Trollblume

And here is Trollblume, a.k.a. the Troll, the result of a KAL conducted by the Niebling Lace Knitters on Yahoo.  I used a no-name silk from my stash and US0 (2mm) needle.

The flowers are sculpted, meaning they bunch up and look a little puffy.  This is by design, although I don't recall seeing another Niebling design with sculpy flowers.  It makes me wonder about the origin of the design, and whether this was experimental or a collaborative work by Niebling and an assistant.  Who knows?

The center was knitted first on DPNs, then the leaves on each side were knitted individually, while the sides remained on stitch holders.  It was a little awkward having those stitch holders dangling off of the sides while knitting.  The group mistresses suggested binding off the sides, and then picking up stitches all the way around  to improve the shape and ease blocking, but I chose to follow the original design as written.

Making the two pointed ends look alike was a bit challenging.  The start and end of each border round was at one pointed end, and the other pointed end was the center of the round and included a double yarnover.  The KAL directions suggested adding a ktbl at the pointed ends, but being a traditionalist, I went with the original instructions.  Overall, I'm pleased with the result.

Blue Krokus - Niebling

This pattern may be found in the February 1989 Anna Magazine, and has been reprinted in the 2011 BuchVerlag fur die Frau folio entitled Schone Spitzen, ISBN 978-3-89798-335-9.  In the Anna Magazine it was called "Krokus" and in the reprint it is called "Feuerbohne."

For this table centre, I used a very fine cashmere/silk from Yubina.  The thread is lovely, but very light.  I would not use it again for a tablecloth, because it is so soft, and the points do not stay sharp after blocking.  In fact, the entire cloth will need to reblocked and starched before I submit it to the California State Fair.  I do like this thread, but it is more suitable for a diaphanous scarf or shawlette.

A few notes:

In the 0289/33 Anna magazine pattern, part of the chart is missing:
Row 79 - end with k2tog, yo, k4
Row 81 - end with yo, skp, k3
Row 83 - end with yo, k5
Row 85 - end with k6

The pattern in the Anna magazine is printed in several pieces: Rows 1-77, Rows 79-123, Rows 125-167, Rows 169-191, Rows 93-209, and Rows 211-245.  The reprint is in fewer chunks, but it's also laid out differently. 

In the reprint, the repeating stitches are more difficult to follow, because every stitch is shown in the chart, whereas in Anna the first grouping is shown, followed by the number of times to repeat.  E.g.:

In Anna:    [ 0,\ ] x7
In the reprint:    [ 0, \, 0, \, 0, \, 0, \, 0, \, 0, \, 0, \ ]

If a smaller size doily is desired, stop after Row 132 or after Row 80.

At Row 211, the 16 repeats are divided into 32 repeats.  Add additional repeat markers at this point.

Neither in the Anna magazine nor in the reprint is there a definitive process for crocheting off.  For this doily, I used the following stitch groupings.

CROCHET BIND OFF: At beginning of Row 247, [K4] then crochet the number of sts indicated together, and ch13 in between each group:
7, 7, 5, 7, 7, 7, 5, 7, 7, 9
This last number (9) includes the last 5 sts of the repeat plus the first 4 of the next repeat.