On the hook today

I've finally made a start on the Indian Summer Shawl by Tess Dawson -I've had the pattern and yarn for some time and whilst I love the design, (in fact I fell in love with it the first time I saw the picture), the pattern has turned out to be a complete nightmare. I don't know whether it's just me or not. I've done quite a bit of crochet over the years so I'd consider myself to be a fairly competent crocheter, I've certainly tackled some pretty complex patterns but for some reason, this one has got me completely stumped. Some of the instructions seem a bit vague tbh and my shawl is developing a rather strange shape.
Anyhow, tomorrow night is knitting night so I'll see if Frances can make any more sense of it than I can. If not, I'll be having to ask Tess herself to see if she can point out where I'm going wrong. I did have a quick check on the AY forums already to see if anyone has posted about this already but there wasn't anything immediately obvious.

Asides from this I've also been playing around with the design for a summer hat. I had intended to make it as a present for my nan as she hadn't been able to find herself a sun hat this year. I'm using the variegated cotton yarn I picked up a Lidl earlier this year, it's lovely to use but I'm not happy with the design. I've tried freestyling without a pattern (the green) and with a pattern (the blue) but neither is quite right. I think they're both destined to be frogged and restarted - it's either that or they're going to end up converted into bags of some kind!