I give this pattern high marks for sheer knitting entertainment value alone. The knitting was fun and interesting, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The design is perhaps not what one might expect, but when I finally saw the official photos of the finished shawl, I was able to see the designer’s vision. Displayed on her model, it really is the Art Deco piece she promised. Displayed on me, it’s a squishy, warm, colorful shawl with lots of visual interest. Nobody is going to pull it off me, lay it out straight, and evaluate it for coherence. It looks fab when worn!

My only modification was Clue 2:

I did not go down a needle size for the chevron border, but I should have. I went down 2 US needle sizes for the center, which worked really well. Then I decided I couldn’t live with the big blank white square, so I revised the center square.

My Clue 2 revision was quite the journey. I wanted to work the center square in dark green, but I did not have enough left, so I chose another, very similar dark green from my stash. I got the white square ripped out and all those stitches properly arranged on my needles, knit a white border because I still wanted some white in this clue, got about halfway through the new center square, and realized I didn’t have enough of that one either. Sigh. So I ripped it back, re-situated the stitches again, and started in with yet another similar dark green from my stash (dark green is my daughter’s favorite color, so I have a lot of it). Got about halfway through and realized the color was just not similar enough and also too saturated and I hated it. Sigh.

So I ripped back again, considered throwing the whole thing in the trash, whined to my knitting friends, and started over again with Color D (gray), because that’s the only one I had enough of. But there was already a lot of Color D in Clue 2, so I decided to make a mesh panel instead of solid garter. I love bird’s-eye lace, so that’s what I used. Bonus: mesh is super stretchy, so I decreased a bunch of stitches off the initial row, then took up two rows at a time instead of one as I joined it up the sides. Perfect! Also, I got the graft right this second time around (I pulled it much too tight the first time). And, finally, I really like it.

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A=dark green Bugga
B=natural
C=Petersilie (bright green)
D=QED (greenish gray)
E=Amethyst

I am knitting from stash, and I wanted to limit my palette a bit since five colors is a lot, so I steered away from my usual magentas and oranges and stuck with greens. I adhered closely to the instructions for a dark, a light, two mediums that stand out from each other, and a pop. I’m very pleased with this swatch. That greenish QED is one of my favorite colors ever and I wish I’d bought a dozen skeins of it!