Bonus: Guidelines to Make a Thread Doily from the Lace Doily Beret Pattern

Besides beaded variations for Lace Doily Beret, you can also branch off into other ways to use the same pattern such as making a thread doily.

Simply put, the approach for making a thread doily from the Lace Doily Beret pattern is to work only the crown portion of the beret using finer thread and smaller needles.

Making a Thread Doily

Use desired thread and knitting needles. Work the main 6-petal medallion (i.e. the charted rounds 1 – 38 in the Lace Doily Beret pattern), then use decorative crochet chain bind off to complete the doily. Wet block under tension similar to what we did for the Pinwheel Flower facecloth project earlier this year.

Choosing Thread and Needles

The article from last year, Choosing Thread for Lace Edging, contains many good points that apply to choosing thread for your doily as well. Since this doily is not being attached to something else (such as a lace edging would be), you have even more freedom to possibly use threads you have not considered before.

Just as with lace edging, there is fair amount of latitude in the needle sizes you can use with a thread. Feel free to play and keep notes on the thread/needle size combinations you like best for knitting different types of lace items. Here is my list for thread doilies:

Crochet thread size 5 ~ size US 3 or 4 needles

Crochet thread size 10 ~ size US 2 needles

Crochet thread size 20 ~ size US 1 needles

Crochet thread size 30 ~ size US 0 (2mm) needles

Doily Size

When knitting lace with fine threads such as those listed above, I’ve found that the size of the knitting needles is moreso the determinant of gauge than thread size/thickness. Besides gauge, some other factors that will influence the final size of a doily are —

• number of rounds
• openness of lace stitches
• fiber elasticity of the thread used
• the amount you stretch your doily during blocking

For the doily pictured above, I used a Tencel thread similar in thickness to crochet thread size 10 and knitting needles size US 2. The blocked size is 6″ diameter and weighs only 3.6 g  (1/8 of an ounce) just to give you an idea of size and amount of materials needed.