Depends on who you're knitting it for. measure the person you're knitting it for and adjust the width of it accordingly.
That depends on many factors, the shape of shawl you are trying to make, your gauge and the type of yarn you are using. For a rectangular shawl, or stole, decide whether you want to knit the length or width. Personally, I knit the width of the stole and continue until it's long enough, but the direction of the stitches changes the look of the shawl. Determine how wide you want your stole to be, say 24 inches. Cast on 10 stitches and knit a few rows. Measure how wide your swatch is, say 6 inches, and do a little math. (Finished width / width of swatch) so (24 inches / 6 inches = 4 times the width) So, you multiply your stitches used, 10, by the number of times larger you need your piece, 4, and you cast on 40 stitches. It works the same if you want to work the length of the stole. If you are not needing a specific size, you can cast on about what looks right. For a triangular shawl, it can be easier to start, but you have to keep track of your rows. 1. Cast on three stitches. 2. Knit all. Place a stitch marker on the now empty needle. You can leave it on the needle without ever passing it back. You can also use two different colored needles or put a little waste yarn into the last stitch in this row. You are simply trying to keep track of which row you re on. 3. Knit the first stitch and cast on a stitch, the method doesn't really matter. Knit the next stitch and cast on a stitch, knit the last stitch. 4. Knit all 5 stitches. 5. Knit the first stitch, increase, knit the next three, increase, knit the last. 6. Knit all 7 stitches. 7. Knit the first, increase, knit to the second to last stitch, increase, knit the last. 8. Knit back. Repeat rows 7 and 8. By increasing one stitch in, rather than in the last stitch, you have a smoother edge to the shawl. Just keep alternating an increase row with a knit even row until the shawl is as wide as you'd like. If you find your shawl is getting too wide for the length, increase less, if it's not wide enough, increase more often. An alternative to 2 increases on every other row would be to increase one on every row. I'd still increase near the edge, just decide if you want to increase at the beginning of the row, or the end. You will need 45 casted on stitches.
There are instructions for knit and also for crochet at the link listed below.
Probably, if you're inventive or can find a pattern.
Your answer depends on how quickly or slowly you knit.
Your shawl is on the kitchen counter. That's a nice shawl. Suddenly, the shawl seemed to come to life, standing on edge and snapping it's top corners at me as if it had just become champion boxer.
The needle size you choose will work in concert with the yarn you choose to give you the results you want. There is no standard.
A shawl should be a pretty simple pattern. CrochetPatternCentral.com has a lot of cool patterns and things, you should be able to find one there.
I've included some links below for instructions on doing a ripple stitch pattern. You can choose any stitch pattern you like and turn it into a shawl. Figure out how many stitches are in a repeat. Make a test swatch to determine how wide a repeat is. Figure out how wide you want your shawl to be and divide that by the number of inches in one repeat to determine how many repeats you need.
Shawl collar sweaters can be found at J.Crew or Abercrombie & Fitch. For sweaters specific to men, Brooks Brothers carries mid to high end shawl collar sweaters. A wide variety of brands and styles of shawl collar sweaters, for both men and women, can be found at local department stores such as Nordstrom or Macy's.
a better sweater
Gossamer is a word that means light weight and airy, such as lace. It is also the name of a type of yarn produced by the Knit Picks yarn company, which is a fine, light weight, single strand yarn. There is also a knitting store in Oregon called Gossamer, The Knitting Place. To answer your question, yes, a gossamer shawl would be a shawl that is knitted out of a lace weight, single ply yarn.
I am wearing a shawl.