Mandalas, modern doilies, large coasters, call them what you like. They are all the rage right now and I’ve hopped onto that bandwagon. I’ve actually been on the wagon since September when I made the “vintage-style vase coaster” from Nicki Trench’s book which I reviewed here. I really enjoyed working in the round, making each round a different stitch and different colour. I love mixing things up, so these kind of patterns are right up my street. When I made that purple and white vase coaster I knew it was going to be used as a centrepiece on the tables at the Crochet for Kidney Research UK day on the 9th of November. Now I just needed to make five more so that I had one for each of the six tables.

Out of the blue I remembered seeing mandalas in Simply Crochet magazines. They were designed by Marinke a.k.a. Winkieflash, which I follow on Twitter and Instagram. Her mandalas would be perfect for my tables! I had to flick through all my copies of Simply Crochet magazine to find the two patterns. It was a task I thoroughly enjoyed – there are so many things I still want to crochet! *Note to self: page through your crochet books and magazines more often* Lots of post-it notes and folded page corners later, I eventually found Marinke’s mandala patterns in issues 5 and 7. I made copies of the patterns and took it, my purple and white yarn and 4 mm crochet hook with me on holiday.

Aaah, what bliss to be crocheting on holiday. Between going to the beach, afternoon naps, discovering narrow streets and feasting at seaside cafes, it took me two days to crochet the mandalas. You’ve already seen the video of me sitting on the balcony, weaving in the ends. If you missed it, click here to go to the YouTube video.

I couldn’t resist hanging my mandalas on the washing line in front of our holiday flat.  I don’t think anyone from the street noticed them, but I certainly couldn’t stop looking.

Now for the nitty-gritty of the mandalas.

Yarn: A mix of mostly Vinni’s Colours Nikkim and some Stylecraft Cotton Classique and  Rowan Handknit cotton

Hook: 4 mm

Pattern: Summer Hearts from issue 5 and Picots and Petals from issue 7 of Simply Crochet magazine. Marinke blogged about her patterns here. She designed six mandalas for Simply Crochet magazine, so there are more to come. Yeah!

Modifications made: I had to modify them all. Not because I didn’t like the pattern, but because I had to make the mandalas bigger so that they would be roughly the same size as the vintage-style vase coaster and in proportion with a 6 to 8 seat table.

Summer Hearts 1 – I followed the pattern exactely to the end, and then repeated rows 5 and 6 and did a final row of (UK) DC with a long DC between the fans:

Summer Hearts 2 – I did rows 5 and 6 twice, left out row 11 (which is worked at the back of row 10) and then did the shells from row 6 again, finishing off with a final (UK) DC row:

Picots and Petals 1 – In stead of making (UK) trebles in the second-to-last row, I made (UK) double trebles:

Pictots and Petals 2 – In stead of making (UK) trebles in the second-to-last row, I made (UK) double trebles:

Pictors and Petals 3 – In stead of making (UK) trebles in the second-to-last row, I made (UK) double trebles@

And here they all are for the group shot. Pretty aren’t they?

When you see these babies again, they will be in the centre of the tables in the Vera Fletcher Hall underneath a glass vase with purple flower.