Advent Crochet Meditation III

Hello!

Glad you are here for the third Crochet Advent Meditation! We hope you enjoyed last week's episode and are looking forward to see your pictures! There now is a Ravelry page for the coaster, so hop over there if you haven't already. 

Some people were wondering who  was reading the meditation - well that mystery is easy to solve! It is Michelle, the Australian part of Crochet Between Worlds. 

We are now little over a week away from Christmas. Time flies, doesn't it? We hope with meditation helps you to relax during this busy days and gets you in spirit for Christmas!

Like last week, there are several different ways available to access the podcast. Note that Googledrive will most likely be out of bandwidth at some point, so if that happens, use one of the other options. 

Youtube: Crochet Meditation III

We hope you enjoy this weeks meditation! If you have any questions, post them here or on Facebook. Please note that Anne - the German part of Crochet Between Worlds - is on holidays til Thursday, so there might be some delays. 

We tried very hard to eliminate any mistakes in the pattern but as you know, we are only human... if you find a mistake, tell us about it and we will start an errata list.

Take care, 
Michelle & Anne

REVIEW: Round and Round the Crochet Hook by Emily Littlefair

Hi everyone!

Today I have something a bit special for you - a peek at Emily Littlefair's new book, Round and Round the Crochet Hook. It is a gorgeous book of patterns with things you can crochet for your home, such as table runners, blankets, decorations, coasters and doilies. 

It was so hard to choose which pattern to try out - I don't need more blankets, my husband can't stand doilies, the coasters would come out huge in the DK yarn that I had to work with... but I just kept flicking back to the "Stars in the Night Sky" pattern. Yes it's a doily, but I figured I could make the beautiful stars individually as coasters instead of joining them together!

I used Drops Cotton Merino, which is soft enough to be lovely to work with, and firm enough to be able to hold up to being used as coasters.

The pattern is very clearly written, and I had no problems following the instructions or the chart.  

The finished stars did require steam blocking with the iron to get them to sit flat, but no pins were needed, just gentle coaxing with my fingers to straighten up the points. 

Aren't stars just perfect for this time of year? The coasters came out the ideal size for our oversize mugs, and even the little snowman got the opportunity of a comfy seat!

Overall this is a beautifully written, charted and photographed book. Thank you Emily!! 

Round and round in circles - Mandala time!

I've been a little bit naughty today - supposed to be working on the order list, and hunting down kitchen equipment for the new house at the lake, testing a pattern for a friend... but instead all I wanted to do is play with my new cotton supplies that arrived yesterday! 

It's Red Heart Miami, 4 ply 100% cotton, from loveknitting.com. Such vibrant colours and reasonable prices! 

This colourful cotton is to make pretty and useful coasters and heat mats for the house my parents are building at Lake Macquarie. My mission sent me hunting for good coaster patterns that show off the lovely colours, while also being the right size and shape. It took me ages to find one that I actually liked, and when I tried the pattern, I just couldn't get it to look neat :( 

But then... hunting through Zooty Owl's blog for other things, I saw some of the amazing mandalas she has designed. I haven't really been interested in mandalas before - I like the things I make to be practical, useful or good to cuddle, and the contexts I had seen mandalas in before was as art or just being beautiful. Mandalas are round though - could they make good coasters and heat mats? 

Absolutely!! Above is Zooty Owl's Sunny Flower Mini Mandala in two sizes - 10.5cm for coasters, and 21cm for heat mats. The coasters are made with a 1.5mm hook and one strand of the cotton yarn, and the heat mats are made with a 3.5mm hook and two strands of the yarn. I also washed and blocked the heat mat to make it sit nice and even :) 

Sadly, as you can see in the photo above, the orange dye ran a little bit being washed and ironed. I am a bit reluctant to wash the pink yarn now. Any ideas on how to stop the colour running in the finished piece?

I'm really looking forward to making a whole stack of the little coasters and some more heat mats in this pattern. Plus, I discovered Zooty Owl has a table runner pattern using the same mandala! House decoration solved :D 

Have you ever tried making mandalas? What have you used them for?