YarnoverChicago: RECREATING A FOUND OBJECT OR DESIGNING A NEW ONE?

Last winter, a family moved out of the second floor apartment in the two-flat next to me. As often happens when people move, they threw out a whole bunch of stuff. I happened to be taking my trash out to the back alley one day and I saw boxes upon boxes of stuff they didn't plan to take with them to their new digs. Always curious about the way people live, I took a cursory glance before going back inside. It was cold and I'm not in the habit of going through other people's trash.

There seemed to be a lot of broken kitchen stuff, small appliances, toys, clothes and even books. Nothing fascinating. Just the detritus of 5 or 6 years of a family living in an apartment they'd outgrown. But somehow, as I started walking away, one very small item caught my eye. I don't know how I spotted it, but I assume the same uncanny ability was in operation that enables me to find a perfect seashell amidst all the broken pieces that wash up on the beach. I took a second look, not even knowing what it was that had stopped me in my tracks in the first place. Then I saw it and knew it had to be rescued. I couldn't just let it sit there amidst the broken toasters, worn out galoshes and old toys, could I? I took it inside and soaked it in detergent and bleach. Then washed it in the washing machine.

They were discarding a doily. But whose? Did the harried young mom who lived next door to me crochet this beautiful piece? That didn't seem likely. Did she buy it somewhere? Did her mom or grandmother make it and send it to her from Mexico? I had no idea. I examined it closely. It's made out of some kind of stretchy synthetic fiber. The stitches are very even, but the stitch counts sometimes vary. I decided I'd attempt to recreate it one day, and put it away amidst my other zillion project starts, almost immediately forgetting it existed at all.

The other day, I happened across this persistent little doily again. I took out a skein of Ultra Pima in Royal Purple and went to work. To be honest, though, I took so many liberties with the original design that my piece is more accurately described as "based on" the one I found than an actual recreation of the original.

Flowers and Shells Doily - Yarnover Chicago (prior to blocking)

Now most people would consider using DK weight yarn a little unorthodox for a doily. Well, dears, I used DK because my days of being young enough to design something in thread are long since over. I wanted to be able to see what I was doing. And here, on the blocking boards, are the results. Note the difference between the finished piece above, and the piece being blocked below. In case you weren't convinced by my last post on the topic of blocking...