Sweet Sixteen?

I tried yet again yesterday to work on the dratted doily. Finished up row 24, then onto row 25. I was almost done with row 25 when I found again, I'd missed stitches! Had to frog again! Today I managed to actually get all the way around row 24 again. I'm on row 25 now, will let you all know how that turns out.

Today my friend's daughter turned 16. Man I remember being 16, and what a difficult age it was. I remember my daughter turning 16 as well but of course she was so out of control by then that it wasn't a very memorable experience. I mean, how memorable could it be compared with court dates, juvenile facilities and locks inside my house? Seemed more like I spent her 16th year just trying to keep my belongings inside my home and her shuffled from juvenile facility to court to juvenile facility to court, etc. Awful! Now my friend doesn't have quite as much going on with her daughter as I did but, as with any 16 year old, she does have attitude, mouth and defiance to deal with. God bless all us single mothers because we surely need it. I feel for my friend, but at the same time I can see that the problems going on with her daughter are a lot more in the range of normal than what I experienced with mine. I guess we both can only wish they grow up and have one just like them as payback! Awful!

On a different note I would like to delve into another technique in crochet that I've never tried. Not that I have time to try it yet, but it's something that interests me and something I am definitely marking on my list of things to do. There are a lot of different types of crochet, filet, Tunisian, hairpin lace and while the only one I've any experience with is hairpin lace there is another that intrigues me - Broomstick Lace (also known as Jiffy Lace or Peacock's Eye). I've seen some beautiful examples of it and I'm intending to try it one day soon. Here is just one example: http://www.crochetcabana.com/specialty/broomstick_lace_jiffy_lace_.htm
This particular example is an afghan square but you can use the technique to make an entire afghan: http://web.archive.org/web/19990421030629/www.ioweb.com/creative_corner/878508109.html

To look at it you would think it's very difficult but I've been told it's really not that hard. I will let you know when I do try it whether that is the case or not. Meantime, here are a few links with tutorials on how to make it: http://members.aol.com/sbaycgoa/techbrom.htm
http://www.crochetcabana.com/specialty/broomstick_lace_jiffy_lace_.htm
http://www.keyway.net/crafts/bslace.htm

Now that you have seen the finished product and have access to learning how to do it, perhaps you'd like to try out some patterns other than the afghan and afghan square:
http://www.medidit.com/free/scarf.html
http://millemakes.wordpress.com/tag/work-in-progress/scarf-in-broomstick-lace/
http://www.crochetkim.com/patterns/babydress.html

I hope if any of you try it out you'll post to let me know how it goes.