Tag: crochet mandala

Memorial Mandala for my Aunt

~ Vanessa Walilko ~ Leave a comment
When my aunt passed away in 2018, she left behind a ton of yarn. She was an avid crocheter and loved Caron’s Cake yarns. She taught me to crochet chains when I was about 6 or so (she tried to teach me more, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around it). I went through various skeins and started separating by color.
I wanted to do something to honor my aunt with all of that yarn, and when I found Crystals and Crochet’s Mandala Madness pattern, I knew that’s what I wanted to do. Here’s part 1.
Initially I liked the lavender, diverting from the project’s prescribed colors. But I changed my mind. So I tore it out and re-did part 1, and added part 2.
Part 3 was a joy because I love reds and oranges, plus she added crochet motifs I wasn’t familiar with.
Part 4 ran into a complication because I didn’t have a pale yellow yarn to work with, but I think the beige worked.
I was pretty good about taking photos after finishing each section, but I was so wrapped up in working that I forgot– here’s part 5 and the beginning of part 6
Part 8. What I loved about this piece was working on all of the different types of stitches I either didn’t know or normally didn’t use. I also loved the rows of purple yarns.
Detail of Part 8 shows the long stitches and extra long stitches. Getting the tension right was an undertaking.
I finished parts 9 and 10 and didn’t really know what do. I was running out of my aunt’s yarn and couldn’t make it bigger, even though the pattern went on for another 8 sections. I had thought of making it a meditation cushion, but it was too big. I also had to face the fact that while I love the idea of meditating, I’m not going to do it. I’m the anxiety queen.
Cut to several months later. I’m rearranging my furniture because of the COVID-19 lockdown and I realize that my couch is the exact size of the mandala.
So now the mandala lives on my couch, and I get to imagine my aunt is with me whenever I watch murder mysteries. She had the entire Columbo series on DVD. Seems like the right time to watch them.