This is a tablecloth that I made for my sister, the one that likes antiques. I usually work in white or off-white, but I found a great deal on-line (on sale, plus President's Day discount, free shipping, they took PAYPAL!!) but the online store only had two off-whites left), so I bought a few ecru, thinking I could swap 'em for white somewhere, somehow. So, used up the white on various projects and decided I wanted to crochet a tablecloth. I had never made a large crochet cotton project, but I was up for the challenge. An issue I had was I hate making motifs....I get so bored, and was afraid I would abandon the project in the middle (my knitted Falling Leaves afghan motifs are still in a plastic bag, waiting to be dyed). During a 'net surf session I came across this pattern, Norway Spruce in Magic Crochet, and thought that an insert tablecloth would be a good first foray into a project this size. Plus, NO MOTIFS!! I found a great deal on a huge tablecloth at a thrift store, and the color match was great.
First problem I had was 'What size should it be?' My sister lives 1700 miles away and I didn't want to call her and ruin the surprise... "So....how big is your dining room table, anyway?". So, I text'd her teenage son and hoped he would get the right dimensions and/or respond. The kid came through like the champ he is, but the dimensions seemed so little. In my mind the table was bigger. Oh well, full speed ahead, if it was too small, so be it, I would call it a large runner.
Problem two: finishing the edges of the cut material. An overcast seam would be great, but I don't have a surger, and a rolled hem felt like it would be too bulky. I finally came up with making a faux overcast edge. I did a really tight zigzag stitch and cut the material after zigzag'ing. That worked great.
Now just a matter of doing, and that went surprisingly quicky and easily - the pattern was mostly single crochets, double crochets and chains. Now just a matter of waiting for the family reunion this summer.
My sister loved it, it was the right size for the table, and works great with her decor.
Details: pattern name is Norway Spruce. I think its in an old issue of Crochet Magic but don't know which one. The finished tablecloth is 4' x 5'. I used Lydia's crochet cotton, size 10 with a size 7 hook.
