Playing by Ear Part II

It makes me proud to know that I can buy a doily at an antique store and then use it as a template to make one myself. I bought this variegated crochet thread on a whim, it just seemed to fit this pattern. I'm pleased with the outcome, but seem once again to have failed to write down the pattern. Perhaps next time.

Click here to find this doily on Etsy!

Playing by Ear

My niece can read patterns. It took me 15 or 20 years before I figured out how to read patterns. I was content for that long to just single crochet.
I recall my grandmother telling me once that I could discern a pattern by looking at a finished piece. At the time I couldn't even fathom following a pattern that was spelled out. To think that I could play a pattern by ear, as it were, that seemed like the stuff of fantasy.
Well talent and time progresses and I've learned to read patterns, but better yet I've learned to play by ear. These days when I see a pattern for sale I will just work it out, staring at it at length and mimicking it- undoing and redoing until I get it right. Maybe it would be easier to just buy the pattern and follow it, but where's the reward in that?
Recently my mother requested a doily for grandma's lazy Susan. I made one that ended up being too small- it was placed under a lamp in the living room. While visiting I spent time staring at the doily that currently occupies the lazy Susan. I took a few pictures for reference and set about to make it myself. I think it turned out ok, now if only I could remember to write down the patterns...

The quiet sadness of doilies

This weekend I enjoyed a trip to Antique World. While my friend perused the vintage paperback booth seeking treasures in pulp and science fiction I planted myself in the booth containing doilies and buttons...among other things including, but not limited to vintage shoes and clothing, and Spice Girl dolls.  I spent enough time poring over the doilies that one of the women working that day stopped to ask if I needed help.  I told her thank you, no.  I was just admiring the beauty of the doilies, and imagining the hard work that went into making them.  I went on to tell her that I made these kinds of things myself and was looking for pattern ideas.  Perhaps I offered too much information, and she might have preferred a simple, "no thanks," but   I found myself oddly touched (in that way that indicates slight insanity) by these doilies.

Because I have logged countless hours, hook in hand, lovingly creating project after project, I have a profound appreciation for the art of the craft.  I have been told repeatedly- you should sell your work.  When I hear this my thoughts go immediately to the racks of afghans at thrift stores, and to the doily basket at Antique World.

I have always been overly sentimental.  For years I did not throw away shoes, even after they had broken down beyond wear-ability.  They had served me well, and deserved better than a flippant toss into the waste bin.  While I have worked to be more practical (with the expressed interest of not appearing on the television program "Hoarders") it still breaks my heart to think of the time, and love that goes into a handcrafted item like a blanket or doily, only to find it in what is essentially the waste bin of commerce- the second hand shops.  I want to buy all of these forgotten creations, give them homes where they will be appreciated.  Perhaps a Doily Rescue Mission is not anyone's top priority, but at the very least, let us recognize and respect the work that went into making them.