Another small finish this week...

I've actually made this little doily before.  Twice in fact, and they've been given away.  Always wanting one for myself in this pretty green color, I made a third one.

I've been asked from time to time about blocking doilies, so I'm going to discuss the process, with before and after pictures.

Admittedly, this isn't the most wrinkly doily I've made, but you can see how the corners curl up and some of the picots are a bit stunted. It just isn't as nice in this unblocked state as it will be blocked:

I soak the doily in running tap water, and then saturate it with spray starch, crumpling and squeezing the sopping wet doily to work starch into the fibers.  Then I roll it up in a towel, and squeeze most of the water (and probably starch) out of it.  The above is actually how it looked after going through that process.  

I'm trying to use up this very old can of spray starch that I brought home from my mother-in-law's home five years ago:

I can't quite decipher the code, but I'm curious if anyone wants to take a guess as to how old this can of starch is: 

After all that, the doily gets pinned on a foam mat to dry overnight:

Yes, that is a lot of pins.  And this is just a 5 1/2" doily. You  can imagine how many more pins a large doily takes.  

The way to block a doily is to begin in the center, working one's way out.  Generally, (and especially as I get further out from the center), I try to pin on opposite sides of the doily to achieve as even a shape as possible.  I'll try explaining like this:  I pin one point of a leaf, then turn the whole thing around and pulling the doily taut, I pin the pointed leaf on the opposite side.  Then I'll pin another point a quarter of the way around, and the next pin will go into the point opposite of that.  Each little picot around the outside edge has a pin dedicated to it.

Once it's dry, all those pins come out, and the result is a prettily formed doily.  In case you're wondering, this doily isn't stiff (even using "heavy" starch), but it does have body and will hold its shape until it's washed, or gets wet again for some reason.

If it were to get crumpled up or creased somehow, I would put it flat in a folded towel and using a steam iron press it flat again.  If you ever bring home a musty old doily from a flea market, or grandma's attic, I recommend washing it by hand, then using my steps above, block it.  Or you might try pressing it in a towel like I explained above.  Picots may not come out perky, but I'd think the doily would at least lay flat.

Doily # 8 from the book, 99 Little Doilies.  

I've dubbed this one "Elm Leaves".

Some colors are just weird...

While I'm working on some projects in the background that I won't be able to show for a while, I decided to give myself a break from a somewhat complicated pattern and crochet another small, quick doily.  This may be how it goes for a little while.  And Marsha, I'm not working on a Hiddleston doily.  I'm still not quite confident enough to tackle one of those.

All I have to show today is a humble 5 1/2" doily named #29. 

But first, here is a picture of how #29 was presented in the book, 99 Little Doilies:

It's okay... Very unassuming.  Honestly, I had written "meh" beside the doily number on the record I'm keeping of this long-term project, with the intention that I'd probably never make it.

But I decided to look on Ravelry for what other people have done with Doily #29.  I thought I was just looking for pretty colors, but someone decided to take a different approach to blocking it, and I didn't have to think twice before following suit:

Are we all in agreement that this is so much better than the original?

Now for a little experiment with trying to photograph it...

The crochet thread I'm using is Artiste in the color, Antique. It's not a particularly pretty color.  A kind of dutsy mauve is the most generous way I can come up with in describing it.

A picture I pulled from Hobby Lobby's website:

This is it at home outside in the natural light:

Pulling the camera back, this is it (top center) next to three neutrals:

Honestly, it's not nearly as pretty, or pink as it appears in any of the pictures here. Truth be told, I only bought it because 1) it was inexpensive and being discontinued, and 2) I kind of felt sorry for it.  Along with feeling sorry for it, I imagined it might crochet up prettier than it spools up.

What I didn't quite bargain for is that in person, the color totally depends on the lighting, and the surface it's laying on.

So, like I did with another doily a few weeks ago, I photographed the same doily in the same room, next to the same windows, just minutes apart, on different table tops.  The difference in how my phone camera picked up the color is crazy.

