The pattern asks for a provisional cast-on, that's the blue border. At some point I will start the new adventure called 'crochet' and I'll try the border.
My swatch is over 28 stitches (needles size 4 mm) and measures between 9 and 10.3 cm - so I guess more or less I got the pattern gauge...
I need to achieve 55 cm across my hips, so I'm going to start the chart for the front part the way it is in the book( 5 repeats of the main pattern plus those filler rows) , PLUS 2 extra filler rows at each side. If this will still be small, then I'll declare it to be the 'back' and I'll start another front with another 2 extra rows of filler stitches. Obviously I could do a diet instead.
If this is still going to be too small (!) , there is always the magic of blocking. After all, we are talking lace here.
I 'kind of' like the yarn - apart from the fact that it splits badly in between the yos rows. I have no idea what to do about it - it happened with all yarns I've tried before ( Rowan 4ply soft, Jaeger extra fine merino and Zarina). I can't keep buying and trying new yarns, so this will have to do. But I am bit upset about it.
Otherwise it looks good.
A few words about the chart and symbols. Well, the pattern is easier than you might think, but challenging, as you'll work in pattern on both sides.
Here is a small part of the chart for the sake of discussing the symbols.
The 'swimming fish' is a twisted stitch : knit tbl.
The leaning 'swimming fishes' merging into a short line are decreases, where the stitch on top needs to be twisted. My general approach to this is to first twist the stitch that needs twisting by doing a 'slip knitwise - slip back' operation, then perform the decrease.
Apart from the twisted left leaning decrease, which is easier done with a k2togtbl.
