Scratching itches.

I didn’t realise I hadn’t blogged for the whole of December. I have become quite sloppy with my blogging and must be grateful to have any readers left!
So scrambling to fill the gaps, here are a couple of doilies I crocheted in that month.
First up is this one, an oval doily. Ravelry project page here.

I made this because someone on Ravelry was having a problem with some of the instructions and I had the pattern, so I decided to try and see where the problem might be. In the end, I had only two places where something was fishy. I do wish they’d convert patterns like this to charts, because trying to read and follow long written instructions makes me cross-eyed. Anyway, here goes.

Thread: Some of the Jyoti brand thread I got on my last visit to Hyderabad. Since it was white, there wasn’t a problem about whether the colour would run. About half a 50gm skein. Very good value.

Hook: 1.25mm

Pattern: Oval Doily #3 by Lucille LaFlamme from Leisure Arts #2791, Oval Doilies to Crochet. The Rav page for the pattern is here. I had the following points to note:

1. In Rnd 3, I fell one stitch short, but I fudged that.
2. In Rnd 13, the third Ch4 should read Ch5, but that is obvious when you come to that point.

Time: 4 days.

Size: 15.5″ x 10″ Despite using smaller thread and hook than recommended, I got the recommended size. Funny. I wouldn’t have thought I was a loose crocheter.

Extra #1 I hated the picots in the last row. I’m never happy with them. I try using beads in some cases.

Then Jaishree came visiting one weekend. We’d been talking when I visited her about which of us was a tighter or looser crocheter, because we found we use different size hooks for the same size thread. We’d even begun a doily to check how much bigger or smaller our final doilies would end up, but that pattern somehow got shelved. So this time, when I stumbled across some doily patterns at the non-English websites of Coats and Clark, we picked another, smaller pattern and began that. I picked up what remained of the Jyoti skein and she used a pink skein of Jyoti. Here’s mine. Ravelry project page here.

And here are the details.

Thread: Would you believe there is still some thread left from the Jyoti skein? If you believe the yardage requirements given in the patterns, this 50gm skein has amazing length…either the cardboard cores in the recommended thread account for a lot of the ball weight, or this thread is lighter, or something.

Hook: 1.25mm. I apparently have a death grip on my hooks, because towards the end of this doily I broke the handle on this one. It was quite upsetting because although I heard the crack, I foolishly believed it wouldn’t break completely immediately. But it did, and I finally resorted to reinforcing it with packing tape and pins to finish the doily. Very kindly, however, Jaishree brought me a spare for future use. I really love these hooks and haven’t used any others for thread since getting them.

Pattern: Tulpe (Tulips) from Coats and Clark GmbH (Germany). The Rav page for the pattern is here. I went looking for the non-English patterns, becuase I knew they’d have doilies. And I love the European doilies for several reasons, including the fact that they are charted, and they have unusual designs and motifs and shapes, plus it isn’t all pineapples. I found this one and a couple more, including one on the French site.

Time: 3 days.

Size: 15.25″ I still don’t know what size Jaishree’s ended up, but possibly it would be larger, since it was already larger at a comparative stage before she’d finished it.

Extra #1 Nothing much. Nice elegant pattern, quick results…

So. These two FOs of mine are not in the order they ought to have been (there’s a whole block missing after that shawl I blogged about last time) but these were handy to link to and write about.

Sometimes I just get an irresistible itch to make something with thread and hook. And then I can’t resist scratching.

All in a rush

Oh dear! I hadn’t realised that I haven’t blogged in ages! It’s a good thing most of my online friends see me around on Ravelry and the mailing lists, else someone might have been worried. No? Which raises the valid question, what good is this blog? What purpose does it serve (aside of occupying cyberspace)?

Luckily for you, it is not a question I am not going to answer in this post. Instead, I’m going to smother you in a flutter of doilies (what is the collective noun for doilies?).

