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.