The madness has come to an end...

Since Sunday's YOP post is supposed to be a wrap up for the entire YOP year, I decided to create a separate post for the wrap up of my Mandala Madness.  I thought it would be fun to post all the pictures together just to see the transitions in one spot.

So here we go:  

The blanket measures 63 inches across.  

There are points (in the above pictures) where I like it better than the final project (I especially the like the purple rounds and bright pink and bright green rounds), but this thing really needs to end.  I can always add to it later if I decide to (I think there are 18 parts total and I finished 12).

It was a fun mystery CAL.  Something I'd never done before. And I'm glad to be finished, to wash it and put it up to wait for the right person to give it to.  Maybe I'll have a grand daughter some day who'll enjoy snuggling up under it, thinking Grandma  was one crazy lady for making such a thing.

Two blankets, one finish...

It needs no introduction, so I present Part 11 of my Mandala Madness:

And, just for Marsha...   Here I am (not exactly) hanging out the window snapping the picture above:

I remember my overriding thought at this moment was, "I must not drop the camera."

It didn't occur to me until I went to open the window and remove the screen that because the window moves over to the middle as it opens, there is no way I could actually "hang out" of it.  But still...  I couldn't help but think, the things we do for our fellow Yoppers.   But it's great, as I discovered a way to take pictures of really large, round blankets. :)   As long as the weather allows, anyway.

~~~~

And this weekend I finished the Spring into Summer baby blanket:

Made with Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable yarn in the colorway, Candied.  This is a self-striping yarn and the idea behind using it in a pattern like this is that there should be very few ends to weave in. Unfortunately, I found a particular color run to be pretty seriously unattractive (so muted and almost a non-color that it looked dirty), so I did a fair amount of snipping out those sections of yarn. And once in a while I'd end up with three rows, one after the other, where one color dominated.  I couldn't have that, so I'd cut and restart in a different place in the skein in those places.  While I suppose I had fewer ends to sew in than if every single row was started with a new skein/color of yarn, it was a bit mind boggling to see all the ends I did have to sew in.

It turned out very pretty though.  And it's oh so soft  - perfect for a baby.  While it was more work than a self-striping yarn should be to work with, I'm really happy with the finished project.

Check out what other Yoppers are up to by visiting this week's thread on Ravelry.

The madness got even crazier this week...

Finally!   I managed to get Part 10 finished of my Mandala Madness.  It may not look crazy, but this part was the craziest (most intricate) part to date.

I think (after this week) it will be too large for me to get the whole thing in a picture shooting straight on - unless I lay it outside in the grass and hang out of an upstairs window to snap a picture.   I'm tempted...

Truth be told, I'm not real crazy about all that white in this last part, but I'm hoping it feels less...I don't know...white, I guess, when I do the next sections where I'll be using blues and green for Parts 11 & 12.   I'm ready to be finished with this thing - I think it's about 58 inches across now - but it needs something beyond that last pink and white part to anchor it (both color-wise and stitch-wise).  I know part 11 won't be enough to finish on, but I'm hoping by the end of Part 12 I'll be happy enough with it to call it a wrap, and that it will be perfect for a child or maybe a pre-teen to wrap up in it.

~~~~

Yesterday I attended the Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival in our little town.  I guess it's held here at our county fairgrounds every year (I know it was here last year, but I heard about it too late to attend).

Anyway, it's the first of its kind I've ever been to.  It was interesting seeing everything from raw fleece to cleaned and carded fleece, to roving fibers, to undyed yarn, to beautiful colors of hand-dyed, hand-spun yarn, to commercially dyed and spun yarns.  There were booths where crafts persons sold beautifully carved drop spindles, ceramic and wooden yarn bowls, shawl pins, yarn soaps and soaks, and there was even a booth that sold homemade fudge.  Mmmm...   I almost forgot I'm foregoing candy and sugar right now - it smelled so good it almost pulled me in like a magnet.

In the end, though, after walking around for an hour (and 10-15 minutes of that were talking with a friend I ran into) I decided there was nothing there I wanted badly enough to part with my cash for.  Which surprised me.  I had hoped to find a pretty yarn bowl, and would have bought a hank or two of hand-spun yarn if it begged me to.  But there was nothing I felt compelled to buy.  It was both a relief and a disappointment.