Here’s #1, Kaleidoscope and its specs.

Thread: One strand each of a plain yellow-orange and an ombre, both in size 30, of Coats Mercer.

Hook: My current favourite size, 1.00mm Pony (the grey handle)

Pattern: Kaleidoscope doily by Julie Bolduc from JPF Crochet Club (it’s a free pattern). Here’s the Ravelry page for it, and my project page. I’d made it before, in a pale blue baby yarn and found it cupping, which I thought might be a gauge problem. I really enjoy the different patterns created with filet and net stitches.

Time: Overnight

Size: 9″ across

Extra #1 As I said, it’s a pattern I made before, but I had the inexplicable urge to make it again, perhaps to see how my skills have progressed since the last time I made it. At least my tastes haven’t changed in the patterns I like.

Moving on, here’s doily #2.

Thread: One of my thread finds in Hyderabad, Jyoti thread. This is size 20-ish and liable to fade. It’s locally made but what impressed me is that the wrapper has washing instructions and a pattern for an edging on the reverse! That’s the first time I’ve seen something like that on an Indian product for sale in India. The fading is disappointing, though. To work with, the thread is quite good. It didn’t chafe my fingers or leave colour on my hands. The next time I spotted it, I picked up cream and pale pink and white, since these are less likely to be dramatically affected. I saw some skeins which had faded just from being on the shelves.

Hook: 1.25mm Pony (the blue handle)

Pattern: Crystal Fan Doily by Linda Mershon from The Ultimate Doily Book by ASN, #1185. Here’s the Ravelry page for it, and my project page. I was attracted by the unusual shape. Blocking it was a bit tough, but then I’m finishing-challenged in any case. The beads were my own touch, in a desperate ploy to escape the picot curse :p Actually I picked up beads as well in Hyderabad and was in a “bead-y” phase.

Time: 4 days. We had a lot of power cuts while I was in Hyderabad and there was little else to do until I got a new battery for my laptop which replaced the one which kept dying after 30 minutes.

Size: 15.5″ across

Extra #1 Hmm. I  liked the shape.

#2 Oh, and now I have this one and a few other doilies on my dining table, sandwiched between the protective plastic cover and the cloth underneath. The husband thinks I’ve gone overboard, but I’m basking in my own brilliance at thinking of the idea, and so have added variously-coloured motifs as well to the melange.

This one’s gone far, far away to live…

Well, not that far, actually, just about 4 hours away by train. It’s gone to live with Jaishree who drew the short straw and landed me as a partner in a swap. This is the first time I’m showing a Bruges lace crochet piece on this blog, but let’s follow the established pattern, shall we?

Thread: Red ombre rayon (sold as “silk” or “art silk”) just under one cone.

Hook: 1.25mm Pony (the blue handle), which seems to be usurping the place of favourite.

Pattern: Nameless square Bruges lace sample from a German book I have in the English translation, called simply Crochet. Published by Verlag für die Frau in the erstwhile East Germany. I bought the book along with a companion book on knitting/crochet at a book sale in JNU sometime in 1997 or so. Most of the patterns are charted, with some rudimentary written instructions. This book was actually how I learnt symbol crochet, teaching myself. I’ve made other pieces from this, I shall save them for later, since I don’t have too many details on any of them. Somehow I’ve never had the confusion over US/Rest of the World terminology, perhaps because I intermingled patterns from both sources willy-nilly. Also, at that point, I was not aware I had to be afraid of symbols…alas, perhaps I should have been introduced to socks as well at that vulnerable juncture.

I chose this pattern for two reasons. One, I wanted to give Jaishree a doily which she wouldn’t have in her formidable library (or photographic memory). As you can imagine, that was a challenge, because she appears to have almost every pattern ever published in the Western hemisphere (only half-kidding…). I knew she didn’t have this book, though, so that narrowed my choices between one of the patterns here or in a Finnish book I have.

