Doily and mandala

 

 

On one of my visits to Ravelry I found this lovely doily and just had to whip it up. It's the Hexagon Swirl Doily by Shireen Nadir. I'm using it for the Tiffany lamp we brought back from Katoomba:

And' I've started my next mandala with the Strawberries and Scream Whirl:

Yes, it's another Lotus and Blossom Mandala. I looked at lots of mandala patterns and in the end decided to go for this one, again!

Mandala Pillow

 

While searching for mandala patterns on Ravelry, I came across the Minimalist Cabled Mandala designed by Tatsiana Kupryianchyk. I really liked it, so bought the pattern and immediately started crocheting, using some grey cotton 8 ply from Bendigo Woollen Mills.

It didn't take long to finish the mandala:

What to do with it? I decided to use it for a pillow. I made a simple round pillow with some black fabric:

 Then I made a plain back side, and crocheted both sides together around the pillow:

 Isn't it adorable?

Sea Colours Blanket 2

 

 It's finished! The second Sea Colours Blanket (remember, I made another one back in 2017, when I had just learned to crochet). So happy with it.

And just in time for a seriously cold snap here in Queensland. So nice to snuggle up on the couch with this blankie.

It goes really well with the sea creatures I made earlier this year.

So what's next? Well... I really want to make another mandala. With this Whirl (Strawberries and Scream):

The Lotus and Blossom Mandala is hanging in our bedroom now, but its colours don't go well with the colours of our bed linen.

So I want to make another one (this one will go to my son's room, as he really likes it). I'm not sure yet if I will make a third Lotus and Blossom Mandala, or a different pattern. To be continued...

Almost finished

  

The plan was for the Sea Colours blanket to be finished when winter starts here in the Southern Hemisphere. Winter starts tomorrow, and the blanket is almost finished.... but I've run out of white yarn - again!

So I've ordered more yarn from Bendigo Woollen Mills. At least I can use the blanket to stay warm while waiting for the yarn to arrive!

Update

 

 

The Sea Colours Blanket is progressing nicely - it's about two thirds done now.

 

 

I ran out of yarn, so ordered more. Isn't that just a gorgeous sight, a basket full of yarn?

At Easter, we visited our friends at their new home in the Blue Mountains. I had brought the Lotus and Blossom Mandala I made for them, a hoop and tape, and on the first morning after we arrived I taped the hoop and stretched the mandala in the hoop, and they hung it on the wall straight away!

 

 

Doesn't it look great up there? 

 I might make another mandala once the Sea Colours Blanket is done - I just love how they look and I really enjoyed crocheting it!

 

 

We had a lovely time in the Blue Mountains. We spent one night at the gorgeous Carrington Hotel:

 

 

And we explored Katoomba, which is full of art deco buildings and has lots of street art - my kind of place!

 

 

More photos on my photo blog!

Lotus and Blossom Mandala 2

 

 

Yesterday I finished my second Lotus and Blossom Mandala (I showed the first one here). It's a housewarming gift for friends who have just bought a house in the Blue Mountains - we are going to visit them during the Easter holidays. I have ordered a hoop to stretch the mandala in, but will do that once we are there; I don't think it would look very good after two days in the car!

 

 

 

My friend chose the Whirl for this mandala, it's called Tasty Nom Nom.

 

 

I very much enjoyed crocheting this mandala (while listening to audio books) - as I said before, it looks complicated, but isn't very difficult, and the second time was easier than the first of course. It only took me 17 days to finish it. I wouldn't mind making another one!

SIL

 

 

Last year, when I had made an amiguruME doll of my BFF, my sister-in-law asked if I could make one of her. Of course!

 

 

She is a role play actor and asked me to make a doll of a specific character that she often plays: a cleaning lady. You can hire her to come to your conference or business event and she will appear at the end to summarise the day's events in a humouristic manner. So clever! You can read more about it on her website Lach op de Dag (in Dutch, obviously).

 

 

It took me a long time to finish this doll, but here she is! The eighth amiguruME doll I have made - you can see them all if you search for the amiguruME tag on this blog.

Progress

 

 

My Sea Colours blanket is progressing nicely - about one quarter is done now. I'm really enjoying crocheting it.

 

 

I ran out of white yarn recently and had to order more from Bendigo Woollen Mills. While waiting for that order, I started another project: a flamingo! My youngest son had asked me to make one for him.

 

 

The pattern is from the book Crocheted Wild Animals by Vanessa Mooncie. In 2019 I made an owl for my middle son from that same book.

 

 

I like having more than one project on the go, as when you get tired of one, you can work on the other for a bit. I'm about to start on a third project as well, a housewarming present for a friend. Just waiting for the yarn to arrive... Stay tuned!

New project

 

 

Last year I made a Bertie Baby Blanket as a present for friends who had their first baby (here is the pattern on Ravelry and here is my blanket). I really enjoyed making it - the pattern is simple enough to crochet while watching tv or listening to an audiobook, but not boring, and it looks so good! - so decided to make a large one for myself, in sea colours of course!

 

 

It's about 130cm wide and I'm planning for it to be 2m long. It should be finished when winter starts here in the Southern Hemisphere :-)

 

 

I got 10 balls of Scheepjes Softfun in sea colours. It's a lovely soft yarn, a pleasure to crochet with. The white yarn is cotton 8ply from Bendigo Woollen Mills, another favourite.

It will be my second Sea Colours Blanket - I made the first one in 2017, when I had just learned to crochet!

Sea creatures

 

 

We've painted the walls in our new house aqua. When it was still empty it looked like a big aquarium and I said I'd make some sea creatures to decorate it.

 

 

And so I did! I bought the book Crocheted Sea Creatures by Vanessa Mooncie and so far I have made a starfish and an octopus. I also want to make a sea urchin, and maybe a nautilus and a puffer fish...

 

 

The creatures look very good in our aquarium living room, don't you think? ;-)

The last post of the year

 

 

2020 is almost over, and like everyone else I am glad to see the end of this year. Although the Covid situation here in Queensland, Australia, isn't nearly as bad as in many other places around the world, the pandemic has still had a large impact on our lives. The worst thing for me personally was that I couldn't travel to the Netherlands when a loved one got sick and died back in July.

Crochet, along with reading and running, has been a good way for me to deal with everything 2020 threw at me. I finished 12 projects this year - big ones, like my Up North Cardigan and the Lotus & Blossom Mandala, and small ones like the four colourful dishcloths (the fourth one was finished yesterday!):

 

 

I didn't do any sewing, quilting or knitting in 2020. I did discover a new craft: embroidery. I made two pieces and I really like both of them, but I don't think I'll be making any more anytime soon.

 

 

 

The best thing for us in 2020 was that after almost 14 years in Australia we finally bought our own house!

 

We moved in a month ago and are very much enjoying making it ours. The mandala has found a spot in the living room:

 

 

While unpacking boxes I came across this quilt that I made many years ago. I put it up on the wall over the dining table - everyone loves it!

 

 

Wooyung, Thinking of Holland and My Calendar are in the hallway:

 

 

Cycle of Life is also in the living room:

 

 

And my whole amigurumi family is on display on top of the bookcase!

 

 

There are some other quilts that still need to be put up on the walls, and of course it's too hot at the moment to have quilts on the beds.

Meanwhile some new balls of yarn have arrived for my next crochet project...

 

 

 

I hope you will visit this blog again in 2021 to find out what I am going to make with these!

Having said that, thanks for visiting this year, I appreciate it. And I would like to wish all my readers a happy, creative, and especially healthy 2021 - here's hoping that life will become a bit more normal soon.