Ah well...  I do think I'll go back again next year.  It won't all be new to me and maybe I'll have a better sense of what, specifically, I'd be interested in buying, rather than just hoping something "calls out" to me.

~~~~~

On another note...  I've been enjoying using my newly made stitch markers this week, but I've learned an important lesson.  These really need to open wide to make it easy to attach to a stitch.  I've concluded I much prefer the lever back earring fasteners, and following after that the large lobster claw fasteners.  The smaller lobster claws work, but they're small enough that it's a bit too fiddly for me to be completely happy with them as stitch markers.  I may remake those some day.  They're usable.  Just not preferred.

So note to myself...   buy more lever backs:

And as my fellow Yoppers have been mentioning for a month or so, we're getting ready to wrap up this Year Of Projects year.  A YOP year runs from July through June and that means we've only got three more Sunday's worth of YOP posts!  On July 3rd we should be posting our first post of the next YOP year.  It is in this first post where we reveal our personal goals regarding what we hope to accomplish with the fiber arts - though I've also loved reading about non-fiber creative pursuits fellow Yoppers have posted about from time to time.

If this sounds like something you'd enjoy doing, I invite you to join us.  It's pretty low-key, but at the same time hugely encouraging.  Each person decides what kind of goals s/he wants to set and then just gets on with it and blogging about it.  Some people are very specific about what projects they want to finish, others (like me) use their goals list as an idea generator.  I am motivated better with a list of ideas rather than a list of specific projects.  There is no pressure if a week (or a month, or more) is missed.  But I'll be honest.  I set for myself the modest goal of posting once or maybe twice a month and once I started I managed to not miss a single week!  I've really surprised myself at that.

Sooo...come check us out!  And please consider joining us.  The more the merrier, and the more creative we all are!  Click on the graphic below to visit the Year of Projects group on Ravelry.

The Madness Continues...

Keeping my Year of Projects post really short this week, I give you Part 9 of my Mandala Madness.

The waviness of the edges is supposed to settle down with Part 10.  I have no idea how or why, but I've learned to trust the designer.  When she says something will happen, it tends to happen.  I tried to be proactive and measure this thing before posting, but I got a rough measurement of 43 inches across, which is the same measurement I got last week.  Hmmm....  Clearly, I'm going to have to wait 'till the waves are calm before I can manage to measure accurately.

And that's all from me on this beautiful fourth Sunday in May.  :)  Check out what other Yoppers are up to by visiting our Ravelry thread this week!

Loving the lavender...

First up, week 8 of my Mandala Madness:

I admit - I love the light lavender!

~~~

And yippee skippee -- I finally finished the Diamond Stitch Baby Blanket, which ended up being too large for a baby blanket.   I'm thinking it's perfect for a young child, though.  Or maybe a large lap blanket for someone older?  This first picture shows just a little over half of the finished blanket - made with Deborah Norville's Everyday, yarn in the color, orchid (which, in my mind, translates to lavender :^).

While I love the diamond pattern for its simple elegance, I'm wondering if it needs something - like maybe some crocheted flower appliques - like in the bottom right-hand corner.   But if I do that, how many and what size?  Truthfully, I'm not sure I even want to do anything more, but I'm open to at least hearing ideas.  Please weigh in below if you have an opinion.

Finishing up the Diamond Stitch blanket I immediately began on the Spring Into Summer Blanket using Red Heart Boutique yarn in the the colorway Candied:

I've always thought the original of this blanket is pretty, so I decided while I'm in a small blanket kind of mood, now's a good time to make one.

To see what other Yoppers are up to visit our thread this week on Ravelry.  And consider joining us come the first Sunday in July for a new Year of Projects year.  Come check out the group and see if this sounds like fun.  We'd all love to see new folks join us!

Mostly small things...

First up - Part 7 of my not-so-small Mandala Madness:

While I think it looks better in the picture than it does in real life, this last round kind of works for me with that splash of bright pink and bright green and going a little easier on the dark purple. So what's next?  Back to the pink and white for the next few rounds...

~~~~~

And looking for a smaller, lighter weight project I whipped up one of these Kaldred Bracelets:

This is an easy project - and easy to adapt to different weight threads and yarns.   While I added a clasp, it's unnecessary.  Even with cotton thread, this bracelet stretches just enough to ease this right over my hand.    

~~~~~~

Saturday morning I attended an event called "Garden Celebration" here in our town (at the county fairgrounds).  There were vendors of all sorts selling a variety of things from antiques, soaps and essential oils, honey, outdoor furniture, crafty items, and of course plants.  There were several seminars throughout the day, and I chose to attend one about the need for establishing Monarch butterfly way stations between Mexico and Canada - for Monarchs to stop, mate, and lay their eggs on their annual migration north.  Long story short, I'm now contemplating where might be the perfect spot for planting Milkweed in our backyard.  Very interesting information shared in this seminar.

