After hand washing this doily, it needs to be starched and blocked. I made this pattern up as I went along. I like the lacy and more dense areas, but I see a mistake about 3 o'clock that I did not notice until I finished. Oh well, not going back now. I will put a flower arrangement on it anyway, for the tea table. No one will likely notice, but it is sort of bothering me. I do not know how that happened. I tend to work on things like this in spurts, that is probably why. I cannot find the pattern I developed as I went along, It was misplaced during all the moving around. It doesn't really matter because I rarely make anything like this more than once. I like to experiment. Looking at this on a dark background shows my stitches needed to be more dense and there is sort of a twist here that I didn't notice before.
To block this I sprayed it heavily with spray starch then pinned it to my lace shaping board.
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| I lightly stretch the piece and secure with straight pins at the 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock positions. Then stretch each outside ruffle opposite each other until the whole piece is taut on the backing board. An old alternative to starch is sugar water for this stiffening process. Dip in the water that is 1 cup of warm water to 1 cup of sugar. Shape the piece over bowls or into what ever shape you wish. Let it dry thoroughly. My Grandmother had many crocheted lace "bowls" sitting around. The epitome of the perfect dust collector! |
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| Drying on the board, hung on a wall peg, out of the way. |
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Growing up, my Grandparents and other ladies in the family, had these everywhere. Then they fell out of favor in the decorating sense. I inherited about 50 balls of Knit Cro-sheen from husbands Grandmother. Thus, the doily. I have two beautiful table cloths that she made and I show you soon. They are intact, one is rather fragile. For Easter dinner I use one of them and her Antique Homer Laughlin Virginia Rose or Dogwood pattern dishes. I inherited these in part from various family members and have enhanced the collection via Ebay, Antique Shops and Estate Sales.
Gratuity Moment: Inspiration from Antique linens.
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