The Shawl – Half(?) Done

I started this shawl approximately 2 years ago and I think now I’m about half done.  It’s been two years since I started, but I have a tendency to just do a shuttle-full worth of work on it at a time before I put it away for a month or so and then do a bit more work on it.  I’m estimating that there’s probably only about 50 hours of actual work in it so far.

The plan is for it to be triangle shaped.  These three pieces and then a white border around it.  I’ve just started the second light purple and white triangle and this one will match the first one on the other side.  Originally I had planned to have these three pieces right up next to each other, but when I tried to do that I found that the edgings where they joined the colors were just too busy.

I stared at it for a while and decided finally that I just needed some sort of buffer in white between the two pieces.  So now the plan is to have a white insertion between the two pieces to keep the colors separate.  With the matching white border around the entire piece I’m hoping this will come out looking really nice. The pattern always reminds me of stain glass and I think having these sections of white will increase that effect.

I’m a little concerned about how I’m going to make the parts where the edging meets up with the insertion and concerned about how I’m going to make the edging turn the corners around the triangles, but I’ve decided to wait and just figure that out when I get to it.  I figure I’m actually over half done with the tatting of the finished piece now, but once you take into account all the retro-tatting and experimenting I’m going to end up doing to turn those corners I think I’m less than half done with the project.

Doing the three main sections separately and joining them with an insertion has the added advantage of meaning that I can work on them separately and don’t need to carry around the whole thing while I’m working on it (or at least not until the end.)  As much as I love the idea of really big pieces being done all in one go (no ends to cut and tie except when adding new thread) it is nice to be able to just focus on one smaller piece (where smaller is still about 20 hours worth of tatting…)

 

 

4 Comments »

  1. Teresa Said,

    May 13, 2011 @ 3:29 pm

    Wow! That’s a lot of work and it’s going to be absolutely gorgeous! I can’t wait to see the finished object!

  2. Fox Said,

    May 13, 2011 @ 7:56 pm

    This is so pretty. It will be a fabulous shawl and very unusual. Nice work.
    Fox : )

  3. Karen Said,

    May 13, 2011 @ 10:01 pm

    As usual, you make such wonderful projects! I like seeing what you do and you accomplish so much. My tatting seems to go much, much slower. Karen

  4. admin Said,

    May 14, 2011 @ 6:45 am

    Thanks everyone! It’s nice to have a big project that I can always turn to when I don’t feel like figuring out a new pattern.

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