Neither one of these is bad.  But neither one is true, either. The first picture (just above) is truer in its coloring, but it's not quite that pretty of a pink.  Clearly, this color is going to do whatever it likes, whenever it likes. I can only imagine how long the designer looked at the color before giving up and simply called it Antique.  Antique is a hard name to argue with for such an odd color that in person looks old and dusty.

Not sure what I'll ever use it for again, but for now it goes into the bin of other threads!

Yes, I'm still making doilies...

I seem to be in a phase again where I can't summon the discipline to blog regularly, but that doesn't mean nothing is happening.

In fact, blog fodder is stacking up for when I'm more in the mood to write, but for today, since this is a Year of Projects post, you get crafty me.

I'm still crocheting doilies, albeit somewhat slowly at the moment.

I finished another "Easy Doily" in a pretty spring green:

And Doily # 18 from the book, 99 Little Doilies:

This 5-inch doily I'm calling Flower Star

(made in the color, Ciel)

Tomorrow I'm planning on attending a "Tea" that a friend is hosting.  Now, I don't take a hostess gift everywhere I'm invited, but I know the host of this gathering is going to a lot of effort.  She didn't accept my initial offer to bring something to contribute to the Tea, and I didn't get around to offering again, soooo I'm planning on taking her a hostess gift.

She has lots of blue in her decorating, and when I was at her home recently, it occurred to me the light blue doily (below) that I made a month ago, would look great with her color scheme. And late this week, finishing the smaller Flower Star, I thought it would make a nice accompaniment.  Even if she's not a doily person, I'm thinking she'll appreciate the idea that doilies fit perfectly with a Tea. 

The only problem in doing this is, I will have to remake the lighter blue one. I've liked the way it looks in my china cabinet tucked partially under a blue and white tea cup and saucer, hanging over the edge of the shelf. 

Hold on... 

...

...

... 

Oh yes...  

While this smaller, more open doily doesn't show up as well on the shelf as the denser one above, I think the darker blue (Ciel) looks better with the dishes:

Okay!  On second thought, I may be making the pineapple doily in this darker blue!

~~~~~

At the end of June, this Year of Project blogging thing wraps up another year, and we'll begin a new YOP year on the first Sunday of July.  I mention this just in case there might be a reader here who'd like to join in.  Some YOPpers do a January-December YOP year, but quite a few of us stay true to the original vision of a July-June year.  I have to say, I LOVE starting something new in July. 

Anyway, if you'd like to join in, you need to have a free Ravelry membership, and then join our group.  And it would be a good idea if you crochet, knit, spin, weave, tat... because fiber arts are the reason Ravelry exists.  But, to be sure, lots of other crafts pop up on YOPper's blogs, in addition to our fiber crafts.  Most of us are multicraftual and we enjoy the inspiration provided by the variety of creative pursuits.

Check us out; join in if you like!

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. 

~~~~~

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.

~~~~~

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!

Doilies could use a new name...

Actually, I think doilies need a complete rebranding.  I like to think I'm contributing to that end, but it seems many remain confused that doilies are still a thing.  I think it's safe to say they're not the same thing as doilies of the past.  Doilies today can be made in the most beautiful colors.  And tucked into places that (I think) should delight the eyes of those lucky enough to discover them.  

Yes...  like their forerunners, today's doilies may end up in thrift stores and flea markets eventually, but I am confident that some creative souls will swoop them up and find new ways to use them, or upcycle them.

So I continue to contribute toward that possibility!

From the book, 99 Little Doilies, I completed Doily #47:

Or Cobblestone Patio

And here is Peony Doily that I showed a peek of last week:

I took inspiration from a crocheter on Ravelry for my colors, but here's a link for fellow Ravelry members to the original doily.  Made in one color, it's nearly unrecognizable from mine.

~~~~~

Just a few of the beautiful colored cotton threads I own - make me itch to stitch up at least a few more before the fascination wanes (temporarily) again.

More doilies...

