The shawlette is worked back and forth in stripes of garter stitch and stocking stitch. The contrast colour (CC) is always worked in stocking stitch and the MC is always worked in garter stitch and is used for the edging. The pattern is forgiving, so don’t worry if your stitch counts don’t match up exactly. Just try to keep the edging consistent.
When choosing your colours both solid and variegated colours look good. If you’re using a multi-colour skein a stronger contrast colour will make the garter stitch stripes more distinctive against the variegated background.
You’ll need to match the gauge so that the yarn quantities work out. On the decreasing section, if you are worried about running out of yarn, work the decrease row every second row instead of every 4th.