I've liked the look of Niebling doilies for many years, even though ours is not really a doily house, and I tend not to surround myself with frilly things, or wear frilly clothes. They're structured beautifully, and are very appealing. Eventually I joined the Yahoo! NieblingLaceKnitters, and started the summer's knit-along, the birch catkins doily.

I've made a little more progress than in this photo, but my camera is busy charging right now. I'm currently on row 88 of 104; some distance to go, but the bulk is done. I had a few problems getting started. I tried various suggestions ("belly button" start, "easy beginner's" start) and ended up doing the standard Emily Ocker start, as it was the easiest for me to get right. Then it was mostly hex mesh (fun!), using a single yarnover for rows 9 - 19, a reverse yarnover from 21 - 25, and the double yarnover from 27 on. I started on four dpns, moved to two circs and one dpn fairly fast, lost the dpn on row 13, and was on a single small circular needle by row 18.

Thread: J & Coats Royale Classic Crochet Thread, size 10, in mint green 9 (colour 428); I just bought a second ball as the first one is almost done, with its 320m. I started on 3mm needles, and moved to 3.25 mm at row 63. I was thinking about moving up another size, but never quite figured out the right place for it.

The trickiest part for me was row 83, since before then when you see the double yarnover, and the skp and k2tog, it's hex mesh. In row 83 you have the same stitches, but in a different arrangement since it isn't hex mesh any more. This threw me for a bit as I thought I'd made a mistake; I had to go and look at a few pictures of finished doilies to convince myself that it really did change there.

Oh yes, I worked the k3tog as sl1, k2tog, psso.

early view of Niebling birch catkins