two soothing projects for peaceful crochet moments.
Below you will find some helpful technical information about both shawls' custom sizing, how to calculate yardage, etc.
Sizing
Chocolette is worked from a corner to the opposite side. This allows you to make it as large or small as you wish by repeating the stitch pattern sections to the desired size.
Pacific is started as a square, worked from the bottom corner up, and the wings are added from the center side to the corners at a later stage. This also allows you to size your shawl as you wish by adjusting the size of the square motif. The bigger the square is, the longer the wings will be.
Yarn Weight
Both shawls can be made with yarn of any weight: lace, sock, sport, worsted, etc. The yarn weight choice will affect the size of your shawl, thickness of the fabric, stitch definition, and yardage, giving you so many options and possibilities to create your perfect shawl, just the way you like it.
Switching to a different yarn weight won’t ruin the stitch pattern. I've worked it in both light fingering and worsted myself.
Yardage
The yardage requirements for the custom-sized Chocolette are simple, as its construction allows you to work it until you run out of yarn.
As for the Pacific, calculating yardage may seem tricky, but actually the starting square equals both wings, which are added later. So you can use half of your yarn for the square motif, and the remaining yarn should be enough to complete the wings.
Photoshop Fun!
I deeply love the Pacific shawl construction. It allows for so many creative colorwork solutions!
I played around in Photoshop, imagining fun and bold color arrangements. I always miss having these sketches! If I'd made them before starting the real sample, I definitely would have made that yellow-grey version. Those little "ears" in the design are just too cute!
At the same time, I recolored Chocolette, imagining it in different shades. Red would be my pick! :D
Perfect Match
One day I hung both shawls on a hanger and was so delighted by how well they looked together!
They are made with the same yarn (Malabrigo Arroyo) and share the same textures, and their different shapes and colors (sand and waves!) add to the beauty when paired. I can easily imagine wrapping myself in both at once.
I really like the idea of making two samples of the same design (or different ones that share something in common, like Chocolette and Pacific) and wearing them together.
I always miss having enough volume around my neck in winter, but making a huge wrap is not really my thing. Two joyful projects in different yet matching colors sound perfect instead!
What's Inside the Pattern
Both patterns are written out and charted and includes a photo tutorial on a special stitch, X-sc. I use this stitch quite often because it creates such beautiful little eyelets. In fact, it's just a regular sc2tog, worked in an unusual way.
The stitch itself looks like a twisted bump, but in the next row, with sc stitches worked in between the X-sc, those spaces turn into lovely round eyelets. You can try it right now over the stitches of any crochet piece you're holding in your hands!
Quite often, when we're asked to do something a bit unusual, our brain freezes, trying to figure out what is happening. The instructions might sound confusing, but let your hands do the job: find the front loop, insert your hook into it from the back to the front (so the hook points toward you - the opposite of how we usually insert it), and the rest will follow!
