Yes, I have a book to write. Yes, I have some Christmas knitting to do. And yes, I was even working on some yesterday, until the combination of post-migraine head, dark blue yarn, and fading light got too much for me. Tinking multiple cabled rows in dark blue yarn is not the easiest task.
Did I mention the post-migraine head? Which couldn’t come up with much in the way of words, let alone coherent, effective story-telling ones?
Procrastination got to me. Much easier to look at pretty things on Raverly than to strain my brain. Earlier in the year, one of my lace goals was to work a shawl in the round. Nope, haven’t done that yet. But I have been noticing round-lace patterns for a while, and feeling tempted by many. Some of the prettiest started their lives as patterns for doilies or tablecloths. They’ve always reminded me of the many hand-made things from my mother’s generation, and generations before that, that decorated our family home, and those of my aunts and uncles. Afternoon tea was served in floral teacups on tables or trays adorned with beautiful lace work or embroidery. Ever since the grandson of my eldest aunt (she passed away many years ago) visited us in July, I’ve hankered after some of those pretty things – the teacup sets, the lovely table linens.
I was also thinking and reading yesterday about the Slow Cloth idea, and the principles behind it, as well as my own approaches to textile crafts – beauty and purpose, enlivening simple everyday life with beauty and joy. One of the things I always felt, sitting down as a girl to those afternoon teas, sharing food and drink and talk with these lovely items around us, was that we mattered.
So I cast on a doily 🙂
The pattern is the Little Flower Doily (Ravelry link), a free pattern from Bad Cat Designs. I’m regarding this simply as an experiment for myself, a test piece, so I just grabbed some mauve 4ply cotton that was sitting on the table.
It took me about 4 goes to get the cast-on and the 1st couple of rows (mostly) right; it worked better when I dug out the shorter (10cm) dpns that I bought a little while I go. I graduated after a few rounds to 15cm dpns, and now, on round 23 of 37, I’ve moved up to 20cm long dpns.
It’s coming along nicely, and I may be finished today. If so, I guess (in the absence of fine china tea sets) I’ll have to have a celebratory cup of tea in the lovely, hand-painted mug a friend made for me many years ago:
