If I’ve calculated correctly, this pattern will require three of the standard-sized (350-yard) balls of Aunt Lydia’s or America’s Best.

I’m trying to whittle down my stash, so I’ll be using America’s Best Country Cotton in “Denim”. It’s a fairly neutral medium greyish blue. Steel blue, maybe?

It’s been a while since I last made a doily this large! Exciting!

This pattern gets off to an unusual (and sometimes challenging) start!

It’s rare that picots make an appearance so early in a pattern-- then there are fptrtr stitches, followed by crab stitch. (I don’t particularly enjoy crocheting crab stitch in thread, I have to admit, but maybe the look will be worth the effort.)

Rnd 25. There’s a link to a FB video (I think) demonstrating a special stitch (“special FP-quadtr2tog”), in this round. The link wasn’t working when I tried it, and I was having a hard time visualizing where to insert the hook.

However, I remembered a similar stitch in another pattern and found the PDF photo demo for that stitch very helpful in reminding me what it looks like to insert the hook into a specific “yarn over” in an earlier stitch. For future reference, see the PDF linked in Rnd 23 of “Kalani” (the Y-stitch demo). (That demo shows the hook inserting into a different yarn over than specified in this round of this pattern, but it’s easy enough to count up to the right one.)

Oof, found some mistakes and had to frog back a couple of rounds! The first time around I somehow managed to completely miss the fact that Rnd 38’s clusters are hdc and not dc. Oops… I also messed up the next round, which is why I was looking back at the pattern closely enough to catch my Rnd 38 problem.

Oh well! It’s worth the extra effort to get it right!

Another tiny mistake (missed making one dc in Rnd 41) that I didn’t catch until a little into the next round. More frogging and re-doing. (Still worth it, though.)

First ball of thread ran out in about the middle of Rnd 45.

These rounds are starting to feel long, now. I’m curious to see how much yardage this ends up using. Will I really need to open a third ball of thread?

Yes, the third ball will be needed. The second ball ran out early in Rnd 64.

I’m recovering from a cold that slowed me down for several days. There’s also a hat I’m knitting at the same time, and I’m about to start an Advent scarf, so this may take a while longer. No rush, as I’m making it for myself. I do look forward to finishing it, though!