Grandma's Tablecloth

It's been revived! My mom gave me a tablecloth that has been in our family since I was born. It was a present from her mom and during the years of my childhood it was an elegant fixture for special family occasions. However, through the years it was stained, had yellowed and a number of areas developed holes so it's been in storage for a long time. It came to me in rather bad shape, with the hope that it could repaired and used again.

Step 1: Clean. I filled up the bathtub with water, Oxiclean and a 5 day soak (it may have been longer.) Result: a clean WHITE tablecloth with NO stains!!
A long soak in a spare bathtub washed away
the years of stains & yellowing.
Step 2: Figure out what thread and pattern was used. I inherited my Grandmother's crochet books but none of them had the pattern for this tablecloth. Fortunately, the pattern is not complicated and it wasn't difficult to figure out the pattern for the motif. I also tested many different kinds of white thread for the best match, which turned out to be Aunt Lydia's Fine Crochet Thread, size 20, 100% Mercerized Cotton. I'm working on writing out the pattern for the motif and will publish it here when I have it.

A simple & elegant motif
Step 3: Assess the damage. The tablecloth measures approximately 56" x 70" and is made of joined motifs, each about 3.75" and a border had been added around the joined squares. The vast majority of the damage was a lot of broken stitching around the border (see photo). It was clearly a weak design area that did not stand the test of time. The damage to the border was too extensive and unrepairable. So with the blessings of my mom, I ripped it out (but not before I picked out and wrote down the pattern!!) I tried to save the thread so that I could reuse it in the repair of the motifs but the last two rows of the border were long chains and time and wear seemed to have fused the crochet and combined with the damage I couldn't get pieces long enough to be useful for repairs.

Example of the extensive damage around the border.
Only one corner area survived intact. (see photo below)
Step 4: Repair the motifs. This picture is an example of the typical damage to the motifs. Luckily it wasn't extensive or too difficult to repair. I took the crochet back far enough to be able to secure down ends and attach thread to work the new repair. The new thread is slightly whiter than the old but you'd have to have eagle eyes and a microscope to pick out the repairs so I'm quite proud of my conservation efforts.

Example of motif damage
Step 5: Decide what to do about a border. So the question becomes -- What do I do about a border? Here's a picture of the original border. It only looks good because it was opened up and pinned to paper -- see the Step 3 photo for the way the border actually looked.

The only corner of the border that was intact
1) Do I rework the original border? The Aunt Lydia's thread is a good match that is not discernible for the small repairs of the motifs but it would be noticeable once three rounds of border have been worked. The border was probably original to the pattern but with the test of time and wear it was not a great design. The first round is fine because it finishes off the petal design of the motif but the last two rounds are a series of long chains that during years of use got scrunched together and became a weak area where the most damage occurred (see Step 3 photo).

2) Design and work a new border? I would have the same thread difference issue as reworking the original border but perhaps some type of stabilizing border would be beneficial. If yes, what kind of new border? A simple round of single crochets? or reverse single crochets? Should I follow the first round of the original border and end there?

3) Leave it the way it is now with the original border removed? The picture below and the one at the top of this post were taken after the border was removed and all motif repairs had been worked. It looks fine. My daughters argument for this choice is that, except for restoration repairs, the entire the tablecloth remains crocheted by my grandmother and should stay that way! This choice would leave it a little unfinished by regular crochet standards and not in it's original state but may be the best way.




I need help deciding what to do! Please leave me a comment with your thoughts.


7/29/08 - Update
Grandama's Tablecloth - The Finishing Details

Lattice Square Afghan

I received the squares for this afghan from a "secret buddy" and I can't really tell you about the squares themselves except they're very interesting and I have yet to run across the pattern. So I didn't completely make this afghan, however, I did assemble it and crocheted the border and all of that is the pain in the ass part, right? I used a joining technique found in the Braids for Baby afghan pattern from Mile-A-Minute Afghans by Leisure Arts. I've used this join a couple of times now and it's the best of all things --solid and decorative-- I love it!!

The edging pattern is:
Round 1: sc evenly around blanket, working 3 sc in each corner.
Round 2: *dc, ch 1, skip 1 st repeat from *around blanket, working 2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc in each corner.
Round 3: *dc in each dc and ch 1 space, repeat from * around blanket, working 2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc in each corner.
Round 4: *ch 3 and 2 dc in same stitch, skip 2 stitches, sl st in next stitch, repeat from * around blanket, working ch 3 and 2 dc, sl st, ch 3 and 2 dc in each corner.

