I’ve tried to figure out why I dislike the finished piece so much. I think it’s because there’s no structure to the outer edges of the round wings. You can try to block them to be very round, but they don’t stay that way. It’s not possible to spread the finished product on a table and make the wings properly rounded and have them stay that way, the edge is too “wimpy”--it pulls or dents in or rolls or otherwise just looks lame. The wings would be more stable if there were lots more stitches around the edge…but that would be a whole different pattern. ;) At any rate, I won’t repeat this pattern, and I’m not giving it to the original recipient. Perhaps I’ll let SEGA sell it at Greyfest’s silent auction.

19 Aug: Okay, now it’s done. I redid the border and am much happier with it now. I’ll post a picture of it later, but I’ll leave a picture of the spiky border, too, so people can see what the pattern calls for and decide what they want to do before they do all the work.

I’m ripping the border and redoing this with shorter, less spiky leaves. Since Ravelympics sign-ups are being reopened, I’ll finish this for WIP Wrestling, which is what I originally intended to do.

The pattern is fairly easy to stitch, but it’s difficult to block properly. I think the round “wings” are too large to look quite right. I’m also not happy with the length of the leaves on the border row. I might frog that last round and redo with a shorter, more picot-like leaf.

13 July: Worked rounds 1-13, frogged back to round 3, worked through round 9. It can sometimes be hard to keep the dc stitches in the petals nice and tight at the top of each stitch on the early rounds. But if you get too loose on the dc stitches, the center of the flower gets messy. Also, keep the loops that go behind the flower’s petals down low on the previous petal when you slip-stitch them to the back of petals. If the loops rise up too high, the previous row of petals slips backwards through the row that’s supposed to be behind. (That instruction will make more sense as you work the pattern.)
14 July: Flower is finished (through round 17). One trio of leaves is done; three more sets of leaves needed.
16 July: Leaves are done, as are the first 7 rounds of the “linen” section. About 7 rounds of linen to go and one green edging round.
18 July: Oops! One batch of trebles that should be doubles. And I’m not happy with the Sage and Linen colors together. (Individually, I love them, but together…) There’s not enough contrast. I’m frogging back to the flower and redoing leaves and background. Maybe a darker green with ecru. I’m taking a poll on my LJ blog, and we’ll see if the friend the doily is going to makes a choice. Meanwhile, I’ll work on something else for a day or two.

29 July: Back to work after frogging back to the flower. Worked new leaves and 7 rows of ecru. Still to do: 5 rows of ecru and one row of green border. And lots of weaving ends.

30 July: Did the 5 rows of ecru. (Did one of them twice.) :( Need to weave ends and do the green border. And block it.

4 Aug: Worked the last round and started this blocking. While blocking it, I discovered I missed two leaves on the border round. Fortunately, this is something I can fix if I just attach the thread, make the leaves, and weave the ends; no frogging required. (This doily has been frogged enough.)

I was going to finish this for the 2008 Ravelympics, but I needed something to work on before the 8th.