Monday, July 30, 2007

My Great-grandmother's Crochet


Doily

This doily was crocheted by my mother's mother's mother, Olive Fortune. I thought I was a good crocheter, but my great-grandmother's work is much better than mine.

The doily had gotten stained and crumpled, so I washed it and laid it flat to dry. I don't have blocking pins or a blocking board (and I don't want to pin it to my bed, because I don't want to puncture the dust cover on my mattress), but finger-stretching it while wet has gotten it fairly flat.

Mom gave this to me. I need to find somewhere to display it. (All my flat surfaces are covered by many layers of junk that I haven't put away.)

10 comments:

Deneen said...

I have several doilies my great-grandfather crocheted, yes, great grand-FATHER. Apparently, he was a farmer and in the winter time, crocheted to pass the time.

It's neat (to me)

noricum said...

That's so neat!

dragon knitter said...

frame it on an acid free matboard. or velvet (my mother has the lord's prayer done in crochet, and framed on blue velvet (my grandmother did it). it's so big that the darned thing weighs like 40 lbs! (about 18 kilos, i THINK)(i'm too lazy to google it, lol). who knows who'll get it when she passes on. i just remember it being around FOREVER.

Katy said...

I vote for framing it. What a great family heirloom.

noricum said...

I might frame it at some point, but at the moment I have absolutely no wall space.

Jewels said...

What a great heirloom to have. Maybe you can frame it?

Jewels said...

doh, I just read the othercomments saying the same thing :)

Knitted Gems said...

Well, I was going to advise what everybody else enouraged you to do: frame it. Yet, if you don't have any wall space and you don't have any counter space, then I would just wrap it back up, put it in a safe place where critters can't get to, and display it futher down the road when you do have the space. It is a lovely piece and you are right to treasure it.

Vinita said...

Beautiful work by your grandmother !!! I would agree with the others....frame it. And your blog is just too good...and quite interesting. Also, thanks for the progress bar....I addded it to my blog.

noricum said...

Thank you very much, and you're welcome. :)