A Doily Affair

The camera went traveling with another family member yesterday, so no photos of the blocking process this time. The above photo is what my doily looks like after blocking. The color is off; the actual doily is ecru.

I'm pleased with it. I'm almost always pleased with my latest doily.

I didn't do the second round of crocheting. I like it just fine with one round. I didn't block it quite in the same way as the pattern showed, either. I didn't pull the little outer fans into the high, sharp triangles. I like the softer, more circular fans.

There are a couple of interesting things about this doily that I thought I'd mention.

The first thing is about the innermost motif, the flower. Notice the slight asymmetry in the petals? That's because the petals are outlined with crossed stitches. They cross in one direction only. So one side looks smoother and more natural than the other. It's possible that the pattern can be changed to make the two halves symmetric. However, it didn't really work with the way the pattern was charted.

The second thing is the background stitch in the middle part of the doily, surrounding the leaves. There are a lot of double decreases in this section. I did them the Japanese way, using the centered double decrease (slip 2 together as if to knit, knit 1, pass the 2 stitches over). I think the vertical lines are a little too prominent. I'm going to go back to using the traditional (slip 1, k2tog, psso) or k3tog double decrease for this particular pattern stitch.

I enjoyed this doily so much that I'm very likely to do more in the same style in the future.

What doily will be next? Dunno. A mailing list is gearing up for a KAL based on another Niebling pattern. It's called Frosted Ferns in this online text-only version of the pattern. I have it in a charted form in another source, where it's called Eiche (oak). It looks like little acorns amidst oak leaves, all on a hex-mesh lace background. So, that one might well be next if I don't get seduced by something else before then.