I have been trying to squeeze in visits to the local thrift stores in order to gather materials for my repurposed fashions the past few weeks... of course there is always the unexpected treasure that turns up amongst the pure rubbish, making the search all that more intriguing. This has to be the find of the year, really, not just the week.... 
This piece is knitted of the finest thread, probably cotton, as it has held up very well even though it could easily be fifty or sixty years old... the center is threaded onto a piece of string, ready to be sewn to a round of muslin or linen for a finished doily. I was amazed to stumble upon this, and it was very inexpensive because of its unfinished state. My hands gave a few twinges just thinking about the tiny wires posing as knitting needles that must have been required to knit this work of art.
I could attach it to fabric, but it would lose its historic integrity... I will probably just figure out how to frame it in a shadow box one day, and preserve some hard-working knitter's labor of love for the future. When I found this lacework while pawing through a bin of hankies, it was as if a knitter from the past, without the benefit of the blog-Ravely-Yahoo list community we are blest with these days, reached out and touched me; I had to take her work home with me.
