Changing a Crochet Pattern Safely - Eliminating Picots

This page updated June 14, 2009.

This is the story of a doily that my mother made for me. It is called Crocus Doily (and you all know that I love all things related to crocuses). My mother found the pattern in a Leisure Arts book, called "A Year of Doilies, Twelve Designs by C. Strohmeyer". I was not able to find this book at either Chapters.ca or Amazon.ca, but I did find the Leisure Arts website, and the book is for sale there. Check it out at the Leisure Arts website. My mother brought both the doily and the book to show me. One of the things that she pointed out was that her work did not quite match the picture in the book. in particular, the book's doily had a more scalloped edge, and my mother's was more circular. I looked at it for a while, and said "But Mom, you didn't do all of the picots in those scallop sections.". She retorted that she hated picots! At the risk of frustrating her, I pointed out that picots are not zero-length stitches, even though logically it seems that they should be. A picot usually consists of a chain-3 or chain-4, followed by a slip stitch into the first of those chains. Or it might be something like a chain-8 followed by a slip stitch into the 4th chain from the hook. It makes a little loop. But that slip stitch occupies space, and adds width to the base chain stitch. For an example of a pattern with picots, check out the Shells and Picots square of the CYCA Afghan. I suggested that if she were going to ignore picots, she would need to add at least one chain stitch to replace them. At which point, she grabbed the doily and the book, and is going to redo the doily - she really liked the scallops as shown in the book. And I have a small confession to make - I don't like picots either! If she redoes the doily as I suggested, and it works, I will include an updated photo. The moral of the story is that sometimes a pattern change has unintended consequences.