Indian Summer round 2

I have developed a bit of a love hate relationship with this shawl. I love the look of the pattern and I would dearly love to have it finished and wearable but there's no denying that I really dislike the way that the pattern is written. It's been lurking in the naughty corner for nearly a month but then I discovered that Tess had included the pattern in her book. The library doesn't stock the book so I sent out an SOS to my lovely SnB ladies and Nadia has lent me her copy.
At first glance I thought the pattern had been amended but no, it's no different to the pdf I already have. I'm actually pleased to see that it's rated as advanced as I am sure that no beginner would be able to interpret the pattern correctly. It took three of us from our knitting group to make sense of it fully and between us we've been crocheting for 60+ years and even then, I have effectively rewritten the pattern.

Having said that I'm now making headway with it again although yesterday afternoon my original attempt looked like this:
Yes, I frogged it. Don't panic - it now looks like this which is a distinct improvement.
I'm still fudging the pattern a bit but as the book has a some new photos I have been able to jiggle the pattern a bit to make it work as it should. Both sides of the shawl are now done and and I am now ready to start the main shawl body. It's actually growing very quickly again - probably the reason why I love crochet so much. Although the huge hook and two strands of yarn could have something to do with it. If it carries on like this, I might even finish it over the weekend.

Moggle has a picture review of Tess's book on her blog here and here. There are some lovely designs and definately a few more that I will try out even after the problems I've had with this one.