Before and After Doily ~ My World Tuesday, June 22, 2010

My World today is not an outdoor view but an indoor view of a quiet indoor activity. I've been working on a crocheted doily this week and I finished it in the wee hours of this morning. I should have finished it earlier in the day but wasn't up to much crochet until I had a nap. I picked it up around midnight and played with it off and on.

This is a photo taken about half way through the doily pattern.

I am not 100% sure if I followed the pattern correctly as it seems I had to do a little improvising on the last row but it looks fine to me with the minor changes. You might be able to see there are 6 large and 6 small pineapple motifs in this Pineapple Blossom pattern.  I chose to make this pattern out of the printed patterns I have because it is a larger than normal doily. Here is the book I got the pattern from if you'd like to make it yourself.  If you would like an easier Pineapple Blossom pattern, I found a free one here.

These photos taken after completion.

Now I will wash and block the doily and hopefully that process will flatten out the ruffles. I will update this blog post by adding a photo of the blocked doily when it is ready.

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Update:

Here is a photo of the blocked doily drying on a towel.  The colour looks different from the doily in the photos above but this latest shot is the true colour. I'm happy to report that after washing and gently stretching the doily into shape, the ruffles in the doily are largely gone and the doily measures exactly 18 inches in diameter. That means my tension was perfect as indicated in the pattern.  My second doily in the same pattern is going much smoother now that I am somewhat familiar with the design.

Simple Joy Saturday ~ May 29, 2010

Remembering summer's past and the beauty of the abundant gardens in the city.

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A Rose is Sweet ~ Simple Joy Saturday

I was blessed this week with roses blooming in my garden.  I love flowers of all kinds and I especially love roses. This one comes from my garden. It comes from a rose bush that was in my garden when I moved in to my apartment. It has always been a spindly plant and I'm afraid I don't tend to it well. Yet it gives off such pretty blossoms each year. Only a few blossoms though and so they are rather precious to me.


Thinking about the beautiful rose brought to mind the famous Shakespearean line about roses.

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet

Meaning

What matters is what something is, not what it is called.

Origin

From Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, 1600:

JULIET:
      'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
      Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
      What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
      Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
      Belonging to a man. O, be some  other name!
      What's in a name? that which we call a rose
      By any other name would smell as sweet;
      So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
      Retain that dear perfection which he owes
      Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
      And for that name which is no part of thee
      Take all myself.

 

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