The other reason for choosing this doily was that I wanted to make an entire piece of Bruges lace (well, the crochet imitation, at any rate). I’d tried it a few years ago and there’s evidence of it at my parents’ house, but that used a granny centre, so it wasn’t wholly Bruges crochet. Now that technique is something I can cross off my list. Whew.

You only use double (UK treble) crochet and chains, besides longer length stitches for the “spiders” at the centres and turns. Good fun, though you need to keep close track of where to turn. Here’s my Ravelry page.

Time: 4 days. I had to do it quick, because I’d almost forgotten that I had to swap it! Luckily Jaishree reminded me so I only waited till I got back to Cochin and could access the book again.

Size: 12″ across

Extra #1 I think I’ve said it all up there. This would be my debunking doily, I think, as a fellow crocheter has now seen it close-up and while she wouldn’t be rude enough to tell me what she thinks of my skills and finishing, I can well imagine!

Leaving you a-flutter…

Not a test

This one is #1 in Jaishree’s doilies. So called because she gave me the thread and the pattern. I only have the pattern, so I’m not sure where it came from. Let me know if you recognise it. It is also in my Ravelry notebook, but that doesn’t have any other information.

I made it with a 1.25mm hook and just over one skein of the local ‘DMC’ cotton, which looked too small, but Jaishree assured me would make a 15″ or so doily. I’ve never seen this thread before but have worked with similar stuff earlier. It has an unmercerised appearance and has a picture of what looks like Shivaji on it, but is mysteriously named “Sultan Supreme”. It is apparently priced at Rs 3.00 and is made by Dass Thread Mills, who are (or have) “Regular users in India” (?!) How economical! A whole doily for just three rupees.

I was attracted by the unusual shape and the fact that it doesn’t require fastening off anywhere to achieve it. Badly blocked as usual. It is about 11.5″ from edge to edge. (not 15″) I had to frog the later rows a bit because I didn’t look at the chart properly (I usually work from my laptop, rather than printing out a copy.

This does not affect my stock inventory of doilies, however, since I gave away my -Along doily (crochet version, I’m keeping the knit one since it was my first knit doily) to a friend who’s been transferred and is leaving for Port Blair.

I have a couple of projects I need to be testing, but cannot get up the desire. Sigh.

Oh, did I tell you, I was away for a week with some girlfriends on a tour of Kerala and ended the trip by staying over at Jaishree’s place and raiding and looting her stash of thread and patterns. That last bit was definitely the highlight. I also stole from her a skein of “Baroque” thread (I suspect they used to supply the original DMC earlier but no longer do so, perhaps), which has 400m of mercerised cotton. I’m really lusting after these and wondering how I never saw any of them before. Jaishree and I are doing a sort of test-along, because my current favourite hook is 1mm, while she uses 1.whatever, and also crochets slightly looser than I do. So we’re making the same pattern with the same thread to see what difference that makes in size. I madly crocheted on the Inter-city express from Trivandrum to Cochin and finished about 15 rows. Need to pick it up again. Sometimes the mojo needs a good kick.

As you would imagine, Jaishree’s place has crochet covering every imaginable surface. She does lovely work.

Fraternal twins?

Or first cousins perhaps. There is a Doilie-along over at Ravelry for the Doilie Heads group, and I decided to join because I’ve never knit a doily before. I’m happy to say it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be! Here are my results. First, the crochet version (although I did it second).

And the details:

Thread: Aunt Lydia’s Classic Crochet (size 10) in Victory Red. The colour’s much richer in real life, not the washed-out version of my camera. I’ve never felt constrained to use only white for doilies, I don’t know why. It seems limiting somehow, my skills, resources and abilities are limited enough already without adding colour restrictions to the constraints. Here is my Ravelry page for the project.

I quite liked the feel of the thread, although it isn’t shiny like the Anchor and Red Heart we get here, it’s soft. Slightly fuzzy though, and might not stand up to rough use (will pill).

