All together now

All Zoya Matyushenko patterns.

I am in awe of her talent.

I have made three others as presents, but these are all mine! 🙂

Edit: I am often asked where I get the hoops from

I am in theUK. I try not to use Amazon and other large companies as I’m unsure of their ethics and I know Amazon avoids making tax contributions to the UK economy. I always use small independent firms when I can.

I get the hoops up to 50cm from Glitterwitch and the 70cm hoops Dannells

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Another Day Another Dreamcatcher

This is my second ‘Agnes’. (a free pattern) You can see my first one in Turquoise here.

I made it with Scheepjes Sweet Treat, Snow White and a 2.5mm hook.

It took 2 balls, with just one row to go, so I had to break into a third to do the last row and for sewing onto the 50cm hoop.

I first attach the completed doily onto the hoop with stitchmarkers and then sew each point onto the hoop, threading the yarn through the work to the next point….

like this one: Ruta

also in Scheepjes Sweet Treat, but this time in Tropic 

and a 2mm hook, attached to a 40cm hoop.

Onto the next one.

 

WIP Wednesday

Progress so far.

I’m building the mandala back up again.

This free pattern is by Helen Shrimpton  (I have made a few alterations.)

 check out her website for this and so many other amazing patterns.

Below is what the mandala looked like when I decided to unpick the edge. I didn’t feel happy with the solid row of folded trebles followed by the semi-circles of dark turquoise, it seemed too heavy an edge. If I was going to use it as a tablecloth as originally intended, this edge would have been fine as not all of it would have been seen at once.

But now I’m thinking I would like to attach it to the painted canvas and hang it on the wall, so a softer edge will please me more. Crochet as art is something I’m getting a teeny bit excited about.

~

I unpicked about a week’s work – thank you to everyone who helped me make the decision. Once the decision was made it felt good to quickly undo it.

Experiment time: The Lime Juice (pale yellowy-green) still seemed too solid a line

so I broke it up with some of the pale turquoise.

I’m much happier with it now and will add a row of white next and then there will be more decisions to be made about the final few rows.

The end is is sight!

Made with Scheepjes Bonbon cotton thread and a 2mm hook.

How to finish?

I have reached the most difficult stage of the Crocheted Mandala. I’ve nearly finished. This is where so many projects have floundered and been relegated to the UFO (unfinished object) box boxes.

Since the beginning of August I have loved making this mandala and have been obsessively crocheting almost non-stop for nearly 3 months, but things have ground to a halt.

I don’t like the edge.

The dark turquoise, the rows of Lime Juice and Candlelight, and the row of folded trebles seem to take away the delicacy of the whole, and hem it in.

I have the mandala laid out on the canvas, I keep looking at it trying to decide what to do.

Do I rip it back to beyond the folded trebles – that would mean undoing about a week of intensive long hours of crochet. I need to think carefully about that before I do it.

Another idea is to take it back to the row in Candlelight and replace with Chrystaline (the main colour) and see if that lightens the feel of the edge.

And would a little white butterfly sit on that row of folded trebles every so often to break up the enclosing circle it makes…..

…… or would I always look at it and only see the offending row of folded trebles.

Initially I had intended the piece to be a tablecloth, but increasingly I have felt I want to frame it. As a tablecloth the border would be fine as the whole of it would not be seen at once.

As a Mandala, on the wall, as a piece of art – hmmmm – well that is different.

Do you have any thoughts to help me make a decision?

Monday Mandala

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Joining Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for ‘In a Vase on Monday’

with Purple Loosetrife, Marigold, Gardeners Gaiters, Pelargonium, Erigeron

and

Cee for Flower of the Day

Crochet Spiro Star as a centre for Mandala Madness in  Scheepjes BonBon cotton, using a 2mm hook.