And, of course I bought a few plants - a Chocolate Cherry Tomato plant (the ripe tomatoes are supposed to be purple, and no, they won't taste like chocolate ;^), and a sweet red pepper plant along with various decorative plants to go with my flowers I'll be potting this week.  

My favorite purchase, though was this little felted bowl:

I have no clue what I'm going to put in it, but it is so adorable I decided I didn't care. I know I'll figure out some use for this pretty little bowl.   I want to give felting a try, but I'm not sure I can do it in my high efficiency washing machine that has no agitator.  So, until I do decide to try felting I'll just admire my little bowl and think about pretty colors I could blend together into a felted something. ;^)

To top off the day, on Saturday evening we visited with my husband's parents to wish my mother-in-law an early Happy Mother's Day. Since gardening is on my brain, I took her a pretty potted Dahlia plant.  It was a nice, quiet visit with just the parents-in-law and my sister-in-law.  And while we were there, we watched the Kentucky Derby. Evidently it's an annual tradition for my in-laws to watch the Kentucky Derby on TV.   In all the years I've lived within 2 hours of Louisville, Kentucky, I've never even been curious enough to watch this race on TV.  Now that I have seen it, I can only say... Wow - such a lot of hoopla over a race that lasts maybe two minutes?!?!  While I have to say I really don't get it, I will admit...  it was an exciting two minutes.  :^)

After a Mother's Day lunch today, the family decided at the last minute to go watch The Jungle Book movie.  Now, not being a big fan of talking animals, and understanding that most of the movie is computer generated I originally didn't have much interest in seeing this movie.  But when everyone said they'd like to go, and it being a rainy day, I decided it was as good a thing to do as anything.  OH MY!!!    What a good movie it is!   The CG is amazing.  Even knowing most of the movie was computer generated I had to keep reminding myself that the animals weren't real.  That the scenes were not real.  The voices were perfect, and the emotion shown in the animals' faces and movements made me a believer in CG.  Honestly, I felt like I could watch it again - just to be amazed all over again by the creativity of the computer artists.  Sigh.

And that wraps up the week.  While we've had a fair amount of rain and it's been chilly this weekend in Indiana, it has been a lovely Mothers' Day weekend.  

Come see what other Yoppers are up to, visit this week's thread on Ravelry.

May Day Mandala

On this beautiful first day of May, I offer this week's installment of my Mandala Madness:

I kind of like how Part 6 turned out.  Continuing with the blues and green makes this soften right up. But of course, thinking it's time to add back in the bright pink (it's actually called Shocking Pink) and purple, I'm already starting to worry it's going to go all gaudy again.  Seriously wishing I'd never used those colors to begin with.  Oh well, I bravely crochet on...

~~~~~

The only other crocheting that got any attention this week was my Diamond Stitch Baby Blanket:

It's about half way finished now, but progress seems slow.  For such an easy pattern, it has been ripped back an awful lot.  The concept of the pattern isn't hard at all, but it's very easy to lose track and make mistakes, I'm finding.

And that's all there is to mention on the crochet front.  To see what other Yoppers are up to, visit this week's thread on Ravelry.

The madness continues...

Well, I'm glad to be committed (for the time being) to completing a round every week of the Mandala Madness CAL or else I'd have nothing  to show.    It's been a busy time here recently, and while some crocheting is happening in moments here and there, I've not been able to get much traction toward completing the couple of other projects I currently have on my hooks.

So today, I will show you Part 5 of my Mandala Madness:

While I still wish I had picked different colors (something more subdued, or at least cohesive) I just can't get over how each new round of different colors transforms the whole thing.   I know I said something similar last week, but it's true!  It's such a surprise every week.   A little exciting, and a little scary at the same time, but I've finally decided I'm having fun with it.  :^)

And that's all I've got for today. After church we're heading to the north side of Indy to visit with extended family and to celebrate three April birthdays.  Oldest son's was a week and a half ago, mine was last Monday, and DH's is today.  And it's supposed to be a beautiful, sunny, mid-70 degree day today. Whoo Hoo!  Can't ask for more. :^)

To see what other Yoppers are up to, visit our thread on Ravelry.  It's not too early to consider joining us for next year's Year of Projects.  I think we begin our new year on the first Sunday of July.  I (and others) will, no doubt, write more in the coming months, but for now you can come check us out and see what you think.

Have a good week, everybody!

Spring is in the air...

A short, but sweet post this week - full of the colors of spring time.

First, this week's Mandala Madness:

It brightened right up with pink and white in this last part.  It's amazing how each new layer totally transforms the layers preceding it.