Hook: Pony handled steel hook 1.75mm

Pattern: Antlia from Patrizia Pisani (CrochetPatty of Patty’s Filet and Crocheting Page). She has lovely patterns, I don’t know why I haven’t done more of them. Although I suspect I might have done the odd one before my blogging days. Alas, no photographic evidence exists. I wrote too soon. There is one other project I have evidence of. I think I made it while we were living in Bombay, so it’s at least 4 years old. I might have given it away too.

Time: Two days

Size: 12″

Extra #1 Compared to the knit version, this isn’t as elegant and delicate as I’d like, but then I suppose that’s what you get with size 10 thread. Makes the point that with the same fibre, knit is always finer (unless you want to make holey and too-loose crochet). Quick and easy, though. Badly blocked as usual.

#2 There is what appears to be one error in the instructions. Replace the ‘dc’ in the final row with ’sc’ and it works.

#3 No specific picot version is given in the pattern, so I did a ch 3, slip st in first ch.

Now for the knit version.

Thread: Same as above. I wanted to make the material same, to emphasise the difference between the two techniques. Point made, I think.

Someone suggested I should use wool, but the thread gave me some familiarity. I do have some laceweight wool, but it terrifies me.

Needles: Unknown metal US 1/2.25mm needles (my only set of 5 given to me by Heide). I was afraid I didn’t have the right size of needles for this project, and would have much preferred using a circular, perhaps, but I found these worked quite nicely for me. Although perhaps I was wrong to apply my crochet logic (use the size that minimises gaping), but should have instead gone up a size or two. Might have made the knitting lacier. Don’t know if I’d have liked it, though. This one, I’m quite happy with.

The beginning was quite fiddly. I wasn’t sure I hadn’t twisted the stitches, not in joining, but in knitting the rounds. In such fine thread, it’s difficult to make out what you’ve done or which side you’re on. On the group the advice (after I’d finished) was to use a pillow to support the needles until you stabilise. Might try that the next time. Yes, I do hope there will be a next time! Knitting lace with yarn is frightening, but not so much with thread. Itty-bitty thread, I’m used to.

Pattern: Flacon from Yarnover.net. Here is my Ravelry project page.

Time: Two days

Size: 8″

Extra #1 Finished with crochet loops, and I wasn’t too sure I was doing the binding off (between the knit and the crochet rounds) correctly, but it doesn’t look odd. The pattern doesn’t specify how you insert your needle when you are crocheting three knit stitches together, so I just did what was convenient. I suppose I could have looked it up, but I wanted to finish.

#2 The knit fabric doesn’t give much opportunity for hiding ends, unlike crochet. I had to think a bit for this.

#3 I broke a personal barrier with this one!

#4 The knit band was unusual for me because unlike in a crochet doily where you have to increase the number of stitches each round to prevent puckering, these 6 rounds had the same number of stitches throughout. Apparently because of the height of knit stitches is much less than that of crochet ones.

Orange gypsy

After a long self-imposed gap, I got tempted again by one of Kathy’s designs and begged to be allowed to test for her. I used some ’silk’ thread and a Pony handled hook to produce this:

Here are the details:

Yarn: ‘Silk’ on cones, about #10 or so, I think. I used two separate cones to make this, starting the new cone at the beginning of the second half, because what was left on the first wouldn’t have been enough and I didn’t want to have ends to weave in. Ironically, both cones had knots in them so I had ends to weave anyway. Even after the edging, I have thread left over on the cones. Sigh. Not a colour I’d choose for clothing, but then I felt the need to break out. Here is my Ravelry page for the project (not that it’ll tell you much more).

Hook: Pony handled 1.00mm

Pattern: Gypsy Queen (Ravelry link) by Katchkan

Time: About two weeks

Size: 19″ x 30″ (too big for our coffee table width-wise). Might have to give it away.

Extra #1 No printer in Hyderabad, so I worked entirely from the Mac screen. no probs.

