Doily Shmoily

I've officially entered a thread crochet phase. I am now into all things dainty. I found a treasure trove of vintage doily patterns, and I've been printing them out in excess. I thought I'd try a vintage (1918) circular doily as my next thread crochet project, but now I'm thinking I'll do either the Oblong Pineapple Doily or the Double Pineapple Doily as a gift for my mom. She expressed interest in seeing the doily I've put on hold due to lack-of-needle-threader (it's an awful affliction), so I figured I might as well make her one of her own.

I wish the patterns gave yardage amounts instead of x many balls. At one point I tried to look up the yardage in each ball, but I quickly found that doing so was futile. The information isn't readily available, and most of the threads that are called for are either discontinued or come in many different sized balls. I'll have to wing it, I guess. I'm still debating the color I should use. My choices are white, off white, pink, yellow, dark red, black, peach, or light lavender. I'm leaning towards black. Or maybe plain white? Oh, I don't know...

I think that concentrating on doily-making will be a nice change of pace for me. It's a whole lot cheaper than knitting sweaters, which is an unfortunate habit that I've developed over time. Large projects start to feel like homework assignments after they've been on the needles for so long. I never liked homework, and as such I don't much like projects that drag on for months. I'm hoping to move back to socks in the near future. They're small, compact, and reasonably quick. You saw my stash. I need to start using it.

Remember that cardigan I was knitting for my grandmother? It's finito! I thought the torture was never going to end. It didn't take me nearly as long to complete as my mother's cardigan, but it sure felt like it. So, without further ado, here is Grammy's cardigan in all of its glory.


I will be presenting this to her tomorrow when I make the trek to Newfield. My pooches and their "Aunt Madie" have a vet appointment, so I'll be spending the day at my parents' house. I'm hoping for a drama-less wait/exam, but with these three, all bets are off. I suppose I timed the appointment perfectly - I just noticed this morning that Xerxes has developed a "growth" on the back of his leg. It's bald, red, and about the size of a dime. I couldn't get real close to it because 1 - he was pooping when I noticed it and 2 - he wouldn't hold still long enough for me to get a good look.

I'm kind of nervous about going to the vet. Xerxes looks like he hasn't eaten in well, forever, and Darby looks like she eats a tub of Crisco every five minutes. I'm almost positive that the first thing the vet will say to me is, "Are you sure the fat one isn't eating all of the skinny one's food?" Yes, I'm sure "the fat one" isn't eating all of "the skinny one's" food. I feed them in separate rooms, and Darby's on diet food! Darby has always been beefy. I think that's just the way she was made. I'd love for her to lose a few pounds so she doesn't look so threatening, but I'm not going to starve her. (I follow the directions on the food package.) Last time she was seen by a vet, I was told that she might have a thyroid condition. That sounds...expensive.