Just starting Frosted Ferns, a free Herbert Niebling knitted doily design !

Firstly, I'm back!  It's been almost two months since I last posted here. These past two years seems like sometimes my interest is full force and other times it'll be days without ever even turning the computer on.

 I think the honeymoon period is finally waning. lol  That's not a bad thing mind you. Least wise it doesn't feel bad. Actually just realizing that I've finally broken out from underneath the OCD addictive technology spell that madly had it's grip on me.

After a decade of being enamored with the world wide web no longer do I feel pressured to hop on here and scope it all out daily to see what all I'm missing... as if it would all disappear and not ever be available again. hahahaha!

Lacefreak's Niebling Frosted Fern.
Visit her wonderful site for fabulous
inspiration!

Now on to more important things. Herbert Niebling's knitted lace doily designs.

Breathtaking beauty that leaves me Gobsmacked.

 I'll admit I've been too intimidated by my own lack of courage in skill ability to jump on the band wagon and tackle this desire. But no more. Yup, I'm finally going to do this.  Frosted Ferns is what I'm starting with for practice using crochet cotton and size 2 circ's. Many say this is one of Niebling's simpler intricate lace designs.

Ravelry has the free pattern for Frosted Fern on the internet at
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/frosted-ferns-7633
If your not a ravelry member... you should be. It is just an awesome place for fiber addicts. But if not, you can also find the pattern at  http://www.angelfire.com/folk/celtwich/KnitFrostedFern.html


UPDATED NOTE* as of Sept 2014 the angelfire url where I originally found this pattern is no longer available :(  it is apparently & sadly lost in 404 error land. boo!   BUT the good news IS that is still available for free download at Ravelry..which leads you to this URL  https://sites.google.com/site/nieblinglacelovers/frostedferns

ok, back to my journey... the first 36 rows were pleasantly easy to do. Than row 37 had me confounded. Not because it was difficult or anything like that, but suddenly I couldn't count correctly OR consistently! lol.   Of course it didn't help that I was under the influence of hydrocodone and just had a bi-lateral facet injection done on my lower back. You'd think commonsense would take over and allow me to put this pattern down for a few days and work on something mindless like a trusty sock pattern, but oh no, my hands wouldn't hear of it. They have a persistent mind all their own.  So I spent two days frogging and re-doing this row at least seven times.  Finally 99 sts just as it should be.

Than on to rows 39 thru 42. Jeepers. Apparently I don't take hints well. Instead of putting this project aside until a clearer mind was present I fumbled through the next four rows re-doing each at least twice. lol. I remember thinking Thankfully the even # rows are just plain knit. So I was merrily knitting away to the ends of each those rows only to find that my count was still off. And it was always on these even number rows where I'd mess up. But because I'm so new at this and unsure of myself I'd always frog back the previous odd number row also just to make sure there was no hidden operator error there.

Than today I discovered something while doing row 42 for the second time. I don't know why or how, but I suddenly realized that while I'm knitting my even # rows.. if I kept glancing at the pattern for the previous odd # row while I'm knitting the even # row and do that simultaneously it all came out perfectly.  How's that for clear as mud?  Basically for me, I need to do my straight even # row knits to the rhythm of the pattern 'phrases' in each previous row.  I'm so excited that I made this discovery about myself. So that's where I'm at for the moment.  Until later, toodles!

UPDATE*  here it is my frosted fern herbert neibling doily !! all finished on August 2011
and guess what ?!? it took first place blue ribbon @ our local fair.  That sure made me feel really good :)