Fondness for Visible Struggle

 

Among the treasures I inherited from my friend Vivian is a set of  two doilies.  I’m terribly fond of them and use them fairly often.

 

While many of these sorts of small embroidered clothes embellished with eyelet embroidery and crochet lace are professionally made, these two are not.

 

Note how the embroidery motif has nothing to do with the shape of the cloth. In fact if you look at it too hard you might get a bit dizzy.

The eyelets are uneven. The whole thing looks like it was made by someone who was slightly tipsy. Actually, it was probably made by a child who was struggling the whole time she was working away at it.

I admire the hard work and frankly the struggle that is so evident in the two doilies. I hope that the hard working maker improved with age and experience. I know I have.

 

The two doilies are finished nicely with tidy hemming and a froth of crochet lace. I’m guessing that  the froth was added to make a flawed effort look slightly less awful.

 

Each time I look at these two small pieces of linen the lack of perfection brings their maker into my home.