September Doily in Spring

While I was on Spring Break, I treated myself to a trip to Michaels and got this book. I tried very hard to buy mint green or lavender crochet thread to make one of the springtime doilies, but I could not get my eyes away from the September pattern (bottom right, above). So, in April, I bought red crochet thread. And that's probably going to turn out okay, because at the rate I've been going (and with these crochet projects officially on the back burner), it may be September before I am finished with it.

It's been probably seven or eight years since I last crocheted a doily (a few more since the crochet-doily-crazy year I made them as Christmas gifts for most of my female relatives, or the crochet-snowflake-crazy year everyone got those). It takes a bit of concentration. Not something you can easily do with a two-year-old and a six-year-old running amok in the living room. So, last night I had to frog (oh, how I love using that word!) four rounds to repair some serious lapses in attention. Ah, well.

So--stepping up onto my soapbox for a moment, if I may--how is it that you can buy doilies for a couple of dollars or less at most craft stores? Who are these poor foreign workers with carpel tunnel syndrome sitting and crocheting perfect doilies day in and day out to make a living? What is wrong with this picture? If I charged an hourly rate of $20 dollars for my "expertise" (and I'm pretty darn good when I'm focused) at crocheting, I would likely be making at least $100 per doily. I doubt my sweat-shop counterparts make so much in a year.

Frog that, I say.