~~~

And this week I'm hosting a CAL on Ravelry with this little Doily Purse:

It was a cute and fairly quick project.  Perfect for a little girl (probably preschool age) to use for her small treasures.  I adapted the pattern by simply crocheting my bag in the round (spiraling up until it was the size I wanted it to be.  The handle is crocheted from where the bag ended and attached on the other side.  It's a super simple little bag and my notes can be found on my Ravelry project page.

And that's really all the crocheting I did this week.  It's been glorious weather-wise and my attention has been turned to the outdoors.  I picked my last pretty tulip for the picture above and got the flower beds weeded, mulched and even planted some zinnia seeds.  It's a little early for planting, but it's so warm I think I'm safe.  I can't wait until I have zinnias in bloom again.  They are a feast for the eyes!

The weekend has been filled with good things - beginning with a high school drama (featuring some young friends) on Friday night and culminating with dinner at Barcelona Tapas in Indy to celebrate oldest son's 27th birthday.   It's a new restaurant for us - it ought be fun trying out and sharing the different tapas - all of which are foreign to us.  =^)

I look forward to another promising week weather-wise and more gardening to freshen up the place.   I do love this time of year...

To see what other Yoppers have been up to recently, check out our thread on Ravelry!

No method to my madness...

No finished objects, but here's what I'm working on...

First, my progress in the Mandala Madness CAL:

I think I mentioned before that I feel a bit ambivalent about this thing, but this week I think I crossed over and have now embraced the madness.  To tell you the truth, a couple of weeks ago I saw someone else's mandala that was. I think, maybe only as far along as the star shape, and I thought it looked pretty.  So I took a leap and decided to give it a try.  I think if it had been labeled a Mystery CAL I would have remembered that I don't do mystery CALs.   But my brain did not register "mystery" when I checked it out, and only seeing fun colors and neat shapes I somehow thought "Hey that looks like fun!"

And just like that I signed up and began, every week, to torture myself over what colors I'm going to use in a project that I have no idea of what's coming next.  My hope was I  could keep it lively and bold, but not push it over the line into garish.  I torture myself no more.  Clearly, that line is behind me and there's no going back.

So I've embraced the madness.  The unpredictability of what's coming next.  My limitations at understanding color theory.  When all is said and done, I am learning some interesting stitches and the other peeps in the CAL are a friendly bunch.  So I'll continue until I decide I'm done.  And I will bravely show my progress here for next few weeks.

~~~

My Diamond Stitch Baby Blanket is coming along slowly.  Not because it's a hard pattern, but I tend to get distracted and have to rip out to correct mistakes.  I'm only a little further than this picture shows.   I really like this pattern and I imagine doing more blankets using it - maybe even an adult sized blanket.

~~~

And yesterday I started making an April Showers Doily.  It's being made in another CAL on Ravelry, but this time I knew what I was getting into.   Well...except that I've never made a doily before and I had no idea how hard it is to crochet with thread and a teeny tiny crochet hook.    While it's not the tiniest crochet hook made, this 1.5 mm crochet hook is super little for my middle-aged eyes.

To make it even more challenging I decided to add beads.  And to my dismay, the beads appear green when they're all congregated together.  When I threaded them on, they looked to be the same color as the thread so I'm hoping as I spread them out at the end of this doily they will not look so green, but will somehow take on the color of the thread (or something that goes with the thread).   And while I'm questioning my sanity I can't help but wonder already what my next crocheted thread project might be.  :^)

Visit the Year of Projects group on Ravelry to see what other Yoppers are up to this week.  You'll need a free Ravelry membership to take a look.  Come join the fun!

When inspiration doesn't strike...

I've been looking forward to starting a Call the Midwife Blanket.  So this week, I did.

But after completing one section of the pattern repeat I decided I wasn't completely enthralled with it. Actually, I didn't like how it was turning out at all.  I don't know why.  I don't know if it's the yarn I'm using (Stylecraft DK), or if it just doesn't show well before it gets a good blocking.  I've had to block enough items, though, that I don't think that would turn me off from a project.  Not completely sure why I can look at pictures and love the variations that crocheters have come up with, but I look at my own start and not like it at all, I've decided to not be rash and rip it out, but to lay it aside to think on it for a while.

