[crochet] Perfect Pineapples Doily

Pattern: Perfect Pineapples by Patricia Kristoffersen, Absolutely Gorgeous Doilies

Hook: 1.9 mm

Yarn: Knit Picks Curio, less than one ball.

This was my travel project for a couple trips during the month of June.

I love this yarn. I've used Curio for several projects and it's great- the yardage, the quality of the cotton, the price. Some colors of Curio are on sale at the website right now for $2.39. You can make this doily for $2.39 with lots of yarn leftover for smaller doilies.

I had some trouble with the very last round of the pattern- things weren't working out or lining up or looking good. I went to Ravelry to inspect how others had done their last round. It seemed like some crocheters were doing different things so I modified it to something that worked for me. My notes are on my Ravelry page.

It's blocked and ready for the fair!

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Speaking of the Tunbridge Fair, I received the premium book in the mail last week and I'm all inspired to figure out what I'm entering and what I still need to make. 

Last night we started watching Good Omens on Amazon Prime and it's soooo good and clever and funny. I love Neil Gaiman's writing.

Going to make some banana chocolate chip oatmeal cookies tonight. My janky bananas are reaching DEFCON 1 level of jankiness.

We had ssam last night- I baked some Asian marinated ribs in the oven and then pulled apart the meat to have in lettuce wraps (with extra mesclun from the CSA) with rice and ssamjang.

Still working on my never-ending mittens. I received a replacement skein of yarn in the mail- from the yarn shop in Bethesda, MD. I'm anxious to have a yarn-winding party so this is good motivation to finish the mittens already.

[crochet] Lots of Little Doilies

I was on a small-doily-spree for a couple weeks. I pulled out my copy of 99 Little Doilies by Patricia Kristoffersen and made several; they're small enough to do from start to finish in one evening.

I used crochet thread for most of these- Aunt Lydia Fashion 3, which is a little heavier than normal crochet 10 thread. It just means my doilies ended up a little bigger, which I wanted.

Pattern #28:

Pattern #2:

Pattern #10:

Pattern #16:

Pattern #24:

And this one is a random cotton from my stash- not crochet thread...

Pattern #30:

I'm planning to give a few away as a gift. I am tempted to tackle a larger, more intricate pattern to enter into the fair this fall.

[crochet] Agnes Doily- Finished! ... Kind of.

Finished and blocked the Agnes doily:

I ran out of yarn so I wasn't able to complete the last two rounds. It's definitely meant to have a more intricate picot edge but I used a heavier fingering-weight cotton (rather than thread cotton), so the skein disappeared rather quickly. Still, I blocked it out nicely and it's roughly 18 inches in diameter. Good size. Will save it for the fair.

Speaking of the fair... I gotta get on that. I have six weeks and I need to start organizing (and making!) everything I want to enter.

[crochet] Finished unfinished doily

I started a new doily last summer but never got around to finishing it. I rain out of the main color that I was using and planned on switching to a different color- but didn't like how that looked, so I just stopped before a new motif started and blocked it. 

Probably only 9 inches in diameter; not very large but big enough to look nice under a vase or something. Gifted to my mom for Christmas.

I've got to add some doilies to my to-do list for me. I have a book of 99 Small Doilies that I love to work in a heavier size 3 thread (rather than the thinner size 10).

[crochet] Pineapple Song

The doily is done.

I love it- so pretty and intricate-looking. Was easy to work on but I did have to flip back and forth between the written instructions and the pictures a lot to make sure everything was coming along correctly. The only thing I don't like about crochet is that once you come upon a mistake that you made in a previous round, you have to undo the whole round to go back to it. With knitting it's so easy to drop stitches down to the error and pick them back up. I only had to undo one row on this project but it was right near the end and more than an hour's worth of work.

I might have doily fever now- I want to make more.

[crochet] Pineapple Song Progress

Only 8 rounds away from finishing:

Too bad notes I've read on Ravelry say that the last rounds take 2+ hours to complete, each. At this point, each round is taking about 45 minutes to complete.

