Celia, I've done it!!!!!

Okay, so I'm talking to someone who's been dead for nearly 3 years, but hey... if I can meet my future husband in cyberspace, I can talk to dead people in cyberspace too!!!!

Back when I was like 17 or so, my cousin Celia tried to teach me how to crochet doilies. She took me shopping (okay, so grandma took us shopping really, but that's only because Celia didn't know how to drive at the time), bought me the thread and the hook, came over to our house, and sat me down and tried to teach me. But I thought I just couldn't get it right, so I gave up on it.

Now that I've done this, I realize what the problem was. It wasn't that I couldn't get it right, it's that I expected what I was working on to look like what the finished product should look like. I didn't realize that it could buckle and bow and still be okay. I didn't know there was such a thing as "blocking," and that any "imperfections" in the doily would be "fixed" after doing it.

But after seeing some absolutely gorgeous doilies on Crochetville, I got it in my head that maybe... just maybe... I could actually do it now. And I couldn't get the thought OUT of my head. After all, I've only been able to read a pattern for a year. (They always confused me before, but a year ago something "clicked" in my brain and they suddenly made sense! ) And I STILL had the same thread and hook that Celia bought me oh so many moons ago, stashed away in my yarn box.

So I went searching for a pattern that called for the same size hook I have (a Boye size 6), and that didn't look too difficult. I finally found one, and got to work on it. I could have gotten it done in one night, but I've got so many WIP's right now it's not even funny. And I'm not used to working with thread, so I could only do a little bit at a time.

But I finished it last night, and blocked it this morning. And it looks okay, even if I do say so myself!

So Celia, if you can see me... I finally got it! Aren't you proud of me?



In progress, but nearly done.


Same level of progress, but a different view.


All done, all blocked, and all better!!!