#2 My edges are always wonky in filet, no matter what I do in terms of increasing and decreasing

#3 Happy to be testing again

—-

And here’s some more orange for you, from our grocery (’fresh’) rations:

Nosegay, interrupted

This is another case of “I’m out of thread, I’m calling this done”.

To quote verbatim from my Ravelry notes on this project:

“Ran out of yarn at the 16th row, so mine has become an 8-point star instead of a nosegay. No problem. There were what appeared to be errata in the pattern, but I couldn’t figure out if perhaps I wasn’t paying enough attention. Anyway, these are the modifications I made in the later rounds (I forgot to note them down for the earlier ones).

Rnd 11: Sl St in next 4 dc…..skip 10 dc….skip 10 dc, dc in next dc…

Rnd 14: Sl St in next 5 dc….*skip 5 dc, dc in next 2 dc….skip 5 dc, dc in next 11 dc….

Rnd 15: ….*skip 2 dc,….skip 2 dc, dc in next 9 dc….

I only worked 16 rows. The pattern is very dense and at the beginning it said “work in back loop only” so I worked all my stitches in the back loop, which made it doubly tedious.”

I seriously don’t know whether I was sleeping or what, but the first few rows seemed to be quite error-ridden, needing a fair amount of fudging from me. So did the latter rows, as you can see. Also, I ran out of the thread (so what else is new) so I quit at Row 16. Here are the details in the established format.

Thread: Schoeller + Stahl Manuela Häkelgarn No. 20, 1 full ball

Hook: Pony (with handle) 1.0mm

Pattern: Nosegay doily from Celt’s Vintage Crochet, rounds 1-16

Time: Way too long

Size: 15″

Extra As you can see from the picture of the actual doily, the look is totally different. But I’m not complaining. I don’t know how the recipient will react, though.

Unfinished business

Remember the packing twine I used for my towel topper a few weeks ago (scroll down)? I had some left over and I badly needed a thingy for a side table (you’ve got to love the Military Engineering Services for the sheer numbers of dinky little tables they provide you with), so in overweening optimism, I started a doily called Pineapple Posy from Pineapple Crochet Designs ed. Rita Weiss. Naturally, the twine ran out, and I ended up with this. It shall remain in this condition forevermore, so in my books, it’s a finished object. At least the pineapples are done!

For my August CAT PAC, a friend sent me lots of blue-themed yarn and the Spring issue of Interweave Crochet, which had the Boteh scarf pattern. I had to start it immediately, so I grabbed the Patons Kroy sock yarn Rosi sent me as a contest prize and set off. The pattern repeat is simple enough, but I had to rip a bit after the second motif, having confused myself with right and wrong sides. Now it is making sense, though, and I’ve made quite some progress. Here it is:

Please forgive the blurry pictures, I’ll try and get a better one of the Boteh once it’s done.

I’ve also finished and added a zipper to Jacque’s pattern that I was testing. Turned out a bit small, but more on that later. Have a hat FO in the wings, also, perhaps tomorrow.

I’ll never understand the fascination of the Larger than Life Bag, though. It’s just some motifs, right? Perhaps I’m missing something.

Pink eye of Sauron

Well, not really, but it does look a lot like an eye! (Now I shall get lots of LOTR fan visitors.) This is the finished doily whose chart I had a problem with last week. Sorry for the horrible photograph! Specifications:

Thread: Red Heart thread, 50 gm ball, probably size 10 (the big balls don’t have a size written on them). I was stashbusting as usual and thought I had enough, but apparently I didn’t. My favourite local craft store didn’t have the exact shade of pink, so a lighter shade and an interesting twiny thread came home with me. I forayed to another craft store and picked up two 20gm balls of the right shade, but the wrong thickness. Now, these smaller balls have #20 on them, so I know the size, but held together they ended up thicker than my original thread, so I just shrugged and used a single strand. Apparently 20+20≠10 (wowie, I just used WordPress’ new advanced editing to put in that not-equal sign). This has happened to me before and I used a strand of sewing thread held with the size 20 to finish my Crochetville Doily Swap doily in September 2005. Somehow it didn’t occur to me and in any case I didn’t want to do that this time. Why didn’t I remember that simple equation (or un-equation, if you will)?

