Pink Hearts Doily

I've never been very fearful of trying to knit beyond my abilities.  After all, for the most part...... it's just purl or plain.  I just plug along and follow the instructions one after another until I'm done.  Crochet is a slightly different story for me.  My grandmother spent certainly more time knitting with me.......I must have been around 13 years old by the time I asked her to show me how to crochet.  The first thing I made was a huge zigzag afghan.  I had made a mistake on the bottom corner and it took me a few more rows to realize my mistake.  But, by that point..... there was no stopping me.... I carried on and finished that afghan and it sat in my mom's house for many years with it's odd extra floppy bit hanging off the corner.  I did not crochet another thing until 3 years ago.  Like knitting, I figured with only one live stitch......I could probably figure it out.  While I am 'good' at neither knitting or crochet....I get by.  I find you tube videos most helpful when I get stuck, and try to understand what the pattern is trying to accomplish to help understand what it is trying to get across.  I had a heck of a time understanding what the last row of this latest project meant........but I think I figured it out by staring at the photo of the finished project......and now it's done.  I was over, catching up, with Lazy Kate when the gorgeous job she had done on her crocheted doily prompted me to try something simple...which started my search for an easy project like this one.  I have been working my way down in thread size......almost to the point of using those nasty steel crochet hooks.  Yes, I am feeling a bit intimidated.....but I'll get there sooner or later.   I do have an enormous stash of crochet thread collected from thrift shops over the last few years....and it seriously needs to be used up. Crochet thread really is expensive!  Hmmmm.....I'm starting to sound like my grandmother already:)

This pattern was found at Purple Kitty Yarns on the internet for free.  It looked to be pretty basic, and quick. With the heavy (it called for a 3.5mm hook) cotton thread I used, it finished up at 8 inches in diameter.   Next I will try it again (now that I think I know what I'm doing) with a slightly smaller thread size.  When I finished this doily last night..... the first thing that I thought of was 'Oh... I'd better starch this before I take a picture of it....or grama would be mortified'.  So I pinned it to my ironing board and sprayed it to dampen it and then gave it a little spray with the spray starch.  Not as starched as grama's, but it did neaten it up a bit........So grama wouldn't have to be so embarrassed for me.