So far I've only made three mistakes that I've noticed. I fudged it the best I could and just kept on going. I only notice the error when I come to it on the following round and there's no way I'm ripping out an entire round to go back and fix something minor (something that I think only I will be able to notice). That's the thing about crochet- since you're only working with one live stitch at a time, you can't easily undo your work, fix and pick the stitches back up as with knitting.

Will be able to finish the doily this weekend and hopefully block it.

[crochet] Doily #31

The last of the small crochet doilies:

After I completed the 8-petaled flower in the center, I could have stopped there for a pretty coaster. And that's only something like 4 or five rounds. I may do that to use up very small amounts of yarn.

After these doilies, I was ready to move on to something larger. I'm about halfway through a dark green beaded shawl. Annnnnd, I think I'll be ready to go back to smaller projects after this large one is over :)

[crochet] Doily #10

Last of the red doilies I made- and this is the smallest. It's coaster-sized:

[crochet] Doily #83

Another small doily in red:

This is my favorite. I love scalloped edges to doilies like this. 

[crochet] Doily #85

I picked up 99 Little Doilies some years ago and I've even made a couple. Recently I wanted some small, easy and fast projects to work on and these doilies are just the thing. This is pattern #85 from the book:

Yarn: Aunt Lidia's Crochet Thread, size 3.

I like this doily in non-traditional red rather than white. Project is easy to complete in a day or over a couple nights of tv-watching.

[crochet] Rising Sun Doily

A Christmas gift that I didn't finish on time but will given next year:

Pattern: Doily Number 7274. Not sure when it was renamed but it's called "Rising Sun Doily #7274" on Ravelry. Pattern is originally from 1944!

Yarn: Aunt Lydia's Fashion Crochet (Size 3), 1.5 balls

Ended up quite large because of the heavier crochet cotton that I used.

Too big for the round nightstand that I currently have it on.

[crochet] Small Doily

I finished a small doily during the coherent moments of my flu last week.

It's only about 7" in diameter. The pattern is Doily #14 from 99 Little Doilies by Patricia Kristoffersen. This is only the 2nd doily I've made from the book (the other being quite... hairy) and so far the patterns have been great. They're all written and I'm a chart-loving person, but they're only 12 or so rounds to work, so they're over fast. 

[crochet] Doily #47

My other Ravellenic project was a crocheted doily:

Not blocked yet, so it looks a little puckered. I used a sparkly mohair handspun yarn. That pattern is #47 from Leisure Arts #3228 "99 Little Doilies"

Pros: Sparkly! Nice warm color. Fast and easy to make.

Cons: It's hairy. This doily is kind of hairy from the mohair yarn used. If you come over to visit me and say, "My, what a hairy doily you have." I won't take offense. I'll probably say, "I know, right? This is the hairiest doily ever."

[crochet] Plastic Raffia Doily

Eons ago I picked up some spools of plastic raffia from a Chinese shop in downtown DC. I believe this raffia is meant to be used to tie packages but thought that it would be an interesting, non-traditional material to knit or crochet with.

I finally made something with it- a small doily:



I didn't follow a pattern but took some basic skills/stitches that I learned form making my Colorful Doily and applied them here.

I love how this turned out- very shiny. Looks pretty with a small bowl of flowers:

[crochet] Colorful Doily

I've bought a couple doily books the feature beautiful, intricate, heirloom-quality doily patterns. But before I tackle any of those, I need to feel more comfortable crocheting. I decided to try a SIMPLE doily pattern that appears to work best with colorful, self-striping sock yarn:



Pattern: Jameson by Berroco

Yarn: Schachenmayr nomotta Regia Design Line Kaffe Fassett. Used nearly all of one 50gr ball. Purchased at Country Woolens in Lebanon, NH.

Hook: 3.5mm (E)

Notes: Fun and pretty fast to make. It's very colorful and helps to hide my crappy joins:



Hasn't been blocked yet. Will probably wash, pin it out and maybe even iron it under a damp towel. I'm not too worried about the seam- I can always put a vase or bowl on the doily and point the seam at the wall where no one will see it.

I have another 50gr ball of this same yarn and might try a similar-but-different doily pattern for it. Not ready for light, solid, crochet cotton yet.