Something old

I've been knitting a lot of doilies lately, almost exclusively doilies in fact, and I may as well blog about them! I attempted a knitting blog some time in the past, but failed due to lack of updating the thing. This time I may succeed because I'm overbrimming with single-minded determination and focus. Doilies, you guys.

Here's a doily from the Burda magazine "Tricot d'Art/Lace Knitting", published 1980—this is the infamous one with a hundred thousand Nieblings innit. It's small (11" across, 43 rounds total) and I didn't like it at first, but it's grown on me and now I think that it is dope. I used silk thread from Colourmart and 2.25mm needles.



Every round of this doily is patterned, which means that it's fiddly to work but turns out looking quite delicate. It's almost too delicate in silk; it would probably work better in a sturdier cotton or linen thread. But silk is fine for a doily in a low-traffic area that doesn't get manhandled much.

The flowers around the edges are my favourite part, and a most elegant example of what you can do with yarnovers on every round, I think.



The secret reason I knit doilies almost exclusively out of silk is that I've got a ton of it, mostly leftovers from knitting shawls. The yardage on the cones is generous, so a leftover 1/3 will yield eight or ten doilies. I've got a long way to go before I use it all up (and I intend to!).