My Crafty Corner

The creative juices have been flowing here at home and all because I've been so under the weather.

Truthfully, I don't like being sick I'm a very impatient person when it comes to that, I find it a nuisance and get frustrated because I have no time to be sick.  How ridiculous is that?

Anyway, I've got a few projects going on but one I had my eye on for quite a while and just couldn't wait any longer.  I kept seeing these beautiful Granny Mandalas popping up all over the place, matter of fact you can find quite a few stunning ones on Flickr.

In my mind I was thinking that it would be quite intricate and I may just not be able to get it done, but boy was I wrong and I LOVE when I'm proven wrong.

I found and totally fell in love with a new blog, well new to me, called Crochet with Raymond.  Oh the goodies this woman makes has me salivating and dreaming of colors and yarns and crochet hooks.

The pattern I followed can be found at Alice's blog. Now mind you I followed her very first Granny Mandala Tutorial BUT my next one I'm following her update version which is here.  I'm giving you both and you can decide which to make, or try one of each?

I didn't make mine as big as Alice's, matter of fact I finished it off a few rounds before and I also did my color changing a little different. 

You can see that I did 3 rounds of the mint green at one point, just because I absolutely love the pastel color and wanted more of it in. It's up to you, the whole point of these Mandalas is to have fun and use whatever color strikes your fancy.

Now I haven't yet blocked by Mandala so it does tend to curl up a little. For blocking the finished product, here's what Alice suggests:

I lay gladwrap on my carpet in a sunny spot and wet the mandalas, then pin them to the carpet gently stretching them out to their full size and leave to dry! 

Enjoy and if you do make one or a few, won't you come back and show me?