Today we woke up to a brand new winter wonderland.  And the birds were excited by it all day.

~~~~~

Putting away blanket-weight yarn for a bit, I pulled out some crochet cotton for two new doilies - from the book, 99 Little Doilies...

Somehow, it escaped me that I had made #44 before, but interestingly, made in this peach ivory color, a new name emerged:

Crinoline

And because (I think) I'm working on a collection of little doilies made in the above Ivory Peach color, and a dark brown/gray color called Hawk, I quickly produced #54 below.

Photographed on a lighter background, I might have come up with a different name, but on this gray cloth, this doily is giving me garden/soil vibes.  

Meet Cherozem

Cherozem (the doily) reminds me of the dark prairie soils in north west Indiana where Greg and I first lived (and planted our first garden).  Greg was a soil scientist (who mapped the soils in that part of the state in the early '80's), and he tells me the name used for the soils there is Mollisols. It's rich and dark, and great for growing things.  Cherozem is a word used for this soil in Russia and Ukraine, and maybe Canada?  I think Cherozem is a prettier name than Mollisols, so Cherozem it is.  The emphasis is on the first syllable in case you want to try to pronounce it.  

And that's it for today's YOP post.  If you're at all interested in YOPping, or just being part of a world-wide network of fiber crafters, you can check out the group on Ravelry by clicking the Year Of Projects graphic below.  If you're not already a member of Ravelry, you'll have to create a free account to get any further than the home page.

Look at all those cardinals!  I counted 14 males.  There are probably that many females in the trees and on the feeders.

Doilies and hats...

Crocheting and knitting a little over the last couple of weeks, I made two more of "99 Little Doilies".

Crocheted in Artiste #10 thread in the color "Peach Ivory"

Tiny little doily #31 doesn't really inspire me at all, but it will be a fine addition to a collection of small doilies in a few different colorways that I hope to finish and display together some day - even if just on a table top.

Doily # 22, crocheted in Curio #10 thread in the color "Hawk"

It wasn't until I saw this dark gray doily in a picture that I saw what I imagine to be a round stained glass window without the stained glass.  So I named this "Lead Rosette".  So glad I decided to skip all the picots in this one.  They would have driven me crazy, and I like the edges on this so much better.

~~~~~

Another project has presented itself, and sounds enjoyable - as long as my neck doesn't go back into "stiff mode".   Last month we attended a volunteer dinner (as quests) where youngest son, Ben, attends a church that hosts a community  food distribution.  That night they announced they also plan to host a toy/hat/blanket giveaway in early December - and they were "calling all yarnies" to knit or crochet hats.  I placed a loose mental sticky note in my mind that I could knit some hats to donate, but honestly, it wasn't until Ben mentioned it a week or so ago (just on the chance I might be interested) that I got a bit more serious about it.

Knit and crocheted hats can be great easy projects - taking just a few hours each - some less.  At least that's how I remembered it...

Well, this weekend I started with knitting a simple Benefaction Hat, and decided I'd add some colorwork after watching a few YouTube videos to see how it's done.  I thought I'd do a "fade" pattern with several colors.

The "fade" is where things started getting a little challenging.  The concept of stranded knitting (especially on this level) is simple enough, but I need a lot of practice to get my stitches and tension more consistent in that part of the knitting.

To a non-knitter's eye, I'm not sure this looks all that bad, and some of the unevenness can be blocked out, but I don't think I have it in me to finish this.  And I'm not sure I like the colors I chose, so there's that, too.  I may hang onto it, and use it as practice later, but since the more immediate goal is to actually produce some hats (not improve my knitting), I'm moving on.

I looked back at my Ravelry project page, and I see the last hat I crocheted was in September of 2020.  The last hat I knit was almost a year before that.

Armed with that knowledge, I suddenly feel kind of rusty and am wondering if volunteering to make some hats was a good idea.

Ah well...   the evidence will present itself here over the next 4 weeks.  I've pulled out lots of colors of yarns from my stash, and I've given myself a goal of wrapping up hat making by mid-October.  Come October 13th, I will either be relieved to be done, or feeling very satisfied with what I accomplished - maybe both.  Either way, it does feel good to have a purposeful project to throw myself into.

 

Time is going way too fast...

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!

Color play...

There wasn't much time last week devoted to crocheting, but I did manage to finish one more of 99 Little Doilies (from the book of the same name).

