Inspired by the fresh basil at the farmers markets.

This shawl uses a provisional cast on and is knit from the edging in, so your rows get shorter as you go. The lace edging is charted.
The pattern also includes instructions for a smaller sock weight version.

The lace weight shawl blocks out to 70” wide by 25” deep, the sock weight shawl blocks out to 58” wide by 21” deep.

This pattern is currently only available as a hard copy from the Chicago yarn shop Windy Knitty.

Errata:
12/8/11
The center repeat outline does not show up very well on the print out of the pattern. The heavier outline for the center block should be 25 boxes wide for both Chart A and Chart B.

Chart A row one has 25 boxes before the outline (section one), 25 boxes inside the outline (center block), and 25 boxes after the outline (section two) on row one, see photo. The number of boxes in the center block never changes, the number of boxes in sections one and two should be decreasing.

Chart B works the same way, but sections one and two each have 30 boxes in them for row one (still 25 boxes inside the outline for the center block).

The way you work the shawl:
Cast on the number of stitches for the size you’ve chosen. If you want to use markers for the lace they’ll go every 19 stitches in the lace section (place your markers for the edging and center stitch as instructed in the pattern, these are just extra ones you can use if you want to).

Work edge stitches, work row one of Section One (of Chart A) once, work row one of the Center Block (of Chart A) as many times as you can (seven times for the lace weight version), work row one of Section Two (of Chart A) once, work center stitch, work row one of Section One (of Chart A) once, work row one of the Center Block (of Chart A) as many times as you can (seven times for the lace weight version), work row one of Section Two (of Chart A) once, work edge stitches. Turn work, knit edge stitches, purl back across lace and center stitch, knit edge stitches, turn work, do it all again with row two, etc.

Keep doing this for all of Chart A, move on to Chart B (if the pattern tells you to) and do the same thing. If you are using stitch markers inside the lace section you will have to ditch the first and last markers of each lace section when you get to Chart B (so if you had seven repeats of the center block you will now have five).