Beatriz's doily

In another crochet group (Crochet Partners) http://www.crochetpartners.org/mailman/listinfo/cplist

one of my friends, Beatriz Medina, posted some lovely squares - here's her website
http://undisthreadness.blogspot.com

but quite some time ago I was the very lucky recipient of a doily made by Beatriz and I want to show a scan of it here. This doily is used in what is my shrine to my mom. (I know that sounds silly, but it is what it is). The shrine consistes of the doily draped around the "Grandma" teddy bear that my older son gave to my mom his first Christmas. I had a very difficult time after my mom's death trying to (for lack of a better word) "connect with her. My shrink suggested I use an object that would represent her to me. The teddy bear, a "pot bellied" bear, became that object. It really wasn't complete but I had no idea or clue what it needed. Beatriz's doily arrived in the mail and I realized that the teddy bear _needed_ that. My mom was always a fairly sharp dresser with a great eye for detail. There's nothing I could have created that would have compared to the doily, nothing that fit the purpose so well. It's very difficult to explain and you'll probably laugh (that's okay), but all I can offer it is some sort of spiritual connection. My mom liked Brasilian music, Beatriz (and the doily) is from Brasil - there's more but it's dificult for me to explain. Let's just say the beautiful doily was a wonderful gift from a terrific woman. It arrived at the right time for me....
the picture does_not_ do it justice
thanks, Beatriz

almost finished

I have almost finished the 8 point star baby afghan, I made it in blue and white, using worsted weight instead of the bulkier Red Heart recommended. I had to do a few more rounds to get it to be as big as I thought it should be. Now I am at the weaving in the ends stage, my favorite part;)
One neat thing about this afghan is that you start off making a chain 3 for the "starting double crochet". That means when you finish the round, there aren't so many slip stitches as is traditional with say a granny square or similiar motif afghan. I really liked that. Also the writer suggests you stagger your beginnings - you atttach at point one for the first color change, than at point 2 for the next color change, and so on. That makes it a bit neater to look at, too.

Now I got to finish the weaving ins and make a turtle. Sometimes I weave in as I go, but even if I do, I recheck the article to make sure I remembered to weave _everything_ in.

I sent out samples of my crochet to the person who was asking for them. I don't know when I will get an answer from that. I'm sort of excited and sort of nervous. Of course, I think my samples are _great_ (sometimes). And I also think "sheesh, couldn't I have done something _better_?" (sometimes). I did a 4 inch sample of a shell stitch, a crossed stitch, a pebble stitch and one square was stitches from small to large. There was no suggestion on what the woman wanted to see in a crochet stitch, but I thought that would be a good representation. Of course, now I'm thinking I should have done the Tunisian stitch *sigh*. Oh well, what's done is done. All I can do now is wait.