Adventures in Crochet

I've got started on my next round of doilies and I've found a really interesting one.  This is from a vintage pattern book.  Part of the first page is torn off so I can't find a date but I suspect from the typeface and pictures that it's from the 30s or 40s.

Looks like a normal doily, doesn't it?  Here's what makes it interesting:

Normally with a crochet doily, you start off either with a few chain stitches that are joined to make the beginning circle or by wrapping the thread a few times around the pinkie then single crochet stitches around to make the first round.  You can tell by looking that this one doesn't start that way.  Isn't it pretty?  Here's how it starts:

1st Round: Chain 5, slip stitch in 5th st from hook for picot, ch 7, sl st in 7th st from hook for picot, ch 5, sl st in 5th st from hook for picot, sl st in base of 1st picot for picot cluster, ch 4, dc in 4th st from hook, repeat from beginning 3 times, join.

In all the years I've been crocheting, this is the first time I've ever seen this start to a doily and I dig it.

The other outstanding aspect of this pattern was a completely screwed up pattern for round 7.  I know people think that vintage patterns are full of errors but, from my experience, this is much more often true of knitting patterns than crochet for some reason.  In fact I tried this round about 6 times before I finally came to the conclusion that is wasn't just that I was tired or that I wasn't reading the pattern correctly.  Fortunately there was a really good picture of the finished doily so I was able to figure it out from that. 

I also wanted to show a sample of the difference the size of the thread makes in the finished product.  Remember the Ducks and Drake doily I did with the size 100 thread and size 14 needle?  It's in the same book so I decided to do it again in the size 10 thread.  It takes on a completely different face.

Can you believe it's the same pattern?  It's pretty both ways, I think, but nothing can compare with the daintiness of the smaller thread.

Days Like This

Mother told me there'd be days like this.  Or weeks like this.  About all I've had energy for is staring at the wall and crocheting.  I did get 8 doilies out of it and the friend who'd asked for them seemed very pleased.  Although I said I'd try to get a picture of all of them, I forgot and they're away now.

But all is not lost.  Tonight at knit night a very generous person gave me:

Crochet and vintage.  How could life be better?  I feel a whole new round coming on!

There was a new addition to the household this week. 

It's my new Fricke spinning wheel.  I've been researching travel wheels, trying them out in different places for a wheel that I could easily carry with me for events and meetings.  I was always scared that I was going to do damage to my Kromski.  Of all the wheels I tried, this one had the features that I wanted - multiple whorls, easy bobbin changing, smooth treadling, scotch tension and a adjustable hook for advancing the yarn.  It's absolutely gorgeous to spin on and I've got a project started on it already.  This is Blue Faced Leicester that I'm spinning to very, very light lace weight.  I've done part of it on a drop spindle and now I"m finishing it on the wheel.  I wanted to see how the 2 different processes would compare.  I've got this on the middle whorl and on the lightest possible tension on the Scotch tension and it's probably the lightest weight I've ever managed.  I even got to break it in last week meeting with some other spinners in the local park for a very windy session.  Spun like a dream.

More, more, more

I've been doing more socks, more crochet doilies and more tatting.

I actually haven't been doing too much because work has been so intense lately.  By the time I get home, I literally have no energy to do anything but stare at the wall and crochet.  So I've done a lot of crochet.  I've now completed 8 crochet doilies in the last 3 weeks.  It's been so therapeutic.  Before they go, I'll try to get a photo of the whole line-up.

Saturday I got the newest issue of PieceWork magazine and was so thrilled to see a lace issue.  There was knitted lace and bobbin lace and, yes, tatted lace. 

I just had to try it out.

Sweet.

I messed up on part of it but now that I understand how the pattern works, I'm going to cut it and start fresh.  I've never seen anything like this, I think it has such an Audrey Hepburn sort of look to it.  Maybe that's just the black and white thing but I do like it.

I meant to post about this earlier - just refer to previous discussion about work - but I wanted to show you the finished product. 

Doily Land

I had someone ask me to make some crocheted doilies and, you know, it was exactly what I was wanting to do.  You know I love to knit. And I love to spin. But every once in a while I just have to crochet.

And one tatted doily for good measure!

Time to tat

You know I'm going to be talking tatting for a while, right?  Whoever thought it would be so much fun?

