 Prompted by your questions on the construction of the
Forest
Petals Shawl and my own fascination with the shawl's playful use of
negative
space, I pulled out a couple of skeins of yarn and a Tunisian hook and
started
chaining. Then I stopped and spent several minutes studying the pattern
and
layout diagram. Studying a pattern before you begin is quite possibly as
important as the gauge swatch. True some parts of a pattern will not
make
complete sense until you have crocheted to that point, but a familiarity
with
the project construction can go a long way to at decreasing
confusion later.
I will admit that I am not a great wearer of shawls but
I
love scarves. Seeing no reason I couldn't use this pattern to create a
fabulous Spring scarf, I used the foundation chain to number of
diamonds formula given in the notes to determine how many chains were needed
for a
three diamond width scarf.
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The first diamond progressed pretty quickly. If you
have
never worked Tunisian simple stitch before this video can illustrate the
technique for you or help you visualize the stitches. Remember that for
the
first diamond you are not working in all of your foundation chains. The last stitch of the diamond is a slip stitch in the next unworked chain of the foundation chain.
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The second diamond is begun by picking up loops in the
next
unused chains of your foundation chain. Now work the second diamond as
for the
first. You're getting the hang of it now. If you are working more than
the 3
diamonds I am continue working across the chain.
After you have finished the
last diamond, you should have worked into all of your original chains.
Turn the diamond
counterclockwise and slip stitch your way up the side. Though simple, this is
one of the
most important steps. I forgot it a time or two, and it will cause your
end
diamond to twist and not join correctly.
The row of diamonds you have just finished is referred
to as
a tier. My scarf has 20 tiers while the Forest Petals Shawl has 40
tiers.
Remember a tier does not refer to the number of individual diamonds but
to the
number of rows of diamonds.
In my next blog we will look at creating subsequent
tiers
and joining them as we go. Have fun playing with this Tunisian
Technique. I
found it terribly addictive.
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