Can someone please tell me how we are approaching the middle of August already?!? Summer is not my favorite season because of the heat and humidity, but this summer, except for a week or two here and there of temps in the 90's, it's been pretty pleasant so far. We've not had droughty conditions, as we often have through July and August. I'm thinking I might almost be sad when summer is over, it's been so nice here.
With produce from the garden needing picking almost daily, and having enough green beans to can a batch every few days, added to the normal stuff of life, I haven't been crocheting much. Last week I finished a couple more little doilies, but it was just last night that I got around to blocking them.
First up is Doily # 44:
Made in Curio #10 thread in the colorway, Turmeric
The spoke shape in the middle was a bear to work. I struggled to make total sense of the instructions to make FPdtr's (that's Front Post Double Triple stitches) criss-crossing each other, so finally I just studied the photograph of the finished doily and made this section the best I could. I'm not normally a fan of crocheting via diagrams, but this pattern would have benefitted from having a diagram to consult.
The first thing that came to mind as I looked at the picture of this one was a carousel, so that is its name.
Nearly beat by Carousel, I thought I'd look for a simpler doily, so I worked up Doily #17:
Crocheted in Curio #10 thread in the colorway, Clementine
This one wasn't hard until the last two rows. For some reason I kept drifting off, and I ended up having to repeat one or more of the last two rounds two or three times.
In the end, I'm not sure I completed this one correctly, but on the final row of many fiddly picots, I started to not care. Finished was better than perfect, I decided. I named this one Windmill; you may be able to see the four "blades" better in this picture:
Or maybe not?
That's all for now on the crochet front. It appears there's another gorgeous week ahead, and I may be pulling up the green bean plants since they're taking up a lot of space and not producing much at this point. For the first time ever, I'm considering planting some things for a fall garden.
The last jar of green beans before going into the pressure canner. Tomatoes are up next!
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I always admire your doilies. Pilots are so fiddle. Personally, I avoid them. Your garden was plentiful this year. What will be in your fall garden?
ReplyDeleteMarsha, if I can get my hands on some hardneck garlic bulbs (and not too expensively), I'd really like to put some in the ground to harvest next year. I'm also thinking of planting some fast growing things like Pok Choy, maybe acorn squash, radishes (I've heard these are good roasted) maybe carrots.
DeleteGlad you enjoy your garden. I am not a gardener. I'm not willing to put in the work since I'd rather go to the store to buy what I need. But I grew up with a father that had a huge garden so that we had vegetables all winter long. Hubby likes to think of himself as a gardener but his definition is: till the soil, put in seeds/plants, ignore and hope the plants survive the weeds. It's disgusting and rarely works. Hence deck pots work much better. Your dollies are beautiful.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, Maureen, I'm not sure how long I'll want to put in this much time and labor for a garden, but it has been something of a healing activity this summer. I hope I feel up to it again next summer, but only time will tell. 😊
DeleteSuch a lovely summer we've had so far. I'm surprised we haven't had too much heat in August, but cooler mornings. It's ideal to plant a fall garden, with lettuce, spinach...what else? maybe i will do one, too. I just started pulling up our garlic.
ReplyDeleteThrse are very good ideas, Martha. I'm suddenly inundated with tomatoes that need dealing with, and I'm having trouble dreaming of things to plant. The options (that we'll eat) get slimmer as each week goes by.
DeleteLoved the canning picture. Canning is so much work but it is great to open a jar of garden goodness in the Winter. Your future self will thank you:)
ReplyDeletenypeapod, I recently made and canned spaghetti sauce. My future self is already thanking me! :)
DeleteI'm blaming you for my recent foray into making a doily. Won't be doing any more for awhile though because my hands truly weren't happy with me.
ReplyDeleteRC is quite miffed that his balcony tomatoes are going to probably come to an end by the end of the month. Normally we have them well into September. I'll be looking for a basket of roma's to make some tomato jam and some zucchinis to make relish and that will be the extent of my canning. I'd do a lot more if only we had a cool space to store such things.
Mary Anne, I'm so glad to have influenced you into making a doily. I'll be to your blog soon to check it out! My tomatoes have been coming ripe in stages, and because of a fungus I have been picking some before their fully ripe. I may have another week or two on the ones that are still green (next week's heat wave may slow the ripening down). I'm committed to the process of preserving them, I am going to be so glad when I'm done. ;^)
DeleteYour crochet makes for wonderful "eye candy." Love all you have created here.
ReplyDeleteEye candy! I think that is a doily's only purpose, Barbara. :)
DeleteYour crochet is beautiful. I am a knitter who dabbles a bit in crochet, but still after many projects, struggles with where to put that next crochet stitch. I think my mind doesn’t work well for crochet. But your doilies are always so inspiring. What do you do with all of them?
ReplyDeleteElaine, you ask the question that doesn't have a satisfying answer to those who want to know what I do with doilies. I don't make them with an end-use idea in mind. The making of these 99 Little Doilies, is the project. When I do use doilies, I tuck them into a vignette. Being somewhat of a minimalist when it comes to decorating, I can't say I do this all that often. I often think I should display them on the wall, but I'm kind of tired of the ways I've seen them displayed, so I'm not very inspired to do that. The real answer to your question is that I store them in a box to delight a future someone who stumbles upon them. When I feel inspired I place one jauntily in a vignette - and then hubs comes along and straightens it up.
DeleteI had to give up vegetable gardening as I can't eat most of them anymore....and I love veggies! I used to love canning too. I agree with you....this summer has been really nice here in the South too. You doilies are lovely and I know what you mean about your eyes crossing after a while with some patterns but yours look perfect! I still can't wait for Fall though! Hugs ~ Sam
ReplyDeleteSam, autumn is my favorite season, and normally, I look forward to putting our outside beds to rest (when we lived in town, that amounted to some small flower beds, and cleaning out my planters). I've recently added some cool-weather crops to my garden, and I'm starting to feel a little sad that in a couple of months there will be no more veggies growing out there.
DeleteI’m amazed how quickly you seem to knock out such intricate doilies. We haven’t really had a summer, maybe 5 warmish days all summer and the leaves are turning. I was thinking the colours of these 3 are quite autumnal. 🍂
ReplyDeleteAnon (is this highlandheffalump Liz?), these are very small doilies (like 4-6 inches in diameter). If I don't stumble over the instructions, I can usually finish one in two - three hours (that's stitching time - I take breaks). A larger one, I'm working on now, is taking longer. It's simple stitching, but it takes a lot longer to go all the way around as it grows. I've been working on it off and on for about 2 weeks now.
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