ch 5, sk next 2 sts, dc in next st

After being alerted about the Laura Ingalls Wilder crocheted doily featured in the May/June 2008 issue of Piecework magazine, I now have a copy in hand. (I really love the Russian Lace on the cover and I'm planning to start knitting a baby blanket in that pattern this very weekend!)

What is pictured in the magazine is a reproduction of the doily from the Laura Ingalls Wilder / Rose Wilder Lane Home & Museum in Mansfield, Missouri. Apparently the person who made this reproduction - Belinda Carter, a designer for Coats and Clark - photographed the museum doily and created her own pattern and piece. The article has no photograph of the piece crocheted by Laura, which is a reversal of the one Carter made. This isn't uncommon in filet crochet, the main body of which is usually reversible. You're only able to tell front from back of a filet piece if there are no motifs or if a border has been added that's crocheted around the piece instead of back and forth in the manner of filet.

The pattern is called "Java Sparrows with Narcissus in a Table Mat." It originally appeared in Mary Card's 1936 New Book of Filet Crochet; I don't know if the book was part of Laura's collection or if she ever crocheted other patterns it contained.

Mary Card (1861-1914) was an Australian teacher whose early deafness forced her to give up her private school in Melbourne and seek a new career. Card became a lace designer, whose clearly-written crochet patterns and lace charts are as popular today as they were in Laura Ingalls Wilder's time.
- posted by pioneergirl at 2:43 PM