My First Niebling

This is my first attempt at one of Herbert Niebling's lace patterns. I wanted to try something small and portable to have something to work on while visiting my mother, and to get used to the charting system. This is pattern 085/14 on p.9 of Burda's Alles aus Garn: Kunststricken / Folge 1, published in 1980. I used 1.5mm steel DPNs and DMC's "Spécial Dentelles" #80 crochet cotton, and it took just under 1 5g ball. (I was terrified that I'd have to join a new ball on the crochet edging!)

I'd finished this doily a few weeks ago, but hadn't got round to blocking it. I washed and pinned it out this afternoon (yes it's pinned on my ironing board *grin*), and gave it a good spray with the starch. Sorry for the glare from the flash, but this is the best photo I could get. I'll take another when it's dry, on something dark like a table.


If you've never heard of Niebling, he was a German designer in the first half of the 20th century, who designed many lovely doilies, tablecloths, etc. Burda owns the copyright to his patterns, and you can usually find old issues of Anna Burda magazine on Ebay if you do a search for Niebling. The patterns are in German, but they're charted. A lot of his pieces have lovely floral motifs.

I really enjoyed this work. It was challenging but not impossible. The chart symbols are a little different from what I'm used to but they make sense, and I used Babelfish to translate the notes for starting and finishing the pattern. I'd really like to find the time to do a full-sized tablecloth for our dining room... so many projects! so little time!