I love this pattern, and I think the shawl would be particularly nice in a yarn with lots of drape, like silk or linen. I love the madeleine tosh yarn I used, and I love the result, but the picot edge does want to flip over a bit more than I think it would with some other yarns.

It’s very warm and cozy - just what I wanted. I used smaller needles than recommended in the pattern because I had a lot of yarn, and wanted it to be a denser, warmer shawl. The yarn would have worked fine on larger needles, though, and it would probably have been possible to make a nice-sized scarf/shawlette with just one skein of yarn that way.

The pattern is very well written, and surprisingly easy for as complex as it appears to be. The step-by-step photos are very helpful.

--- project notes ---

Modifications: I did the initial, more frequent increases until I had 24 body stitches, then continued increasing at the lesser rate until I had 64 body stitches. I worked 18 sets of medallions straight, then started the decreases.

I’m doing the crosses a little differently than the pattern says, but it ends up looking the same - instead of slipping the stitches over one at a time starting with the 5th stitch and then knitting them, I’m starting with the last stitch - I slip it over all of the stitches and knit it, then take the next-to-last stitch and slip it over and knit it, etc.

It’s an easy pattern to memorize, and the “crosses” are simple - but just a little slow to do at first until you get the hang of them. I found that it was easier to do them without bothering with a separate needle. I drop all of the extra loops (for both medallions), slipping the enlarged stitches to the RH needle, then slip them all back to the LH needle and work the crosses. At first I tried just slipping the first 8 stitches and working them, then the next 8 - but I couldn’t loosen the loops properly that way. By slipping and enlarging all 16 first before working them, it worked much better.

This ended up being a really good carry-around project, since it was so easy to see where I was in the pattern. The increases and decreases are done every 4th row, which is the same as the row repeat for the main border - so after you get to the main section and stop increasing every other row, you’ll always be doing the increases/decreases on the same row of the border pattern.

The picot edge is a 6-row repeat, but it was easy to figure out when to do the increases for the picot by looking at the stitches on the edge - if there are already two slipped stitches on the edge after the last picot, it’s time to do another one.

When printing the pattern, be sure “shrink to fit” or “fit to page” is selected if you’re printing on 8-1/2x11 paper, since it’s written for A4.

I first started Semele with this yarn, but I decided I didn’t like the yarn/pattern combo - I think the yarn works much better with this pattern. I’ll use something less textured for Semele, and probably laceweight instead of fingering.

The edging would look really great on a knit skirt – not that I’m ever likely to make one (or wear one). But maybe for the hem of a tunic?