Callatis is the ancient name of a beautiful city on the shores of the Black Sea, currently called Mangalia (from its Turkish name – Mankalya). It used to be a great port and is now a main attraction among the many resorts that line the shore of the Black Sea in Romania.
I wanted to find a beautiful name for this pattern that uses such a wonderful yarn to showcase the depths of the sea. I have received many beautiful suggestions and almost settled on Marmaris (a beautiful city and seaside resort in Turkey, with water as blue as this yarn), but the shores of my home country call to me more than a city that I’ve never seen (although I do plan on getting there one day).
Go with me on this journey through time, along the shores of a wonderful sea. Use your favorite gradient yarn to make a light and breezy shawl using the easiest technique there is, corner-to-corner crochet. I used a beautiful 100% cotton yarn cake from Cotton Kings. The yarn is called Sultan and the colorway is Azurites (this is yarn that I bought myself, so there’s nothing sponsored here, I’ll just save you a search).
I’m pretty sure you’ve tried C2C before. The technique of building a rectangle by creating little squares on parallel diagonal lines has become very popular. It’s still young, though, meaning that there is a lot of space for innovation in the world of corner-to-corner crochet.
I’ve started exploring this beautiful technique and its variations on another long train trip, armed with just a big cake of gradient yarn and my hook. Although this was not the project I thought up and finished on that trip, it has been the catalyst for this new design.
What if we only make a triangle instead of a rectangle? And what if we make a crescent instead of a simple triangle, since crescents have such beautiful drape and can hug you and your shoulders much better than a simple triangle?
Even though my “innovation” is just a little change in the first square of every row (and using 4 treble stitches instead of 3 double crochet stitches because the yarn is so thin), it will still create a more interesting shape than if you’d just used the classic C2C method.
If you are planning on using a cake of gradient yarn, like I did, and you want to make a tassel for the middle, it’s best to either set aside some yarn for the tassel or make it before you begin making the body of the shawl, so the tassel matches the color of the middle corner (I forgot to do it and had to use yarn from the other end and it doesn’t look as nice).
The awesome part about this pattern is that you only need one cake of yarn (if you are using yarn similar to mine), so the project is portable and easy to work on in various circumstances (like most of my other patterns). Once you get going, you don’t need instructions until you run out of yarn and need to add the finishing row, so you don’t need to take the pattern with you or look at it.
It’s a really relaxing and meditative pattern, allowing the beautiful gradient yarn to shine through.
You can also use this simple pattern with heavier yarns in a single color to make a warmer shawl, then you can add any border that has a multiple of 10 stitches, to accentuate the longer edge even more.
If you’re ready to start, download the pattern by clicking on the button below and enjoy the process of making this lovely shawl.
You can also add the pattern to your Ravelry queue here. If you want to show me your work, use #callatisshawl on Instagram and tag me @yarnadndy so I can see your post when you publish it (not randomly after several days, when Instagram decides to show me the tags I follow). I love sharing your photos in my stories, to inspire other makers ?
If you like using gradient yarns, try out one of my other free patterns that use gradient yarn:
Thank you for joining me on this beautiful adventure.
See you soon!
Andrea
