What is this going to be?

             

                          

This may look like another granny mandala, but it is going to be something else.  Can you guess what it might become?
Those of you that already know me might guess when I say - my favourite bird!

All will be revealed soon ....

A bit of a distraction

Unfortunately I haven't got any further with making more mandalas - sorry.  I have decided instead to start a small blanket for someone we know that is in hospital at the moment.

I know the colours don't look overly exciting, but it is for an elderly man and the autumnal shades will look good if you have a bit of texture in the stitches.

 

This is the first few rows, they look pretty boring, but you do need a firm base to work on.

I am intending on doing a few rows in each of the colours.  I also intend on doing a variety of stitches throughout the course of the blanket, both to learn more stitches and make it more interesting.

I am inspired by the "crochet-along-with-me " blanket that Little Woollie did last year - the mixed stitch blanket (sorry couldn't get the link with that exact page to work, but there is a separate section with all the details in her blog).

Anyway I hope this project gets finished one day.  I have a bad habit of getting a lot of WIP's (works-in-progress).  Although I have yet to meet a fellow crafter that doesn't have at least a few.

Mandala Madness

Mandala actually means a circular figure representing the universe in Hindu and Buddhist symbolism.  However in crochet it means "bright and beautiful circular decoration that can be used for display on the wall or as a doily" (my definition).
One of my favourite blogs to read is that of the lovely Lucy at Attic24.  She is a very busy lady, who puts a lot of effort into her posts that are extremely well written and inspirational.  She and a number of other ladies from Skipton in North Yorkshire are organising a wool themed weekend called Yarndale.  Lucy asked her readers to create a mandala for display at the fair.  She was inundated with the response - 1182 mandalas from 49 countries (including one from me).
Lucy unbelievably photographed every one and you can see them on Pinterest under Yarndale.

This is my entry and it is displayed on sheet 11.  I followed the pattern and in fact the colours from Jacquie at BunnyMummy and it is called  Petals and Puffs Mandala (available here).  It is quite easy and it is a good way to use up all of those small bits of yarn you have lying around.
After completing my first one I liked the idea of doing some more to hang on the wall. So I tried the Sunny Flower Mini Mandala design on Zootyowlcards blog and this was the result 

It again was quite an easy pattern and quick to do.  I tried to iron it flat, not a good idea when you are using acrylic yarn, because it takes all the definition out of the texture of the stitches - live and learn!

I think I will investigate some more patterns, so I have more of a display - better get pattern hunting ......

First blog post

Welcome to my new craft blog.  For those who do not know me I am an Australian who moved with my husband to Ireland just over a year ago.  For one reason or another moving to the other side of the world hasn't been as easy as we expected.  I was a passionate crafter in Oz and it has seemed to take a backseat due to all the other changes going on in our lives.  However I have now realised that I need to occupy my mind with something creative and not spend too much time worrying about other things.
I am starting this blog to 'force' me to get happening with things that I have thought that I would like to try and do.

As you can see I had big ideas planned before last Winter.  Luckily yarn is a good insulation material!

And I had plenty of inspiration!

I tend to get lots of ideas from what other crafters are up to....more on that in my next post.