Extreme Knitting Redhead: Crochet mandala

Friday, September 14, 2012

Crochet mandala

Tinker and I settled down to a bit of crochet using this beautiful mandala design by Carola Herbst. The pattern is very detailed and well written. I just had to remember that it used American crochet terms so I had to pay attention and change sc to dc etc etc.

In her design she used dk cotton but I wanted to use Rowan Summer Tweed, an aran weight as I wanted it to be bigger and more bulky.

There were a few false starts on the colour choices as I wanted it to co-ordinate with my curtains and cushion.

But eventually I settled on a good combo and I was off!

I'd never tried overlay crochet before and it is fascinating and very absorbing. It's really interesting seeing the layers develop. After an hour of hooky fun, this is what I'd done.

There are lots more rounds to crochet and I'm looking forward to watching the pattern develop. Carola's instructions are really clear and very detailed.

I recently bought this book - Crochet Masterclass in which there is another beautiful pattern by Melody MacDuffee using overlay crochet (part of it is shown on the front cover). Her piece uses embroidery cottons which sounds great fun as I have a large collection of many colours.

I'm looking forward to trying some new and more challenging techniques such as Clones Lace (using a .75mm hook, yikes!) and revisiting old friends such as hairpin lace - I don't think I've done that since the 1970s when I made shawls!

2 comments:

Jacquie said...: Hi Suzy , thank you for your comment....it's great to find your blog and I'd like to follow you but can't see a followers button.
Your running is wonderfully inspiring and your fundraising something so positive to honor your Mum's memory and help others...amazing.
Jacquie x; September 19, 2012 at 2:11:00 AM PDT
Susie Hewer said...: Hi Jacquie, thanks for your kind words. Sorry, I removed the 'follow me button' a while ago 'cos I kept getting strange spam. It's back now and the follow by email is at the bottom of the page. Many thanks, Susie; September 19, 2012 at 3:49:00 AM PDT

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Mum's Story

In 1997 my mother, then aged 81, had a series of minor strokes. Shortly after that we started to notice behavioural changes notably memory loss and confusion over everyday items. We thought it was just old age finally catching up with her. Then she started wandering and had violent mood swings. Although she already lived with us it became obvious that she couldn't be left alone for long and so I left my job to care for her. The next few years saw a gradual decline into the blackness that is 'vascular dementia'. My normally placid mum became violent and aggressive. She had psychotic incidents where she would see imaginary people (children hiding in her wardrobe, Russians sitting on the stairs, women stealing her clothes) and she would shout at them and sometimes throw things too. She was so convincing that we used to go and check that there wasn't anyone there! When my sister died mum did not know who Judy was or that she was her daughter. There came a point when I suddenly realised she no longer knew that I was her daughter and this was a terrible time for me. In the last 2 years that she lived with us, life for us all became almost unbearable as she needed 24 hour care - she couldn't be left alone at all because she would either wander off or hurt herself, she never slept for more than 30 minutes at a time during the night, she became incontinent and incapable of doing anything for herself. Finally my husband and I realised that we could no longer provide her with the care that she needed and she went to live in a special care home where the team did a splendid job caring for her in the last few months of her life. There she lived a zombified existence unaware of who she was, what she was or where she was. It was heartbreaking. She died in March 2005, the day after her 89th birthday.

Thank you for taking the time to read mum's story and I hope you'll dig deep and sponsor me using the link below to help find a way of beating this destructive disease.