Knitted Doilies
Knitted doilies should not be pressed; they really don’t look good until you stretch them. Here’s one of mine stretched, pinned and starched.
Cindy Doily
I usually stretch my doilies on an old fabric cutting board. I cover it with a clean white trash bag, and that way I can see through it to line the doily up with the lines on the cutting board. I use large T-pins to pin it out. The doily will take a lot of tension on the threads, so don’t be afraid to pull one out like it should look. Start by quartering it, putting the opposing pins in, and then eighth it, and so on until you get all the edge design pinned out. Some doilies can be pinned either square or circular, so decide ahead of time which you want for yours. Then spray it well with heavy spray starch, and leave it to dry. When it’s dry, it’s ready to use.
This is the Cindy doily from Gloria Penning’s book, Knitted Heirlooms, III. I think you can see that it lays quite flat once it’s stretched. When you get it off the knitting needles, like all doilies, you will have a wad of thread, but stretching it makes all the difference. This one was knitted with size 10 cotton thread and #2 needles, and it measures about 18″ across. I did find what I think are two mistakes in the instructions for this doily. I believe on line 67 it should read, “slip the SKP over the K2 tog” as it did back in line 43. Then the crocheted last round should say, “pick up 4 sts, sc, ch 5, pick up next 2 sts, sc, ch 5.” Anyway, that’s how I resolved my problem with it. This is a very easy doily and lots of fun to make.
This is another heart doily I knitted some years ago. As I was knitting the pink one, I got to wondering about this one, so I pulled it out to compare them. This one is only about 12″ or so across. I’m not sure right this minute where I got the pattern for this one.
This is the Clara doily from Gloria Penning’s Danish Lace Treasures. This version isn’t exactly like the original. On row 41, the instructions say you should wind up with 24 stitches in the repeat, and I can’t see where you can get more than 21 per repeat as it’s written. As a result, I altered the pattern somewhat. There is also a typo on the last round of the doily. Where the instructions say to P34, I believe that should be P4. At any rate, this is what I wound up with, and I think it makes an attractive doily. It measures 15″ across made with size 10 cotton thread and #2 needles. Sorry about the reflection on the table.
By the way, this doily has some K5tog and K3tog moves in it. So don’t be surprised when you find those. There is also a k7 in one stitch in the last row. These moves slow the work down, but they can be done. This doily is an easy one to stretch, as all you need do is pin out the points around it.
Peacock Doily
This is the peacock doily from Workbasket Magazine, Nov., 1954. Actually, it was written by Mary Shiffmann, and it can also be found in the book, The Lacy Knitting of Mary Schiffmann by Mary Schiffmann and Nancy Nehring. I did this many years ago when I was just beginning to do lace work. The original pattern had a lot of errors in it that I had to resolve, and while it’s not perfect, I was pleased that I was able to do this piece at that time. This is made of size 30 cotton thread. It measures about 18″ square.
This is the peacock in a little closer view. If you look, you can see that he has the characteristic feathers on his head. I thought it was amazing that she was able to get that much detail in a piece of knitting.
Lessie
This is another knitted doily I did from Burda’s Strickspitze. It is a German publication, and the doily is called Runde Fensterbilder mit Fächerstern. It is supposed to be a round window ornament. The whole doily is done with a chart, which was easy enough to follow. When I got through, I realized that Gloria Penning has the same doily in her Knitted Heirloom Lace III, and she calls it Lessie. Hers is written out.
This is a closeup of that doily. I particularly liked the large holes in the body of the doily and the honeycomb background for it. I did the edging a little different as, for some reason, it seemed to be too tight as I was doing it. I can’t say I’m thrilled with what I came up with. I think the original was better.
Rose of England, a Tea Cloth
This is my version of the Rose of England tea cloth. It is from a pattern by Marianne Kinzel, and it appears in her Second Book of Modern Lace Knitting. This is an easy pattern to do; however, it took me 22 years to do it! (Talk about a UFO.) I started it and worked on it a little bit and then put it away, so it was shuffled here and there, and I nearly threw it out several times. Finally, I got it out and finished it. When it was done, the center section was dingy, so I put the whole thing in a solution of Biz, and it came out very white and pretty. In all, it probably took me somewhere around 2-3 months to knit.
This is the Rose on my dining table. You can see it is quite large. It measures about 40″ across. I made it of size 20 cotton thread on size 2 needles. I also knit a little loose, so that probably contributed to the size. It lays very flat, and I’m very pleased with it.
This is the center section of the tea cloth. The streaks are the morning sunlight coming in my windows, not wrinkles in it.
This is half of the tea cloth. I am quite relieved to have this project finally completed. This is only one of Kinzel’s designs I’ve made. I hope to get the others up on this site in the future. I must say, her designs are easy to knit, and they are quite pretty when they are finished.
Egeblad by Christine Duchrow
This is the Egeblad doily which was made from a pattern by Christine Duchrow. I used Nurhanne Reckweg Abdullah’s translation of the pattern to do it. You can find the pattern here. It went up very quickly. It was quite easy to do. Nothing was especially unexpected or difficult. I made this with size 10 cotton thread on size 2 needles. It’s about 21″ across.
Here is a closeup of this doily. One of the things I liked best about it were the little raised lines made from the decreases that highlight the leafy parts of this design. As I worked on this doily, those leaves looked almost braided.
Primula
This doily is the Primula design from Marianne Kinzel. It’s made in ecru thread, size 10. I made this years ago when I was quite new to lace knitting.
Here’s a closeup of the Primula.
French Doily
This is a French doily pattern. It was in an old Phildar Decoration and Loisirs, booklet #6, p. 22, which I bought in the 1980’s. This doily was nothing but an exercise in patience and sheer will power. The pattern had numerous errors in it, and I found the design very tiresome to do. As you can see, I didn’t stretch it the best in the world. If I ever get to feeling better about it, which I doubt, I might reblock it sometime. I don’t think I’ll ever make another knitted piece from that booklet. It was edited terribly. Nothing was consistent about the way the pattern was written, and there were a lot of really careless errors in it.
Here’s a closeup of the French doily.
Lyra
Name: Lyra
Designer: Herbert Niebling
Source: Anna, a Burda magazine, June 1986
Thread: Coats and Clark, Cotton, Size 30, approx. 500 yds. per ball; I used 2.5 balls.
Needles: Started on size 1 US, Changed to Size 2 US at row 71.
Time to complete: June 6, 2005 to July 24, 2005
I had wanted to make this doily for a long time. When a group got together to make it, I decided to get it underway. Go to my blog proper and find the Lyra category to read the day to day entries I made while I was working on it.
The Italian Doily
This doily was found in Lavori artistici a calza 11. I made it with size 10 cotton on size 0 US needles. It measures about 5.5″ across.