Doily gifting...

It's hard to believe I've not been in here in a month's time (again), but it is a fact.  And it's not like there's not been anything to blog about.  But one of my favorite blogging topics is my Year of Project updates, and while I've been making things, most of what I'm working on are gifts, and until they are given I'm not posting about them.

That said, I've finally given two people doilies I've had finished for a while, but was waiting until they had actually been gifted.

Yesterday Greg and I enjoyed a beautiful day driving to Kentucky and visiting my sister and niece and her husband in Louisville.  We got lost in some very old parts of this city because we didn't trust GPS for some reason, and while that delayed our arrival by about an hour, we saw some gorgeous old neighborhoods of Louisville.  I became confused, though because in our drive through the city, we would find ourselves in yet another "downtown area" but clearly not in the heart of the downtown Louisville.  One of these small town-looking "downtowns", was strikingly similar to Fountain Square in Indianapolis.  If you know, you know.  

The confusion finally evaporated when my nephew-in-law explained that Louisville actually includes a lot of small towns.  Then it clicked.  Indianapolis is the same.  If you're from Louisville, and I get this wrong, correct me, but I understand from reading online, it is called Louisville Metro.  We live a little ways from the Indianapolis Metroplex - which we frequent often for doctors' appointments and shopping.  Understanding Louisville in this way, suddenly all the little downtowns made sense.  And all the important-looking signs designating a village or neighborhood were, I realized, very similar to the signs we see when we drive around, in and out of these little towns, as we make our way to various destinations within the Indianapolis Metroplex.

While we were feeling stressed to have gotten ourselves so far off the trail, I am glad to have seen such a variety of neighborhoods.  And later, when driving to our niece's home (on the far east side of Louisville), we enjoyed beautiful forested areas.  Louisville seems to have it all!  

After lunch doilies were finally gifted and the recipients appeared to be delighted with them.  To my relief, it was a success.  While I love crocheting, when making gifts (and even more so when I've been paid to make something), I find it stressful wondering if the recipient is actually going to like the thing I'm making.  There is so much second-guessing and some figurative hand-wringing...    I truly don't know how makers who rely on their various talents to earn a living cope with this stress.  

I'm going to take a number of posts to show the recent doilies I've made - just so I can keep some blog fodder in the file, which may help me not disappear for another month.

Today, I present a new-to-me doily pattern called Rosaline:

This is my second textured Grace Fearon doily.  I feel kind of good about the fact that she classifies this as an "Advanced" doily. I finished this a few weeks ago, so maybe I'm forgetting, but it didn't strike me as all that difficult.  The crisscross cables (I think one can all them) made me a little nervous when I started that round, but I just trusted the instructions, and my recollection is that it worked fine.  I think I would not mind making another one of these someday.

And that's all for this YOP post!  To see what other YOPpers are up to, visit our group on Ravelry by clicking the image below.  One will need a free Ravelry membership to visit our group page, just so you know.

My heart goes out to those who suffered damage and loss to Hurricane Isaias.  We've finally shed ourselves of its rainy remnants and are looking to have a couple of weeks in the 70's before the late fall chills chase us inside.  What a gift that feels like!