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. 

Not so much

Making a piece of filet crochet is so intoxicating that I can lose all track of time.  Trying to see what the next line is going to make it look like.  I know that sounds stupid because I can see the x's on the graph that show me what it looks like.  There's just something about seeing it come to life.

I finally finished the second repeat of the pattern but it's still leaving me about 4-6 inches short.  So I've had to identify a section of the repeat that will fit into the bottom edge repeat that will fit in the distance I need to go to finish things off.  I think I've found it and it means adding about 30 rows onto each side.

So much for almost being done. Ha!  I've been reading the Yarn Harlot's blog this week where she's been talking about completely buying into the thought that should could knit a couple of sweaters on the way to a conference in an area that was going to be cool because she'd left all her woolens at the house.  Just in that little window of madness a knitter (or crocheter) really thinks that the laws of physics are optional and fingers and needles can reach mach speed and do what no one else on the planet can do.  I get it, I really do.

Deep in my heart I knew I wasn't really that close to being done with my curtain because after I've finished the length I need, I still need to crochet the border onto it.  After that I still need to add the top section that will fit onto the curtain rod.  You see, I'm not really that close after all.

But deeper in my heart, I'm thinking, "I really think I can do it."  Challenge on.

Another day, another curtain

I got one of the valances for the smaller windows done and I was working on another, this time in filet crochet.  This is a pattern from a 1943 classroom book but it's a pretty typical filet crochet pattern of flowers.  I thought I'd be able to do 2 repeats to fit the smaller windows but it's not going to work.  One repeat isn't quite wide enough for the smaller window but 2 repeats, it appears is going to just a little narrow for the double window.  I can easily add some filler pattern to either side of the curtain or maybe just a nice wide border will do it and it will fit the double window perfectly.

You can't see the points very well but at the end, I will do a small border along all the edges that will help those lay flat.  Plus I'll starch the liver out of it.  That helps, too. Ha!

Filet crochet always feels a little like magic to me.  you work row on row on row, taking it by faith that you're going to wind up with something at the end.  Then you roll it out and step back.  BAM!  You've got something pretty.  I'm also thinking about doing a filet crochet antimacassar for my couch but I'll have to figure out what color to do it because I don't think white will show up very well on it.

And done.

I had an idea.  The idea was to learn a new lace pattern.  While learning the new lace pattern, I had an idea of making a curtain for my new house using the lace pattern.  Actually, the idea for the curtain came after I had ripped out and restarted the lace shawl I was making with lace weight merino about 8 times and the wool was frayed beyond use.  Cotton is much better for such an exercise and it's what I wanted to use for the curtain.  Necessity, invention.  So I had an idea.

Here's how it turned out and I could not be more happy with the results.  And I learned how to do the pattern so when I start back on the black merino lace weight (I did mention it was black, didn't I?), I'll make much better progress.

Dream big

I haven't been quiet lately because I haven't been doing anything.  I've been quiet because I just bought a house and I've been spending just about every free minute moving and trying to bring some sort of order out of a highly landscaped yard that's been allowed to run wild for 11 months.

As I've been moving over and putting things on the wall, one space has been challenging me.

It's over the mantle.  As you can see, I have a large clock there right now.  I have put off hanging it because I've had a plan to do a piece of bobbin lace to go in that spot.  At first I was going to work on the fan I've been planning to work for a little over a year but last month, I had a thought. 

 

I really wanted to have a representation of my time in Scotland somewhere in the house.  I've got a few things like the bear you see sitting on the side of the mantle.  That's Robert the Bear.  I'm not a teddy bear sort of person but this bear was given to me by one of my favorite people in Glasgow (named Robert, of course).  He's the father of my oldest friends there and he and I always had such a ball.  He also gave me a fridge magnet that plays "you take the high road and I'll take the low road and I'll be in Scotland afore ye..." and a mini paint pot.  Long story about the paint pot but it made me laugh every time I saw it and makes me giggle even now.

 

So back to my point.  A centerpiece for my mantle.  Glasgow's motto is, "Let Glasgow Flourish."  Originally it was "Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of Your Word and the praising of Your Name" but was later shortened to just "Let Glasgow Flourish."  There is a story that explains the  elements of the city's coat of arms:

 

The saint, the ring, the bird, the tree, the fish, the bell.  If you want to read more about the legends that make up the coat of arms, have a look here. 

When I was looking at the article above, I saw the photo of the street light.  That would be the perfect format for my special bobbin lace piece!  Around the bottom, I will add the motto.  I've started drawing it out and I've been thinking through what stitches I'm going to use to get the best effect for each of the elements.

I think this will be the perfect nod to my true home.  I can't wait to get started on it!



Rings and Rings

Right now at the Illinois State Museum, there is a display of Civil War era quilts and other textiles.  In one of the cases are several socks, mittens and doilies that have been knitted and crocheted.  My friend, Jane, brought it to my attention and she had the idea of seeing if they will let us try to reproduce the socks after the show is over. 

We had a discussion about one of the pairs of socks that has a mixture of patterns, one of which looks very much like tatting:

It had been a while since I'd seen them so I went last week to see if I could get some better photos like the one here.  See the little circles?  I knew I'd seen this pattern before and found it in the "Victorian Lace Today" book by Jane Sowerby.  It was from an 1860s shawl pattern from Mlle. de le Branchardiere's book, "The Abergeldie Winter Book."

I know that in all the patterns and books Jane and I have studied, this was the only time I'd seen this type of spider pattern.  The only thing we're going to have to figure out is how to intersperse the rings with the triangles (although I do have an idea about that).

It's a pretty tricky pattern and after 4-5 goes with black lace weight wool yarn, I decided I would try it with size 8 perle cotton.  Besides I have a new house that needs some curtains.  What better way to test it out!

I think this is going to do us very well with the sock pattern and I think it's going to be a very pretty curtain valance, don't you?  Although I think I've got the rhythm of it now, I did have to rip out about 3 times on the 2nd and 3rd rows.  But I still have to pay VERY close attention.  So if you hear someone walking around Springfield muttering, "ONE, two, three, FOUR, five, six...ONE, two, three, FOUR, five, six...One, two..." that'll be me.