Then looking over in the large crochet basket, I'm reminded that I still need to finish Part 3 of the Mandala Madness CAL.  I looked at what I had so far and I didn't feel inspired by it either.  I'm still struggling with my sense of ambivalence  about the colors I've chosen to work with.



While I'm not too sure about this project either, I'm pretty committed to at least seeing it through to a small child-size blanket.  I'm choosing to look at it as an exercise in playing with color and hope for something fun - maybe even a bit whimsical when it's completed.  Not feeling convinced, I suppose, I'd not been able to bring myself to work on it for most of last week.  Let's hope I get some whimsy-vision going here.  I need to not get too far behind...

Fearing I'm lapsing into a bit of dry spell where it comes to crochet inspiration, I'm thinking I just need to do something that doesn't require a great deal of thought, but on the other hand doesn't have a pattern that is so repetitive that it numbs the mind.

Looking on Ravelry for something that might fit what I need, I came across The Diamond Stitch Baby Blanket.    What a lovely, simple design!   It's proving to be pretty perfect for what I hope are just some temporary crochet doldrums.  An almost elegant design that's just the right amount of challenge to keep me on my toes.  Unfortunately, I'm learning this the hard way, as I've found myself several times needing to rip back to a place where I hadn't bothered to count, but for some reason didn't notice it until I was a few rows beyond my mistake.  Clearly, I wasn't paying attention for a while.

There's no good reason why I'm not at least halfway into my second set of diamonds, except for my not paying attention, so hopefully now that I realize I can't "zone out" I will be more careful and get this whipped up pretty quickly.  I'm using one of my favorite acrylics, Deborah Norville's Everyday yarn, though I think most crocheters (on Ravelry) have made this pattern out of a lighter worsted, Dk, or even sport weight yarn.  As I searched my stash I found plenty of this wonderful shade of Orchid in worsted weight and I decided to go with it.  So far it seems to be working very nicely.

To see what others are working on in their Year of Projects this spring, visit this week's thread on Ravelry.  Come see what we're all about and consider joining us if it looks like fun.  If you'd like to start when we begin  a new YOP year, that happens on July 1st.

To access all the links in this post, you'll need a free Ravelry membership.  Membership is easy and the community there is greatly encouraging.

Creativity is sometimes an awkward process...

This week I began working on the Mandala Madness CAL and below is as far as I've gotten (I've finished Part 1).  For the record, I'm almost two weeks behind, which means I can see two levels beyond where I presently am in working the design.  This has some advantages.  Or so it would seem.  I can anticipate, a bit, how many colors the next section will use and how they play with each other - so it seems like this would help me pick out colors, both in the part I'm presently crocheting and in thinking about what colors will look good in the next part.  But I'm finding, in some ways, it paralyzes me from making any firm decisions about colors at all. Not only am I second-guessing the section I'm working on, but I spend the time I'm crocheting one section stewing over the next section as well.  This does not seem to me to be a good thing.  Sigh.  All the things I fear about mystery CALs are coming to fruition, and  I'm thinking it was pretty impetuous of me to jump into this one.

I've recognized my color challenged-ness in the past, but something like this presses it to the limits.  I'm going for bright, flowery and fun (thinking I'll just make a small blanket that maybe a little girl will like), but I'm afraid all I'm going to achieve is gaudy, loud and crazy.

As much as I feel intimidated by this CAL, I guess the only thing to do is press on through each next part and hope for the best.  The first best is that I will create a masterpiece (giggling).  The last best is that I will learn some things about how colors play (or fight) with each other. And I'll learn my lesson once and for all that it takes a truly special person to enjoy a mystery CAL.

And I can't help but once again see the irony of the book I'm still (sort of) reading The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women by Gail McMeekin).   Me, a woman who isn't sure she can successfully put more than three colors together, reading a book about unleashing and freely exploring my own creativity.  It's at times like these I wonder if I have even the smallest smidgen of honest creativity to my name...

But I'll keep on - for now - dabbling with colorful yarns in this CAL, and I guess I'll keep plugging through this book - as long as I can continue to renew it (it's a library book) -  and we'll see where it all leads.  Creativity is sometimes an awkward process.  But it is a process...

Joining this post with Ginny Sheller's Yarn Along