Finale - Curtains

Now that I've got the transom curtain done, I just have one final curtain to finish. It's for this window. 

When I first moved in, I was all gung-ho to get all the curtains made and I completed a knitted single curtain, a crocheted single curtain and a double crocheted curtain. I purposely didn't do one for this window because I had the pretty stained glass there. 

But later I decided I did want one and thought I need to even things out with a knitted one. Crochet goes much faster for this sort of thing but I didn't want the other knitted curtain to get feel all alone. 

So I cast on one if my favorite lace patterns, a thistle pattern. I got part way through before other things took it's place but I'm now back at it and determined to get it done. 

I'm almost through the first pattern repeat but will need to do another one to get the length I need. But it's a pretty easy pattern and goes pretty fast when I actually manage to work on it. I'm a little disappointed that the knitting fairies didn't make a little more progress while it was sitting on the side but what'cha gonna do?

Just have to finish it myself, I guess. 

Whew!

It's done and hung. 

The silly thing was wearing me out with just one more thing, just one more thing but it's finally where it belongs and it's spectacular, if I do say so myself. 

I've got the next thing started (or rather restarted) but I'm going to just enjoy this for a little while. Cup of tea coming right up. 

Rolling along

To the soundtrack of an old Dragnet radio show marathon, I've made a very good start to my border. 

14 repeats done and 12 to go. If I had just another day off, I believe I could almost finish it. 

Intrepid or bat crap crazy?

I tried a few things to piece together the squares for the curtain but I didn't really like the look of any of them. 

So I went back to the book and found this edging:

I measured it out and it will fit the width perfectly and accommodate the squares. But it also means doing this:

All except the top row. I won't need that but it still means 26 repeats. You can see I've already completed almost 6 of them so they go quickly. 

The answer to the question has yet to be determined. 

Priorities

Third one?  Check. 

It's amazing how much I can get done when I don't have to go to that other place. 

I've now got all 3 motifs bordered and ready to lay out for joining. Once I see how much filler I need to make, I'll decide but I'm pretty sure what I plan to do so watch this space. 

Three's the charmer

This was the fastest thing I've ever done, I think.

I'd got it to this point on Saturday night.  The columns and most of the first pineapples.  I wasn't sure how long the rest would take but I started on Sunday to work the second row of pineapples.  Once I'd finished the first row of them, I had to decide how long I thought it was going to be and whether I would need a 3 row of not.  I decided not.

 

Once I'd got to this point, each pineapple had to be worked on its own.  Something that took almost exactly 20 minutes per pineapple.  People ask me sometimes how long it took to do something and it's really hard to say because I'm usually doing multiple projects at once.  This, however, took 20 minutes per pineapple.  So there you go.

 

And here you go.  I give you pineapples...

TADA!

In fact, I love this pattern so much that I've started the round tablecloth to match it.  I just couldn't help myself.

The Pineapple

I was showing some friends my filet crochet curtain valance which started us talking about what I was going to do for the other windows in the living room.  One friend asked whether I was going to do pineapples for the window next to the door.  Oddly enough, I had found a pattern in the 1947 book, "Complete Book of Crochet," that featured pineapples.  The pattern was actually for a chair back (antimacassar).  As I started looking at the pattern, trying to figure out how to adapt it for the window, I started flipping through the pages until I came across a pineapple table cloth that looked so much more suited to the curtain.

It's been such an easy pattern that I'm halfway thinking about doing the table cloth.  I've got plenty of thread.  Surely it couldn't take long to do a full table cloth.  Right?

Why pineapples you wonder?  It all started during the Colonial days.  Here's the explanation from the website of the history of the pineapple: "In this manner, the fruit which was the visual keystone of the feast naturally came to symbolize the high spirits of the social events themselves; the image of the pineapple coming to express the sense of welcome, good cheer, human warmth and family affection inherent to such gracious home gatherings."

It's a cornerstone of the crochet pattern library and everyone who's ever crocheted anything will have, at one time or another, crocheted her fair share of pineapples.

A lovely obsession with a typical ending

I've been tooling along and was thiiiiiiis close to finishing

 when the thread ran out.

Isn't that the most typical thing you've ever heard?  Hundreds of yards of size 30 crochet cotton and I run out with 2 inches to go?  Geez!

So off I go to hunt some more size 30 crochet cotton to finish my 2 inches of this...

I can see I'm going to have to starch the points to get them to lay flat but that's it.  That's my filet crochet double window valance.  It has been a lovely obsession.

Now to the 3rd window.  I'm guess it should be tatted.  I'm off to find my big shuttle and get loaded up.