A matter of size.

There is nothing I dislike so much as a shawl that is too small.  A shawl needs to be the right size to sit nicely around your shoulders and stay in place.

One of my biggest shawl sadness came from my lovey Tuscany shawl.

I needed another skein of yarn and one more repeat of the pattern to get to perfection.  It is lovely, but it is just too small.  It has the double sin of not just being too small but it is also too large.  

Another was my Mizzle shawl.

It is lovely and it looked great with a crisp white collar above it.  Sadly, it was not quite wide enough that I could pin it so it stayed sitting at my neckline.  

A good shawl needs to be big enough that you can wrap it forever, like my Lillia Hyrna,

Which I can wrap fully around my neck three times and is just the warmest thing, or a shwal needs to be small enough but long enough like the Victorian Shoulderette

That is is exactly perfect and right to pin at your neck where it forms a lovely little collar.

Let's talk about the size of this thing.

Without stretching or pulling or anything, just laying it out as it is, from needle cable to what should be the center of this piece, this shawl measures 30 inches.  All scrunched like this.  30 inches.  Even if it remains all scruched like this it is already 60 inches wide, measureing to what is probably a straight side edge.  Across this giant,  corner to corner, a little math says it is at least 84 inches tip to tip.

So not too small.  I think this one is aiming for the 'wrap entire human populations' in it size.