Last week, I decided to crochet again, a hobby I learned from my Mama. My fingers were itching to do both the pansy and the grape doilies, two of my favorites.
I just finished these two, the grape and pansy doilies. My Mama must be smiling down from heaven seeing me pick up this craft again.
I have been looking for the catalogue of patterns Mama left me that I kept all these years. I know I had it somewhere. It is old but so precious because from it I was able to master following written crochet instructions.
I cant crochet without written instructions, while some people can't follow crochet instructions, I'm not one who looks at a finished product, count how many chains, single crochet, double crochet, treble, popcorn and picot stitches there are and imitate.
I did not despair when I couldn't find my catalogue because in this time and age I can google. If I were in this predicament in my Mama's time, I would be desperate by now.
So I decided to look up my favorite doilies on line. I got lucky that among the numerous doily patterns, I was able to find those that I love most.
Going through the doily images was like going down memory lane; seeing familiar doilies and table runners exactly like those that my Mama and I made awakened cherished childhood memories. On line, most of the patterns were classified as vintage, some were still in black and white pictures, but I'd like to think about them as classics.
Memories of those happy times with my Mama, my aunt Nenet and I crocheting came back to me. I recall afternoons sitting at our terrace, the radio tuned in to DZRH, the station that played music the whole day, while we crocheted away.
That's also where we listened and sang along the latest hits. As we listened, our pencil and the unfinished draft of the lyrics of our favorites were on the ready to write down and/or fill-in the gaps to complete the song; though we could have waited for the song hits pamphlet that comes out weekly to look up the lyrics.
We looked forward to a program, second guessing which of the songs made it to the ten top hits of the week. Those were the times of Ricky Nelson, Paul Anka and Neil Sedaka.
In later years of high school and college, I did a lot of crocheting. I sold doilies, table runners, shawls, cardigans, pot holders, coasters, and even bed covers, anything that people ordered from me. I recall one Christmas break in college, I had to do marathon crocheting to complete an order of a queen-size bed cover.
I never lost interest in the craft having crocheted on and off in the intervening years that I still have some colored thread in my stash. When I thought I'd crochet again, I brought them out and saw I had white thread, pink and yellow so I started to make the flowers for the pansy doily.
Since I love the grape as well, I had to go down to One Stop Shop for the violet and deep lavender thread. Below are pictures in completing the grape doily.
Getting there
Almost done. Just one more leaf
Below are a few pics of doilies I copied on line with their instructions plus others. I Intend to make them all.
Dafodil doily
The rest are aster, petunia , holly, pond lily, edelweiss, blue bell and many more.
Earlier, I thought I'll make some for Christmas gifts but now I want a collection first, who knows where this will lead me. Besides, I enjoy making them and you know what, I need the radio playing while I crochet.
