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Okay, this starts with a doily pattern, a crocheted one, and turns into a tale of me, Wendy, thinking something along the lines of “hmm..?”

Basically the doily starts out with the little crocheted circle and then you crochet the same number around the circle, then double that number as best you see fit, then crochet the doubled number around twice then double again, then crochet around and around that number 4 times before doubling again. Since I’m not really a crochet person and it’s the sort of thing that doesn’t rely on gauge, I had to try it with knitting.

So my first experiment was with some dishcloth cotton, and I made a big circle. The fascinating thing about the big circle is that the last cycle of around and around knitting makes it’s own very pretty broomstick style ruffle (not to be mistaken with anything else broomstick such as lace.) Lexi has taken the cotton circle and made a baby doll blanket out of it, it wasn’t that impressive so I’ll spare you the pictures.

The next step involves my husband and a sordid tale of a missing sock. Actually a missing sock and a skein of yarn. Now for weeks he’s been bugging me to make a fresh pair of socks for him, so I started and made one sock, then started working on the other, the second sock must languish for a prescribed amount of time while other projects are being worked on (we all know this is so as not to anger the Gods of knitting) and when I finished my last project (oh no, not the Column of Leaves, the Branching Out scarf, the Column of Leaves must languish for a little while) I finished knitting the heel and went seeking out the other sock and skein of yarn in it’s company– to no avail!

They are gone, the sock and skein. Missing. Now I wouldn’t think anything was awry except that Mr. Oh-My-Feet-Are-So-Cold-I-Need-Warm-Cushy-Socks suddenly gets this look on his face. “Where were they?”

“In that bag from the bookstore.”

“What bag?”

“From the bookstore with the flowers on it.”

“Oh… um well don’t drive yourself crazy looking for it– I’m sure it’ll turn up.”

Now Matt did do a little picking up around the house, and I suspect that he threw away the bag without looking in it (because he always does that) and this time threw his own sock and a skein of yarn away. I think he also suspects that he threw away the yarn because I’ve twice spotted him going through the trash, he claims that he’s just squishing it down to fit more in the can, but I don’t really think that squishing down the trash involves pulling open the bags and sorting through them.

Anyway, this leads to me sitting around wondering what to work on and not paying any attention to the UFOs that are sitting in my work basket. Then I meet the doily pattern again, okay so I grab a ball of yarn that is only about enough to do a pair of anklets out of and start knitting a circle, it’s a pleasing enough cranberry color and with holidays approaching seems like a really good idea– now I have no idea what I’m going to make but circles of fabric are really useful things, small ones are doilies and pot holders and medium sized ones are cushion covers and antimacassars, and the big ones can be throws and shawls.
I have no idea what my circle will be; if it’s large enough I’ll block it out, felt it a bit and then slice from edge to center and have a nice tree skirt for our Christmas tree, or maybe I’ll find some better use for it.

Then I start thinking well, there’s not really enough yarn here for something that big and I’m getting a little bored just going around and around in circles. So eureka! I’ll make a little motif and then use the motif to switch into another yarn, then I can use up all the yarns that need using up and have something sort of cool in the end. Yes. Yes, that’s it.

So I’m knitting something that I haven’t planned out, I don’t know what yarns I’m going to use, and I don’t know what it’s going to be when it’s finished. Yarns I’m considering using right now are white falkland, cranberry falkland, cranberry and black heathered wool, and teal and black wool with green firestar– all of them are approximately sock weight. I might use some plain teal if I have any spun up in 2-ply (most of it is spun in 3-ply so I don’t know.)