Skulduggery Doily, designed by Kathryn A. White

2024.003

Skulduggery Doily, designed by Kathryn A. White

Thompson, Suzann

2019

13 inches in diameter

In July 2017, my Celebrate Doilies exhibit debuted in Stephenville, Texas, at the Cross Timbers Fine Arts Council. It was an exhibit of my own doily art quilts, posters with photos and stories about doily-makers of the past and present, and works by Texas poet Sandi Horton.

I was thrilled when Bobbie Matela of Coats & Clark agreed to contribute two posters to Celebrate Doilies. "Coats & Clark's Legacy of Doilies 1938-1941" pictured vintage doily pattern leaflets, with a few quotes from the leaflets. The other, "Today's Doilies of the 21st Century," featured four doilies by contemporary designers, Lisa Gentry, Susan Lowman, and Kathryn A. White.

One of the four doilies was Kathryn White's clever and fun Skulduggery Doily. It was perfect for our family tradition of displaying Halloween decorations. It was also a perfect travel project for a plane trip from DFW Airport to Boston.

The instructions called for No. 3 crochet cotton. I opted for the finer No. 10 thread , because I had an abundance of that size in my yarn collection. To make the project more compact for air travel, I wound the thread off its cardboard tube. One of my favorite parts of crocheting the Skulduggery Doily on the plane that weekend was watching the features of the skulls take shape with the completion of each round of the doily.

At this writing, many Coats & Clark patterns are available free at https://www.yarnspirations.com. In 2024, this was the web address for the Skulduggery Doily pattern: https://www.yarnspirations.com/on/demandware.static/-/Sites-master-catalog-spinrite/default/dw6fdfa181/PDF/ALC0518-024814M.pdf

Crocheted with Aunt Lydia's No. 10 crochet cotton, U.S. size 4 steel hook.

Skulduggery can also correctly be spelled “skullduggery” or even “scullduggery.” Designer Kathryn White spelled it as shown in the story above.

Suzann Thompson