Crocheted Mandalas: Wink's Patterns

Hooray!  It finally snowed today!  Just little specs of snow flying through the air and melting on the ground, but snow nonetheless after such a dry, warm winter.  Hooray!  It's been a grey day, though, and I though it might be nice to enjoy a bit of colorful crochet here on the blog and also in the Mersy nest.  

Over the past year, I've come to appreciate the colorfulness, decorativeness, artistry, and mindfulness of mandalas.  They really do feel like an exercise in "completeness" as you stitch them.  I was very sad to hear about Wink's passing this past autumn, and as I had been meaning to make more mandalas, I thought it would be nice to try her patterns and tutorials.  The result was several weeks of happy stitching and lots of brightness added to our apartment.

I had so enjoyed reading Wink's blog, and I really appreciated her take on the therapeutic nature of crocheting and knitting.  When I began this project a few weeks ago, I set out to make each one of her mandalas in coordinating colors (I've got a thing about things needing to match!), but I realized that her "I Love Holland Mandala" pattern is, understandably, no longer for sale.  I've been thinking of trying to extrapolate the stitches from the photographs, as it really is a lovely pattern.  She had even created a stitch to mimic the shape of tulips- how brilliant is that?!

These were a joy to make, and I finished each one quite quickly because it was so interesting to stitch.  Wink thought up really clever ways to create dimension and texture in the mandalas with slightly puffed stitches, raised and lowered layers, and even decorative Tunisian crochet chains.  I can't recommend the patterns highly enough- here is the link if you'd like to explore.

I hope there's brightness even on the snowiest of days for you!

Lots of love,

~Mersydotes