Garland

The whole world lives within a safeguarding... nothing is ever alone for a single moment.

-- Rumi

The Original "Snowflake Doily"

If you're new here - hello! - the following relates to my Cut-Glass Snowflake Doily post.

The pattern has been identified! Susan P, a member of Celt's Vintage Crochet Yahoo group, was the first to spot it. She was flipping through her collection, look for something else, when it jumped off the page at her.

The original pattern, called simply "Snowflake Doily", was published in - drum roll, please............
"The Super Lacecrafts Collection - Crochet, Tatting and Knitted Lace", an Anchor/Coats publication (#17552 in the US, I believe; #1324 in the UK).


As soon as I heard from Susan I shot over to eBay and, would you believe it, there was one copy for sale here in the UK. I debated over whether I should buy it for, oh, a good 2 seconds. For one thing, I really wanted to compare my version to the original.

The disappointing news for me is that the pattern was published in 1984 (UK edition) so this lovely little doily isn't "vintage" after all. Congratulations to whoever designed it (the booklet doesn't say) for achieving "the look".


So, how does my pattern stack up? Well, apart from almost every one of my chains being shorter, the rest seems to match. I put my short chains down to two things - 1) the doily I worked from was rather tightly crocheted. As you can see from the picture above, the original was intended to be more open in appearance; and 2) I chain quite loosely, so where the chains were completely hidden by stitches and I had to guess at their number, I guessed low.

For those of you interested in trying a "looser" version, here are the chain length amendments:

To begin: Ch 6 Ch 9
Rnd 1) no change
Rnd 2) ch 8 ch 13
Rnd 3-8) ch 5 ch 7
Rnd 9) in order of appearance: ch 5 ch 7, ch 9 ch 13, ch 2 ch 3, ch 4 ch 5
Rnd 10) ch 12 ch 13
Rnd 11) in order of appearance: ch 10 ch 15, ch 8 ch 9, and the picot should be ch 4 ch 3 - the only time I had more chains!
Rnd 12) in order of appearance: ch 4 ch 5, ch 12 ch 13, and this time the picot should be ch 4 ch 5.

Bear these changes in mind when you are told to work into the ch-whatever space of the previous row.

And look! There's a smaller companion doily:


For this, work the first four rounds as for the large doily, then ch 7, *in ch5 lp (8 dc, ch4-picot, 7 dc) ch 3, (tr, ch 5, tr) in tr, ch 3, rpt from * around, ending omit last tr, slst in 4th ch of beg ch7. FO

Note that I've stuck to my "short chain" style here, in keeping with my pattern. The booklet has ch 7 instead of ch 5, and ch5 picots.

Linked Treble Spiral Square

By popular demand - well, a few people on Ravelry expressed an interest - here is the pattern for my...

Linked Treble Spiral Square
(US terms)
Your choice of yarn – very effective with a self-striping yarn

A hook one size larger than you would normally use for your chosen yarn






Notes:

Beginning chain (beg-ch) – rather than the usual ch 4 for a treble, you will be working a ch 3 for your beginning chain. I count the beginning chain as a stitch.

Work under only 1 thread of your base chain and beginning chains as you will be working back along the other side.

Linked treble crochet (ltr) – rather than re-invent the wheel, Crochet-Mania, aka The Art of Crochet, has the best tutorial for the linked treble stitch that I’ve found.
Linked Crochet Stitch – Tunisian (video)
Linked Crochet Stitch Written Instructions - Tunisian
As the titles suggest, each stitch is essentially a very short Tunisian row.

25 Jun 19 - Sadly, the above links no longer work, but I've found this video:
Linked Treble Crochet (LTR):: Crochet Technique :: Right Handed.
Just don’t do what he says about working into the back loop of the beginning chains. That’s okay if you want a nice, tidy looking edge, but you’re going to be working into that edge, so you’ll want to use one side and then, later, the other side of the chain itself.

Work loosely or you’ll end up with a rather stiff fabric. Go up another hook size if necessary.

1) ch 7, ltr in 5th ch from hook, and next 2 ch (= 4 st)

To clarify, you'll be picking up the 2nd and 3rd loops of the beginning chain, skipping the 4th loop, and working into the 5th loop. Think of the 4th loop as a turning chain so that you get a nice, sharp corner. That chain will be working into when you come back around on the 3rd row.

2) Turn the piece 90° clockwise, ch 3, ltr under 1st bar of last ltr made, ltr under next bar of ltr, ltr in end ch of base-ch (= 4 st)

3) Turn the piece 90° clockwise, ch 3, ltr under 1st bar of last ltr made, ltr under next bar of ltr, ltr in each ch of base-ch (= 7 st)

4) Turn the piece 90° clockwise, ch 3, ltr under 1st bar of last ltr made, ltr under next bar of ltr, ltr in 1st ch of base-ch, ltr in each ch of beg-ch (= 7 st)

5) Turn the piece 90° clockwise, ch 3, ltr under 1st bar of last ltr made, ltr under next bar of ltr, ltr in top ch of beg-ch, ltr in each st (note: 3 in this row, increasing in subsequent rows), ltr in each ch of beg-ch (= 10 st)

At this point you will have completed two “rounds” – your initial 4 stitches count as “round 1” and the four sides as “round 2”.

Repeat row 5 four times for each additional “round” until your square is the size required. Stitch counts for the next 4 rows are 10, 13, 13 and 16.

Copyright © 2010, Judy M Kerr. All Rights Reserved.


If a final round of linked trebles would make your square too large, work linked double crochets instead (same principle as the trebles, just chain 2 to begin and work under the one bar) or just finish off with a round or two of single crochet.

If you have any problems with this pattern please let me know - sofar_sogood at btinternet dot com.