Friday, November 2, 2007

Gratuitous Doily Shot


It's been a while since I posted a doily picture.

This doily is Lavori 11/04. It's from Mani di Fata's Lavori Artistici a Calza #11, often referred to as Lavori 11. It is still available from several reputable lace vendors. All previous Lavori lace-knitting publications are long out of print and available only on the secondhand market. None have been published since this one.

The magazine shows this doily in three different thread weights. It looks good in all of them. I believe I did mine in Omega #10. Omega is a crochet cotton thread from Mexico. It's sold in 30gram balls. The cotton has a cabled construction and is nice to work with. I probably found this in an ethnic grocery store. It is sometimes carried in craft and needlework stores.

This is a fairly small doily, maybe 60 rounds at most. I made it several years ago. It was a lot of fun to do. I like the results. It's a good doily for less experienced doily knitters as well as those who are looking for a quick and relaxing knit that yields an attractive result.

I have no idea who the designer is. There are many wonderful designs by people whose names we do not know. I think that's sad. I've love to find out more about the people who created these beautiful designs.

Lavori 11 is a fun magazine. I've knit a fair number of things from it and have plans to knit many more. It's a good source for doily patterns for those who are looking for a variety of sizes and styles. The text is in Italian. The patterns are clearly charted and straightforward to knit from. Some are unattributed Nieblings and Engelns.

4 comments:

fleegle said...

It's lovely!
I have 11, of course, but I also have 7 and 8, which I bought many years ago when they first came out. Nice designs in all of them. I think 7 (maybe 8) has Campanile, but it looks awful in there.

jp said...

Thanks!

Yep, the old Lavoris are worth owning if you can find them for a reasonable price. #9 and #10 are 100% Engeln patterns. If you can't find these issues, you can still purchase any or all of Engeln's patterns.

The older Lavoris contain all kinds of interesting (and odd) things, including a bunch of Niebling designs.

You've been buying doily patterns for a lot longer than I have! You must have a wonderful collection.

Lacefreak said...

Beautiful work on the doily. I have that copy of Lavoris but none of the older ones since I really didn't knit many doily's in the past.

jp said...

Lavori 11 has a good mix of doily patterns, from small to large, by different designers and in different styles. I like it a lot.

As for the older patterns and how long you've been knitting doilies -- be patient, buy what you can where you can, and eventually you too will have an enviable collection of patterns. The magazine you can buy for less than $10 today will be a $150 collector item within 10 years. Or, the one that came out 10 years ago before you were knitting doilies and goes for $150 now will someday get republished for $10.

Judy Gibson suggests buying everything that comes out, because things go out of print so quickly and you never know what you'll want to knit in a few years. Now that I've been knitting doilies for a while, I tend to agree with her. Well, not for every knitting thing that comes out, but certainly for the doily stuff. I'm very grateful that I bought what I did when I did.

You've done some beautiful doilies. Have fun with the Salmon Queen doily! And your lace shawls, too.