Inspired by the wondrous embroidered costumes of Elizabethan portraiture, Fair Oriana is a triangular shawl with crescent edging, worked top-down from a small cast-on.

Size is adaptable. Each of the body sections and the lace border may be repeated as you please.

The larger diamond-shaped medallions may be worked plain or with a lace insert, as shown in the photographs, and there are two options for the edging lace.

Suitable for any yarn, from cobweb to fingering weight, that knits with good stitch-definition:
. the gold-to-purple gradient shawl used approx. 105g = 840m/920yds of lace-weight yarn. Top edge 178cm; depth 86cm
. the pink-to-cream gradient shawl used just under 90g = 540m/590yds of heavy lace-weight yarn. Top edge 150cm; depth 74cm

If you are using a gradient or other colour-changing yarn, you are advised to choose one with long, smooth transitions. This is not a design that responds well to strongly defined stripes of colour.

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Please note that the design is given as charts only, with little written explanation. It should present no difficulties to knitters with experience of working lace and crossed stitches (C2F and C2B), and the ability to read their work, but it is not really suitable for beginners.

If you have any problems with the pattern, please pm me and I shall try to help.

Errata

Chart 4, row 1: in the bottom-most of the three parts of the chart, i.e. the left-hand portion of the shawl, the not-greyed-out part of the row starts with a yarnover. Omit this. The spine is a single yarnover (as shown for reference, greyed-out) and should be followed immediately by the crossed stitch.

Chart 4, row 11: in the very last medallion, there is a right-twist missing. Instead of (yo k3), please work (yo, c2R k1)

Chart 4, row 13: the two stitches following the orange cabled stitch should be (yo k2tog) every time, not the discrepant (yo ssk) shown within the first blue repeat-box. The medallions should be symmetrical.

Chart 4, row 17: various k-tbl are missing in the bottom-most chart. Where there is (yo k1 yo) it should be (yo k-tbl yo)

Chart 4, row 21: all but the coloured crossed stitch right at the end of the row should be right-twists, ie ‘knit 2nd st along, knit 1st st, and slip both worked sts from LH needle.’

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The lace stitch-patterns – Wilderness and its derivatives Wild, Buttercup and Out of the Wild – were designed by Naomi Parkhurst. Further details, and more of her fascinating lace-stitch designs, may be found at her blog-site, String Geekery.

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