Hook: Started off with the plain Pony 1.75mm and when in the middle of the project I received the handle ones from Jaishree, I swapped for one of those. These Pony hooks with handles look identical to the Profi hooks, except they aren’t gold-tipped and obviously aren’t made in Germany. They are light and I think I might exclusively work with these for all my thread projects, unless of course I need a size they aren’t available in. I shall do a separate post showing off all the hooks she sent. Why don’t the company behind the Profis have a website? Maybe they do in German, but not, it appears, in English. You’d think at least Western companies would be well-established online.

Pattern: From Burda Handicraft Series Vol 1 No 3, Crochet Lace, E 227. Lovely patterns, lovely photography, and all patterns are charted, of course. Despite the hype about Magic Crochet, I find some of their photos are really sloppy. Although well-lit, the doilies look unblocked and even unfinished sometimes. There should be a difference between how I, an amateur, present my work and how a magazine showcases its designs.

Time: About a week, not including delays for thread emergencies and chart puzzling.

Size: About 33.5″ long and 19″ wide. Bigger than the specified size, since I used a larger hook.

Extra: #1 This is for my mom, whose birthday is coming up later this month.

#2 This is a pattern I’d love to redo, which makes it a very rare thing indeed (other than winging-it stuff like funfur bags for visiting small girls). And use the right size hook this time. And avoid the booboos I made in this one.

#3 That part of the chart I didn’t understand taught me a new technique, that of turning in the middle of the row to end up with loops that look as though they’re hanging in the air. Nice challenge, even if I didn’t solve it myself.

—–

On the book front, I finished Martha Grimes’ Lamorna Wink. Good read. I’ve now gone back to Pico Iyer (Falling off the Map). I find he doesn’t particularly make me want to visit any of the places he’s written about, but perhaps that holds true for most of the travelogues I read. Perhaps that is why I read them, to savour the experience without the effort.

Help!

How do I do the chain loops and the trebles into them? More precisely, how do I move from one chain loop to another? Please help me! This is from Burda Crochet Lace N.227. The picture is clickable.

ETA: With the help of experienced and helpful neighbours at Crochetville, the problem has been successfully solved! What looks like two rows are in fact worked as one (very clever and a technique I’ve never applied before, in this manner, at least) and hey presto, you have the magical “hanging in the air” impression.

There was another minor (potentially major) hiccup when I ran out of thread, and this morning’s expedition to the local craft store only led to a paler shade. Another expedition in the afternoon to another craft store yielded what the husband assures me is the same shade, only packaged in 20gm balls rather than 50gm. We shall now resume our scheduled crocheting.

Another remarkable thing is that facing the prospect of having to redo the entire doily in a colour I had more of, I wasn’t daunted. There are very few patterns I ever redo, so that says something about this one, I think. How about you? Do you usually redo patterns, or never?

Also, WordPress now has an Advanced toolbar in its editor. I must explore it sometime, and see if I can post tables, for example.

What’s the protocol?

One of my commentors asked me for the instructions for the block and offset shell pattern I used in my blue blanket. It is from the Harmony Guides. What’s the legality or otherwise of posting the stitch instructions on the net? It isn’t a pattern, but a stitch pattern.

And here for the curious, are the front and back covers of the Southmaid booklet I made my last doily from.

As you can see, the Berka shells doily is on the back cover (framed). The one at the bottom is a larger version, which I didn’t make since I wasn’t confident I had the time to finish it and get it framed.

No one has yet told me what a Berka shell is! Is Berka a name?