This shawl is the first of my last Downton Abbey group (the 2016 Season): “Isobel’s Antique Lace”. The first model was made in a cream color using a lovely DK in color “Antique Lace” - I call it the “Nursing the Dowager” version.

There are several variables in the pattern : starting chain length and optionally using a group of 4 Lace rows. For my second version, I used a longer starting chain and two sets of the Lace rows to create a delicate Crescent shawl in a sparkly green fingering weight gradient. This version I called “Dining with Lord Merton.”

You can vary both the starting chain length and the frequency of Lace rows to create other options, but all versions start at the back of the neck and work downward, with increasing at the row ends and a gentle increase at the soft center spine. Charts and written directions are provided.

The pattern for the Ground was adapted from the “Crochet Shawl. Half-Crazy Stitch” and the pattern for the edging from the “Bolsover Pattern for a Shawl” - both antique patterns published in Weldon’s Practical Crochet magazine over 100 years ago.