Alternating bands of stockinette and reverse stockinette are broken up by lacy bobbles to create a totally reversible design. Texture is maximized and color pooling is minimized so that this pattern works well with both handpainted and solid color yarns.

The 12 row fan border is the most beautiful, but difficult part of the shawl, due to double yarnovers and elongated stitches.
The upper fan border is attached with 3 needle bind-off. (Therefore requiring 2 circular needles of the same size). If you are intimidated or frustrated by the fan border, you can replace it with a much easier garter stitch border, which is given as an option. You could also just have the fan border on the bottom with the garter stitch border on the top to avoid having to do the 3 needle bind off.

The pattern is written out but also includes charts. The charts are written as charted lace due to the reversibility of the pattern--read each chart row as you will knit it.