This is Doily #93:

Or, as I fancy it...  "Not My First Rodeo"

Get it?  it reminded me of a spur wheel... spurs made me think of horses, and horses made me think of rodeos...  and then I just brought it on home...  I know...  I know...  Just like a joke - it's never as good when someone explains it.

I'll try not to do that so much with future doilies that I name (unless someone asks me how I came up with a particular name). Somehow, I don't see anyone else as invested in naming these as I am, though...

Anyway, I discovered something when I was crocheting this little doily - done with Curio #10 thread in the colorway, Conch.  Placed against the doily I had earlier made with the color, Ivory Peach, I suddenly realized I liked the Ivory Peach color much better.  

And I really like both of these colors together on this medium gray table cloth.

And that got my wheels to turning...   If I mount anything made in the Ivory Peach, a cool gray background will help it to pop.  

And...  I began to imagine a number of different doilies made with these two colors, laid together, serving as something of a centerpiece on the dining room table when this gray table cloth is in use.

I don't know if I'll see that last idea through, but I do think I'll at least make another, maybe larger, doily in Ivory Peach before giving up on the color in a crocheted project.  It definitely needs something darker and, I think, cooler to cancel out what I was seeing as a slight yellow tone that had me not liking it so much originally.

I don't know why, after all this time, I am often amazed when I accidentally notice colors playing together in my crochet work.  Alone, some colors don't seem like much, but combined with just the right shade or tone of another color, and suddenly lights are blinking and bells are ringing.

That's how my crafting seems to roll. I can try hard to put colors together in a pleasing combination, but most of my successes seem to be happy accidents.  

Which is fine by me, I guess.

I'll take successes however they come.

Summer crocheting...

For the last week or so I've been crocheting with tiny hook and size 10 crochet thread.  It always takes me a minute to get reaccustomed to working with these small materials, but once I get the hang of it again I really enjoy making doilies (and other items with crochet thread) that look so much more complicated than they often actually are to make.

Perusing the book 99 Little Doilies, I picked out doily #52 to make. This little doily measures in at 4 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches:

Crocheted with Artiste #10 thread in Ivory Peach

For those uninitiated to this long-term project of mine... Patricia Kristoffersen, the designer of these 99 doilies, didn't give them names; she only gave them numbers.  Numbering the doilies makes for much quicker searching in the book for what pattern goes with each pictured doily.  

That's all fine and good for the purposes of publishing a book like this, but on the other end of things, once I've finished a doily, I want it to have a name.  I suppose because everything else I crochet or knit has a name - at least a pattern name.  So I've taken it upon myself to come up with a name for each one I make.  And just to show you how clever I am, the way I come up with a name is like this...   I look at the finished doily, I might even squint and close one eye, and whatever comes to mind and clicks for me is what it gets called. I can't tell you why, but this doily gives me soda fountain vibes, and I love me a hot fudge sundae.  So this little pretty gets the name "Old Fashioned Sundae".

See how that works?  Genius, I know.

The next doily I worked on is dubiously called #2:

Crocheted with Artiste #10 thread in Papaya

While someone might argue that Doily #2 is less dubious than the name I came up with, I'm dubbing this sweet little circle "Herb Garden".  Herb Garden is a whopping 5 inches in diameter.

Just so you know... these things were even smaller before they were dampened, starched and pinned out for a hearty blocking. Without blocking, thread crochet tends to curl up on itself and look wrinkly.  I'll try to remember to take a before-blocking picture of a particularly wrinkled doily in the future, just to show the benefit blocking brings to thread crochet.

And lastly, since I wasn't exactly in love with the ivory peach color I made #52 above in, I decided to make it again in a more vibrant color:

Crocheted in Curio #10 thread in the colorway Heliotrope

I can't help but wonder what I might have named this doily if I'd made the first one using this color.  I guess we'll never know...

I hope no one visiting here gets tired of seeing little doilies any time soon, because I have a feeling I'm going to be making at least a few more before I lay this project aside again.  Maybe I'll even throw in a larger doily at some point.

Meanwhile, #93 is eagerly awaiting its completion and name...