Doily fun...

Having given away a number of the doilies I've made in recent years, I'm remaking some of them. Maybe to give away again.  Or maybe to keep.

Most of the doilies I've given away have been enjoyable patterns I didn't think I'd mind crocheting again.

So this past week, I decided to make one I'd made three times before (and have given away three times).  In my Ravelry notes on the doily called Winter's Breath, I've commented consistently that it's an easy pattern. 

Perfect!

It does look easy, doesn't it?

Let me put it this way...  if you are a doily maker, I think you'd recognize this as a fairly simple doily pattern.

Except, if you're a crocheter, you might notice it has a lot of picots.  Picots are pretty, but they can be a pain.  So I was surprised that in the brief notes I recorded each time I made this pattern, I only commented that it was "easy", "nice pattern", "easy to follow", never once mentioning the picots.

And other Ravelers had made similar comments - even those who mentioned the picots.

Feeling slightly skeptical, I shrugged and thought maybe, for some reason, the picots aren't a pain in this pattern.  I plunged in.

On my fourth making of this doily, I hereby declare the picots are most definitely a pain.  And this time I noted in my personal Ravelry notes the difficulties I had.

Not only was making each of those picots a pain, on the round following the picot rounds, one has to crochet into about half of the picots made. 

Maybe I crochet more tightly these days (especially, with thread).  I don't know.   I only know it was something of a pain to create all those picots, and it was a royal pain for me this time to crochet into those little picots.  

That said, the pattern itself is fairly easy.  And quick.  So I decided to make it one more time, and where there were picots, I instead crocheted a chain-1 (to crochet into on the following round - instead of having to crochet into picots). It was definitely much quicker to make.  And it appeared to work just fine.

Whatcha think:

It's a tad less frou-frou, but it's basically the same. 

I think.

It does ruffle a bit on some of the outer scallops, but a harder blocking ought to resolve that. 

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With my fifth Winter's Breath doily done, and wanting to make another doily from the book, 99 Little Doilies, I crocheted #90:

I think, inspired by the color, I'm calling this one, Gingham.

The above doilies were all made with Artiste #10 crochet thread in the colors, Dawn Rose, Tropical Pink, and Ice Blue.

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And I got fun mail this week!  I am the lucky recipient of some crochet booklets Marsha @ Leftycrafter was getting rid of. 

I'm especially excited by these doily patterns:

 

I gotta say, though...  I'm a bit scared at how large these may end up being.  The designer (Elizabeth Hiddleson) liked to use size 20 and size 30 thread, which just blows my mind.  I've read that I should expect a pattern to grow 20 - 30% if I substitute size 10 thread.   

Also, there are stitches I've never made before.  Like Treble Triple, and Knot Stitch Loop. Also, the abbreviations she used may have been common in the 1960's, but I'm going to be figuring some of them out as I go.

And Elizabeth sure liked triple crochet stitches.  I'm a little concerned about those.  I'm wondering...  do you think I could substitute double crochet for the triple crochet stitches, as long as I'm consistent throughout?  

I may have to just experiment.  If I manage to complete one of these beauties (or even abbreviated versions), you'll see it here!  Thank you again, Marsha!