Autumn Cleaning

In years gone by Spring was my favourite season!

I used to love spring cleaning:   unpacking every single cupboard;  putting down fresh shelf liners;  adding scented bags to the clothing and linen cupboards;   washing and packing away the blankets after the winter!

September and October used to be the best time for gardening and spring cleaning - it was warm but mild!    The last couple of years have just been unbearably hot here in Johannesburg (right from the beginning of September) - so hot that all I want to do is laze about by the Pool.

This has forced me to move my "Spring Cleaning" to Autumn - and really our Autumn weather is wonderful - warm and mild - occasionally a bit windy and a bit cool at night - but WONDERFUL!  The kind of weather that makes you feel energetic and INSPIRED!

I started my Autumn Cleaning with a tidy out of my craft space.    Sorting, rearranging - admiring all my pretty papers, paints, pens, embellishments and most of all YARN!!

Rolling the yarns that are no longer "whole" into cutesy little balls (by hand by the way - very relaxing!) and piling them into pretty baskets!

Taking the crochet blankets out - giving them a wash and a tumble dry (with those delightfully fragrant anti static sheets!)

Pretty Pinks and Reds,  (top down), GYPSY BLANKET;  HEXAGON MOTIF BLANKET;   DUSTY ROSE AFGHAN

Loving the pretty flowers and simple edging on my Gypsy Blanket

Blissful blues and purples,  (top down)  BLUE HUES;   BLUEBERRY CHEESECAKE;   SHADES OF BLUE and a luxurious corner to corner granny that for some reason I never blogged about!
 

Glorious grannies, (top down)  HAPPYGHAN;  a grey, tan and teal granny blanket (added in some really weird looking variegated yarn and some fluffy yarn left over from making infinity scarves);  my  OLD GRANNY BLANKET  made about 25 years ago;   and a purple / turquoise granny blanket also made some years ago from odd squares!

Warm winter colours, (top down) HEXAGON SCRAPGHAN  and a RIPPLE AFGHAN!

This Autumn Cleaning is a slow process - I keep getting sidetracked by all the lovely little details that make up my life!   Sitting looking through my scrapbooks,   taking out and packing away sentimental keepsakes - feeling happy!  happy!  happy!

Speaking of happy - I am still rather elated by my contribution to Lucy's (Attic 24) vision for YARNDALE 2014!

 

It was SO difficult to keep the secret while Lucy was preparing her blogpost!    My lovely bloggy friend, Pat of SUNSHINE AND A SEWING BASKET guessed my secret and not only agreed to keep my secret with me but to test the patterns before I published them!!!   Head on over to Pat's beautiful blog and have a look at all the happy, colourful mandalas she has been hooking!   She recently published two gorgeous designs of her own too!

And in keeping with the theme of Autumn look (oh just LOOK) at the gorgeous colours she used!!!!

Thank You Pat!    For making my patterns look SO good!

Tomorrow I plan to do a bit of stocktaking!    Sorting and prioritizing works-in-progress and patterns that need to be written / published.

But for now....... a nice cuppa and a few Bachelors Buttons (lovely jammy cookies) my son and I baked this morning!

Sunny Flower Coasters: Pattern

Some time ago I made up a little gift for someone special - a mandala and matching coasters.     

I like to play around with the same basic stitch groupings and designs to see what different effects I can come up with!

The Dahlia centre is an extension of the Sunny Flower which forms the basis of the SUNNY FLOWER MINI MANDALA designed for the Yarndale Yarnbomb! 

I had already written up the pattern for the coasters - but had to wait until after the Yarndale secret was out to publish this!

Pattern Terms:  US 

 
Yarn:  Raeesah Cotton Soft DK (100% cotton) 
Hook: 4.00mm 
Size:    11cm (4.5 inches)

Skill Level:  Novice

 
Foundation:  4ch,  ss into 1st ch to form circle 

Row 1:  3ch (counts as 1dc);  11 dc into circle;  ss into 3rd ch at start to close (12dc) 

Row 2:  Join yarn into any sp between dc,  3ch (counts as 1dc) 1dc in same space as join (2dc grouping);  *2dc into each sp between dc  (2dc grouping)* *to* to end;   ss into top of 3ch at start to close (24dc)

Row 3:  Join yarn in space between any 2dc groups;  3ch (counts as 1st trc),  2trc into next space as follows - work the first and second parts of the stitch leaving last loop on your hook, into next space work the first and second part of 1 trc leaving the last loop on your hook (four loops on hook).   Yarn over hook and draw through all the loops on your hook to form your cluster;  4ch;  (into same space as last trc, work 1st trc of 4trc cluster;  into next space work 2nd & 3rd tr of 4trc cluster;  into next space work the last st of 4trc cluster, 4ch) x 11 (12 x 4trc clusters made);   sl st into top of first cluster to close.   Break off yarn.

Row 4:    Join yarn in 4 ch space between clusters;  3ch (counts as 1dc), 4dc (5dc grouping), 1ch into same space as join;  *5dc (5dc grouping), 1ch into next 4ch space* *to* 11 x (12 x groupings);  ss into top of 3ch at start to close.

Row 5   ss into any dc;  *1ch, 1ss into top of  next dc*  *to* to end 1ch, ss into ss at start of edging.

NOTE:  

I have provided row by row photos and explanations for the Sunny Flower Mini Mandala HERE

(Rows 1 - 4 are exactly the same!)

