Flower Basket Shawl 7th repeat

I guess I haven't made much progress on my Flower Basket Shawl in the last 3 months. I just started the 7th repeat of the pattern. I knitted all 10 rows of the previous repeat (viz. the 6th repeat) last night which took me a total of about 2 hours. It will be slow going as I get further since I gain more stitches every other row. I'm enjoying this pattern, especially when I get into the "rhythm" of it... and I find that the pattern rows are much more interesting than the WS purl across rows which is sooooooo tedious.

Yes, those two white yarns you see across the shawl are my "lifelines" ... yes I need TWO of them! I'm a "belt & suspenders" kinda gal, needing a backup to the backup. LOL.

I just joined my 3rd ball of yarn near the end of the row currently on the needles. I used the "spit splice" (mpg) technique which is super cool! Not yet sure how many balls of yarn I will need to complete this shawl, I am guessing somewhere between 4 and 6. Is that sufficiently vague?