@eknotter there really isn’t a good way to start this pattern unfortunately. Thee isn’t any clear lines and there’s an uneven amount of strings to in my opinion the easiest would be to just do triangle ends on both sides. As to what row? It really doesn’t matter. Because of the uneven strings tho it’s not going to be completely sympathetic.
I know that question wasn’t for me, but I’ll answer it anyway! It didn’t take me too long, but I found it easier once I had gone through the pattern a couple times. I just finished mine and I really like it!