Yarndale

YARNDALE is a wonderful wooly festival held in the gorgeous market town of SKIPTON in North Yorkshire, England!

I was completely in awe of the fantastic 2013 YARNDALE BUNTING - some 6212 crochet granny triangles from all over the world strung up in a fantastic display of colour!    A wonderful feat organised and co-ordinated by Lucy of Attic 24.

WOW!    I thought to myself - how amazing it would be to be able to participate in something so COOL!!

AMAZINGLY this year I actually do get to play a teeny tiny part in Lucy's vision for Yarndale 2014.

Lucy asked me to design a fairly small mandala (no bigger than 20cm / 8 inches) which blog readers could make and send in for this year's YARNDALE YARNBOMB

I made three designs - thinking Lucy would select one of them!    She loved all three!    How chuffed am I???

The details of the yarnbomb are all in Lucy's latest Blog post - make one, or two, or three and send them off to Attic 24 - and be a part of this exciting project!!!

Don't forget to make a few for yourself too!!

GRANNY MINI MANDALA

 

SUNNY FLOWER MINI MANDALA 

HAKUNA MATATA MINI MANDALA 

Granny Mini Mandala

Pattern Terms:  US 

Yarn:  Raeesah Cotton Soft DK (100% cotton) 
Hook:  4.00mm 
Size:  18cm (7 inches)

Skill Level:  Novice

Foundation:  4ch,  ss into 1st ch to form circle 

Row 1:  3ch (counts as 1dc);  11 dc into circle;  ,ss into 3rd ch at start to close (12dc)

Row 2:  Join yarn into any sp between dc,  3ch (counts as 1dc) 1dc in same space as join (2dc grouping);  *2dc into each sp between dc  (2dc grouping)* *to* to end;   ss into top of 3ch at start to close (24dc)

Row 3:   Join yarn in any space between 2dc groupings;  3ch(counts as 1dc), 2dc in same sp as join (3dc grouping);  *3dc in next space between 2dc groups (3dc grouping)* *to* to end,  ss into top of 3ch at start to close (36dc)

Row 4:  Join yarn in any sp between 3dc groupings;  3ch (counts as 1dc), 1dc, 1ch, 2dc (4dc grouping), 1ch into same place as join ;    *2dc, 1ch, 2dc (4dc grouping), 1ch into next sp between 3dc groupings* *to* around to end, ss into top of 3ch at start to close

 

Row 5:  Join yarn in 1ch sp in the centre of any 4dc grouping;   3ch (counts as 1dc), 1dc into same sp as join; into next 1 chain sp (separating 4dc groupings)  work 1dc, 1dc spike into top of 2nd dc in 3dc grouping on Row 3, 1dc;  *2dc into next 1ch sp in the centre of the next 4dc grouping;   into next 1 chain sp (separating 4dc groupings) work 1dc, 1dc spike into top of 2nd dc in 3dc grouping on Row 3, 1dc*  *to* around to end;   ss into top of 3ch at start to close

Row 6:   Join yarn in any sp between dc groupings;  in same sp as join work 3ch(counts as 1dc), 1dc spike between 2dc directly below on Row 4, 1dc;  *into next sp between dc groupings work 1dc, 1dc spike between 2dc directly below on Row 4, 1dc* *to* around to end, ss into top of 3ch at start to close.

Row 7:  Join yarn in any sp between dc groupings;  3ch (counts as 1dc) 2dc in same sp as join;  *3dc into next sp between dc groupings* *to* around to end,  ss into top of 3ch at start to close.

Row 8:  Join yarn in any sp between dc groupings:   3ch (counts as 1dc), 1dc, 2ch, 2dc into same sp as join;  *2dc, 2ch, 2dc into next sp between dc groupings* *to* around to end,  ss into top of 3ch at start to close.

Starflower Mandala: Row by Row

Two or so weeks back I posted my STARFLOWER MANDALA PATTERN

The original plan was to provide photos of each row  - but there was such a high demand for the pattern (long weekend = lots of crochet time) - so I decided to go ahead and publish with just the few photos of the first four rows!

Hundreds (maybe thousands?) of people have by now made the Starflower Mandala (the pattern has been viewed some 65 000 times! - and counting!)

YAY!   So exciting to see all the colourful versions of my pattern showing up everywhere!

I thought I would do a row by row breakdown of the pattern anyway - "pattern-speak" can make the mind boggle a bit and a picture always makes it a bit easier to fathom!

My patterns are all written in US TERMS, which could prove a bit confusing if you are used to UK Terms!   I  made this little conversion chart, which I will include in all my patterns from now on, for ease of reference.

My original STARFLOWER MANDALAS were crocheted with Stylecraft Special DK and a 3.50mm hook, giving a finished Mandala of 33 cm in diameter.

The Starflower Mandala in this post was made with Raeesah Cotton Soft DK and a 4.00mm hook, giving me a finished Mandala of 45cm in diameter.

Yarn weights are referred to quite differently in various regions, so I thought I would also include this rather useful RAVELRY LINK for Standard Yarn Weights.

Crochet Hook Sizes are also referred to differently - if you need to know which hook to use go and have a look HERE

The photos were taken at various times over the course of a few days -  so there is a bit of variation in the colouring.   

The Starflower Mandala pattern can be found HERE!

The photo above is a little bit out of focus (I was precariously perched on a wall when taking this photo!)