This afghan and the Autumn Glory afghan are going to be donated to Victory Junction, a summer camp for children with chronic medical conditions or serious illnesses. At the end of their camping experience each child gets to take home a hand-made afghan and a hand-made teddy bear. My niece was a camp counselor there for a summer and told me about how the campers love their blankets and bears. I just had to make a contribution and hope to make more.

My Ravelry project page for Lattice Square Afghan.

Autumn Glory

This afgahn was made for a donation to Victory Junction -- a summer camp for children with chronic medical conditions or serious illnesses.

The pattern is called Autumn Glory and can be found in "101 Easy Scrap Crochet Projects" published by House of White Birches and edited by Laura Scott.

My finished size is 35" x 44"
The original pattern uses black as the main color to tie in all the scrap colors but I wanted to brighten it up, so I used Red Heart Super Saver - Aran Fleck. In addition to swapping the main color I also made the following adjustments:

Because this blanket will be given to a child I decreased the overall size. I began by chaining 121 instead of 163 (I still used a K hook).

The double triple crochet shells for the boarder did not work for me so I reverted to a simple shell of 7 dc's. The pattern for the border thus became: *shell (7 dc's in the same st), skip 3 stitchs, repeat from star around and adjust the number of stitches skipped, if necessary, in order to work a shell in each corner. I also put 3 sc's in each corner.

My Ravelry project page for Autumn Glory.

Teatime Elegance

I love patterns with texture and this is an interesting one that caught my eye. I was a little unsure the first time I did a panel and worked all those double triple crochets (that's one loooooong stitch!) but everything worked up easily and I enjoyed crocheting this afghan. I was also concerned about the area where the green border is worked around the center shells -- it looks like a weak spot in the structure -- but this afghan has seen a lot of use because it is big and remarkable warm (even with the open work center) and so far there has been no damage or repairs. In fact, I'll soon be making another because Laura has requested this one as her "going off to college blanket".

Notes:

Teatime Elegance from "Mile-A-Minute Afghans" by Leisure Arts.

Used J hook (instead of listed I hook)

Measures: 52" x 74" (this was measured after a few years stretch and the fact that I moved up one hook size -the size listed with the pattern is 44" x 66")

Red Heart Super Saver Yarn - I don't have the exact color name but I did use a lighter green. Bone and Lt. Rose are the other two colors.

Because this afghan is big and fairly heavy I slipstitched rather than whipstitched the panels together, a sturdier joining that I prefer to use when I can.

My Ravelry project page for Teatime Elegance.

Plarn Gift Bag - Valentines 2008

Plarn: Yarn made from plastic bags.

I finally got around to making and crocheting with plarn. The push to try it came while I was writing a paper for a consumer textiles class about using yarn from recycled materials. Plarn has been around for awhile and been made from newspaper and bread bags but the real explosion of its use came with plastic grocery bags.

Making plarn is pretty straight forward and easy. I followed the instructions over at Marlo's Crochet Corner for cutting the bags and once I had a few nice sized balls I started experimenting. I've been working on a design for another bag project (details to come!) and so this small bag just evolved. Personally, I think it's one of the cutest things I seen or done and the timing was perfect to be this years Valentine!

Plarn Gift Bag Pattern

#31 Jeff Burton

Here is my latest Nascar associated project. It's a washcloth with the #31 of my sister's (the source of my assimilation into the racing world) favorite driver --Jeff Burton.

This pattern is from Woodhill Design Knits and patterns for most numbers of the different drivers are available.

Specs:
#7 needles
Lily's Sugar'n Cream - Hot Orange

That's it!! It's an easy, fast, fun and no hassles pattern.

My other Nascar related projects have been beaded bracelets in the colors of our favorite drivers and a checkered flag afghan.

BTW - My sister is a league bowler and uses this as a wipe cloth for her bowling ball. Other bowlers have noticed and and admired it. Can't ask for more than that.

My Ravelry project page for #31 Jeff Burton.

One Skein Scarf

Writing up journal and blog entries just doesn't seem to produce the same feeling of satisfaction or sense of accomplishment that creating and making things does so I'm trying to catch up my blog about a lot of projects I've finished the past few months but haven't written about.

This is another skinny scarf for my daughter Sarah's collection (see: *K2, P2 *across, K1, Skinny Scarf - Boucle and Skinny Scarf - Homespun

An easy peasy, pattern from the book Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker. Unfortunately, that's the only pattern from the book that really caught my eye.

I worked the scarf in TLC Amore yarn. I LOVE this yarn! I designed my wristwarmers and a hat (patterns I haven't written up or posted yet -- but coming!!) using this yarn and I try to use it when ever I can. It's on my list of projects to work up a Heart Silhouettes square with this yarn and see how that works.

My Ravelry project page for One Skein Scarf.