Works in Progress: Hairpin lace Shawl

I recently started a new project using the technique I learned Hairpin Lace. I am making my mother a shawl using Caron Simply Soft in the Victorian Rose color. I saw this technique in a book I bought and I couldn't wait to start something with it. Since I had wanted to make my mother a shawl for sometime now I decided this would be perfect for making her one.

First Step is to make strips with equal amount of loops on each side joined in the middle with single crochet. There are different methods other than using a single crochet to join them at the middle but this is the basic form. When you first start this out its sometimes difficult to keep the row of joins even but with practice you will get better. I actually didn't do such a bad job my first time so its different for some.

This is one piece with 40 loops on each side. You basically have to make strips like the one above and join them together somehow in order to get the finished product. Making these can be time consuming but its definitely worth it in the end.  

In order to complete one piece for the shawl I need two strips of loops which will be joined together to get one piece for the shally. You want to be careful when joining them that the loops are not twisted unless that the look you are going for. You could put a piece of yarn through them to keep them from twisting so its easier for you to join them later.

To the right is one completed piece. I slip stitched the two pieces next to each other this way I don't need any extra yarn to attach them together. For the outside I crocheted a chain of 12 and single crochet every six loops. I have estimated that I will need about 12 to 16 of these to complete the shawl. Like I said before it does take a while to do this because of all the different steps you have to do before getting one piece finished. After making this piece you can either join the next piece with this one or make all your pieces and join them by crocheting them all together. It just depends on what you like best. I'm not sure what method I am going to use to make my shawl. We will just have to see when I get to that point. I deinitley keep an update on this one because I know its going to take a long time to complete.