Variegated bedspread weight edging:

White, size 30 thread, doily:

I really wish my Grannie could see this.  She'd love it!

Look Ma, I'm Tatting!

The 2 crafts I always wanted to learn but which seemed out of my grasp were spinning and tatting.  Tatting patterns are so often included with crochet patterns and all my life I've seen them, thought they were so pretty but, as they say, a lost art.  I've tried over and over to learn to tat from book instructions but I don't do so well from books.  Let me see done and I can do it but books - not so much.  My mother is great at picking over a book until she understands and can do it.  I'm not that smart.

Several years ago, I got to check that spinning box (although I would only just now really feel like I could justifiably say I was a spinner) but the tatting eluded me.  Until yesterday.  It all started one afternoon a few weeks ago when I was at my Mom's in North Texas.  I went over to the local JoAnn's Fabrics and found a tatting book with a dvd included.  Score.  But I've been so busy since I've been home that I hadn't had a chance to look at it.  Friday night I pulled it out and started watching the dvd and it just all made sense.  In the first 45 seconds, all of a sudden, in a flash it all made sense. 

But it was late and since I never stay up late (cough, cough), I put it away and picked it back up yesterday.  And it still made sense.  The book is "Learn to Tat" by Janette Baker.  It says this is her first book and, if that's so, she done good.

I've since been practicing and am feeling almost comfortable with it now and am beginning to pick up some speed.  That's one of the things about the video that I really liked - she shows everything very, very clearly but then she makes the stitches at speed.  That helped me understand what she was doing when she wasn't thinking about it and showed me how to make the stitches come together.  If you've ever wanted to learn to tat, you should get this book.  It's published by American School of Needlework and I saw it yesterday at the local Hobby Lobby so you should be able to find it most places now.

If you don't look too closely, it looks like the real thing!

So, the score is:

Spinning - check
Tatting - check

Ha!

Doing what I've never done before

We spinners tend to stick to 2-ply yarns.  Not always, not everyone, but I bet most spinners you talk to will say the same.  And there's a good reason for it.

When you spin and spin and spin your singles, it takes real heart, real courage, real grit to use more than 2 plies in a yarn.  The more singles you ply together, the less yardage you'll get out of all that spinning.  With a 2-ply, you get the maximum output from the effort. 

I've done a few 3-plies because I wanted the effect Navajo plying would give the yarn.  I've even done a little dab of cabled yarn using 4 singles (plying 2 2-plies).  But I've never given my effort to a true 4-ply yarn.  Up to now, I've not had the guts.  But with the package of Louet Northern Lights roving (colorway - ocean waves) I felt it was going to be worth the effort. 

First, I divided it into 4 2-ounce sections and then I started spinning, each to its own bobbin.  I knew I needed to spin it fairly fine because I'm not a huge fan of the bulky yarn. 

Once I got the 4 bobbins done, I even tried a little bit of it as a 6-ply by holding 2 strands together and Navajo plying.  Worked quite well, although I got a little too much twist into it.

As I was finishing with the 4th bobbin, I realized I was going to need to do something about a lazy kate - the thing that holds the bobbins for plying.  Mine on the wheel only holds 2 bobbins.  My clothes drying rack was folded up and propped against the wall and I realized it would work perfectly as a lazy kate.  Just stick the dowels through the racks and through the bobbins and, voila, a lazy kate.

Worked like a charm.

When I bought this fiber, I liked it because it had a demin look to it.  But as I spun the singles, it began to look really purple.  Now, I'm all for purple but it's not what I'd hoped for.  The fascinating thing, though, is that when I plied it, it got the denim look back.  It was fascinating to see how the colors in the 4 strands blended into almost a different color.  There's something about the structure of the 4-ply that fascinated me.  Instead of wrapping around each other, it was like the 4 strands wrapped around something else.

I ended up with almost 700 yards of DK weight yarn so that's not so bad (even though it would have been 1,400 yards of 2-ply).  I'm not sure what I'm going to make with it but the 2 things that crossed my mind as I was spinning away are:

1. Socks - that will only take about 200 yards.
2. Vest - I'm thinking I might like the knit the front vest pieces from this and the back either from fabric or I have some nice black merino that would make a nice fabric for the back.