Mandala waistcoat

Continuing from my previous blog entry, I decided in the end I would go with my original urge to make a waistcoat using a mandala.

I got the pattern for the mandala from Zooty Owl’s lovely blog. It is a free pattern available HERE

I’ve been sneaking in a few stitches here and there, experimenting with using either double crochet or triple crochet and different amounts of chains between the stitches to get the shaping from the shoulder down the sides right.

Here I tried some treble crochet.

Then I undid that and changed back to double crochet and put the next row in to see how it looked.

I unpicked a couple of entire rounds a couple of times to change the amount of chains so the end result didn’t end up to ‘frilly’ and changed the pattern of the stitch increases to a few times too.

It’s been a real labour of love. I’m delighted with the end result and although I’d orignally had some kind of edging in mind like I did with the festival waistcoat, I think I like this one just as it is. I used some ribbon I had in my stash as sadly I whilst on the beach this weekend I lost the beautiful purple plaited cord I’d saved to use with it.

A mandala and other stuff

I have once again returned to being a multiple project person! Hurrah, this means I always have a project suitable for all situations.

I am working on finishing the rainbow cardigan for the little dark star. It is coming along well just the sleeves and edging to complete, I don’t have a recent pic at the moment but it always makes me happy when I am popping some more rows in because of its beautiful bright colours. I am not devoting as much time to it as previously, it will be worn as a winter over layer so no real big rush. The DK yarn on a smallish hook and makes my hands and wrists hurt a little so I am being careful not to devote long stretches of time to it or I suffer for a day or two afterwards.

My firstborn messaged me a picture of some crochet shorts earlier this week and asked if I can make her some. After a little internet hunt I found the pattern on Craftsy, the blurb described it as “expert” so of course I wanted to make them! I love the challenge of a tricky pattern. It is a really important part of my ongoing crochet journey to move out of my comfort zone of well loved and rehearsed patterns and stitches and into new techniques and patterns that require me to really concentrate rather than meditate. It uses joined motifs then a pineapple pattern. I’ve done pineapple once before for a shawl and I enjoyed it. The down side of the pattern is it requires a 3.25mm hook and fine yarn (so another wrist burner!). As it happens I have this big ‘cone’ of a beige coloured silky ‘thread’ I grabbed in the charity shop (It was one of things I bought on the day I spotted the massive beautiful crochet blanket that I wrote about HERE) so I’ve started the pattern using that. Here is the first motif.

It’s supposed to measure 3.25 inches and is coming up a little small. The motif is quite stretchy though so I think I might stick with it rather than going up a hook size or changing yarn/thread. Firstborn is very slim and the pattern is for a bigger hip size than she is so I think its will all work out right in the end. She wants these shorts for her holiday at the end of August…… Time will tell if I manage the deadline, especially with so many other inviting projects on the go too, which leads nicely to my other work in progress, a mandala.

Still feeling really pleased with the Rainbow Festival Waistcoat I really wanted to try making another but with a different type of pattern, using a nice mandala as the centre with a little more detail and less lacy. I discovered a stunning Starflower Mandala at Zooty Owl’s blog. You can find the pattern HERE and I really recommend it, have a look and maybe make one yourself too. It is very easy to follow and lends itself to experimenting with colour whilst using up scrap yarn.

Here is the start of the mandala

Little dark star wouldn’t get off it so I could take my photo!

Here it is a little further along

I kept doing row 15 wrong so the next row was also wrong.  I’d misread the instructions and put my single crochet in after only two stitches instead of after skipping TWO SPACES! I couldn’t work out why my mandala was going all ‘frilly’, once I spotted my mistake it was obvious. Silly me.

 

Doing it wrong!

and here it is so far with the corrections made and just a few rows left of the pattern

 

I think however this is the best time to stop so I can start shaping the ongoing work into a waistcoat. I am wondering though if maybe instead I should continue going using my own design to make it a giant mandala bedspread or I could make lots of these mandalas and join them as a blanket or maybe even better still, work out how to square it off and then make lots more, because then I get all the joy of working out how to turn this big circle into a square and squares are much easier to join together or maybe even just complete the pattern then pop it on my new sewing machine table (more about that lovely little acquisition another time).

Decisions, decisions…….