wish on a star vintage doily and other February things

Guess I should get this done while it is still February.

three variations on a vintage doily pattern   doily with alternate border   detail of doily border

This started in 2005 [details] when I ran out of salmon pink variegated thread (from my mom’s stash) and set the doily aside. I then did an entire doily in size 30 ecru thread using a size 11 hook (10 or 11 was recommended). I unraveled the unfinished doily to the meshes around the star center, then put in a simple border of shells. I then tried the pattern in a gold variegated thread (from my dad’s cousin Hazel’s stash, there were several full spools and a couple that had been used) using a size 12 hook and got the size that the pattern indicated.

The colors are not accurate, used a halogen lamp and camera without flash. I have done several other doilies this month, some just blocked yesterday. Need to do something better to get pictures. Maybe the scanner or working outdoors with the camera if the weather cooperates.

Guess I am getting practice for when the analog TV signal is cut off (WQED is saying April 1). Crocheting while listening to the radio is a very 1930s or 1940s kind of thing.

Spent most of February in a construction zone. Last spring there were some reports of gas leaks, I could smell it a couple times from the sidewalk (no gas lines in this house). After a lot of testing and trial digging, Dominion decided that several blocks worth of pipelines needed to be replaced. This past week the crew got here. I took these photos from the front door:

my front yard placing a plate to cover a trench

They haven’t been working on weekends, so today I went out for groceries even though the milk was not done to be able to unload the car near the front door.

On February 12 the ice up river broke up (probably with some assistance) and I saw it going down the river when I was out walking Bode. Wished that I had taken the camera. I stopped to talk with one of the regular walkers. He said he grew up in Cadogan, across the river, and had witnessed the 1936 flood. That is the one that was so bad that a system of locks and dams were constructed – public works projects.

Later that afternoon I went back in the car with the camera. The ice chunks and slushy snow were not as thick as earlier but it was still pretty impressive. It is the highest I have seen the river since I moved back. I got chilled but even then it was hard to turn away to go back home. There are still chunks of ice on the banks, although the river level is back to normal.

Allegheny river view after jam breakup   [view video]

About Kathy

Perl, MySQL, CGI scripting, web design, graphics following careers as an analytical chemist and educator, then in IT as a database administrator (DBA), programmer, and server administrator. Diagnosed with Mitochondrial Myopathy in 1997.
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