Doily re-make

A couple of years ago I thought of doing a book of doily patterns and started out by whipping out a couple of doilies. I like to work in nice basic white which gives me a good idea of the geometry of the doily before I waste lovely colourful threads that are harder and more costly to replace.

 I recently started an order for about 10 balls of thread that priced out at about $50 US, but the shipping was $47 US and then add in a roughly 25 % increase for the exchange rate to Canadian currency and a wee little project like this, which was only the first stage, got real expensive, real fast. I didn't bother to complete the order, but I know I'm going to have to bite the bullet soon because I NEED white thread before the urge to tat winter snowflakes hits again.

In any case both of the initial doilies bombed out. Usually I can go start to finish and end with something that's reasonable and needs only a little tweaking. The first one looked okay but it ruffled a bit and it didn't really grab me. The second one I kind of liked but it started to ruffle and I thought that I could pull it in on subsequent rounds but it just kept getting worse. The result was something I might have liked if it hadn't ruffled badly. (Is there a good way to ruffle?) ((Psst, anyone remember those ruffled monstrosities that had to be starched into a border of hills and valleys? They took forever to crochet, and forever to starch into shape every time you washed them, and you couldn't put anything on them except in the very centre. Who was the moron who thought that was a good idea?))

Anyway this is the unfinished, ruffled doily.

The other day I thought to myself that I ought to re-visit the design and see  if I couldn't keep the bits I like and ditch the ruffles that I didn't like. I used variegated Island Breeze 130 and it's complimentary colours of  635,657,658. I started the central rose with 620 before I decided to tat the doily, which is why I didn't used the pink that matches Island Breeze. I wanted that central rose to stand out and thought that jumping right into the colour scheme might not look all that great so I grabbed an old ball of Aunt Lydia white, which was the only white I thought I had. It's more cream than white, but it works. Then I grabbed the darkest blue and the Island Breeze and started tatting.

What I really liked about the design was the band of chains half way through the doily and I chose to use the violet thread as sort of a darker version of the pink in the central rose. In keeping with what I had done for the centre I added the second row of white after the violet. Then I followed a similar design as the first doily making the rows of ring and chain much tighter to stop the ruffles.

I almost stopped at the penultimate row, but it still wanted to ruffle a bit so I added the last round. All in all I think I like how it turned out.

I'm not especially good with doing things in colour unless I have a very specific goal in mind. but after this one was done it made me happy looking at it, so I'm satisfied.

(Grumble. grumble, I'm finished, now what am I supposed to do with myself?)