Spring Elegance

It is time for the next blog post this week! As I am participating in multiple events related to the blog hops this month, you are getting to see the busiest version of me:)

Today I am going to keep the story short and delve quickly into the crux of this post.

When I signed up for the Easter Advent Calendar Blog Hop hosted by Lisa, I knew I had to put in a mandala pattern in . As I sat down to design , I had some grandoise plans! Have some flowers, then some bunnies hopping around etc. The flower part was easy to recreate but the bunnies refused to co-operate!!!! So I decided to remove them from this pattern and try again later:)

The Spring Elegance Mandala is very quick to make and you can use as little as 25-30 gms of yarn per colour. The pattern calls for 3 colours and I have used white, pink and green. The addition of pink as the edging has elevated the look of the mandala, don’t you think?

Alright, with thst preamble let’s get started!

Spring Elegance Mandala

Materials Required

Yarn: 4 ply cotton yarn in 3 colours – white , green and pink (Used less than 50 gms per colour)

Hook: 4.5mm

Yarn needle to weave in the ends

Blocking mat

Blocking pins

Spray starch or liquid starch

Finished size: 13″ in diameter after blocking

Gauge: Round 1 = 1″ in diameter

Stitches and Abbreviations

Beg Beginning

BigShell (2 dc, tr, 2dc) in the st or sp indicated

Ch Chain

Dc Double crochet

FpSc Front post Single Crochet (refer notes)

Hdc Half double crochet

5Pc 5 dc Popcorn stitch (refer notes)

Sc Single crochet

Shell (3 dc, ch2, 3 dc)

Sk Skip

Sl st Slip stitch

Sp Space

St Stitch

Tr Treble crochet (refer notes)

Vst V stitch (refer notes)

Yo Yarn over

Difficulty: Intermediate

Notes

FpSc is front post single crochet worked as follows – insert hook from front to back and front again around the leg of the stitch indicated, yo, pull up a loop, yo pull through 2 loops.

5Pc or 5 dc Popcorn st is worked as follows – work 5 dc in the stitch or space indicated, remove hook from the last st just made, insert hook into the first dc in this group of stitches, pull the loop of the last dc through the first dc to close the stitch. Below is a pictorial representation of the 5dc popcorn stitch.

V stitch is worked as follows – (dc , ch1, dc) in the stitch or space indicated.

Treble crochet is worked as follows – yarn around twice around the hook, insert hook in stitch or space indicated, yo pull up a loop, (yo, pull through 2 loops) 3 times.

The ch1 sp of the Vst is not counted as a sp in the stitch count given at the end of the round.

The mandala will cup when you finish round 5 but will flatten out after working round 6.

The mandala can be left un blocked if you like the slight overlap of the outer petals.

Instructions
Round 1: With white , in a magic ring , ch3 (counts as first dc), 11 dc. Close the ring and join to the top of beg ch3 with a sl st – 12 dc.

Round 2: Ch3 (counts as first st), 3 dc in the next st, (dc in the next st, 3 dc in next st) 5 times- 24 dc.

Round 3: Ch4 ( counts as first dc +1), dc in the same st, sk next st, 5 dc in next st, sk next st, (Vst in the next st, sk next st, 5 dc in the next st, sk next st) 5 times. Join with sl st to the 3rd ch of the beg ch4. Fasten off white – 30 dc , 6 Vst.

Round 4: With green join with sl st into the first Vst space, ch4 (counts as first dc + ch1), dc in the same sp, ch1, sk 2 sts, (Vst, ch1, Vst) in next st, ch1, sk 2 sts, (Vst in next Vst sp, sk next 2 sts, (Vst, ch1, Vst) in next st, sk next 2 sts) 5 times. Join with sl st to the 3rd ch of the beg ch4. Drop green to the wrong side, do not cut yarn – 18 V sts, 18 ch1 sps.

Round 5: With pink join with sl st to the first V st sp, 5Pc in same sp, (ch3, 5 Pc) in every Vst sp. Join to the first 5Pc with a sl st. Fasten off pink – 18 5Pc , 18 ch3 sp.

Mandala will cup at the end of round 5. It will flatten out after the next round.

Round 6: Pick up green ,ch1, FpSc around the first 5Pc, working in front of the CH3 sp of previous round, 5 dc in the next ch1 sp of round 4, (FpSc around the next 5Pc, 5 dc in the next ch 1 sp of round 4) 17 times. Join with sl st to the first fpsc. Fasten off green- 18 FpSc, 90 dc.

Round 7: Join white with sl st to any FpSc of previous round, ch1(does not count as st), sc in same st, sk next 2 sts, shell in next st, sk next 2 sts, (sc in next st, sk next 2 sts, shell in next st, sk next 2 sts) 17 times. Join with sl st to the first sc – 18 sc, 18 shells.

Round 8: Ch1(does not count as st), 1FpSc in the first st, sc in the next st, hdc in next st, dc in next st, bigshell in the shell sp, 1 dc in next st, 1 hdc in next st, 1sc in next st, (1fpsc in the next st, 1 sc in the next st, 1 hdc in next st, 1 dc in next st, bigshell in the shell sp, 1 dc in next st, 1 hdc in next st , 1sc in next st) 17 times. Join with sl st to the first FpSc. Fasten off white – 36sc, 36 hdc, 36 dc, 18 big shell, 18 FpSc.

Round 9: With pink join with sl st to the first sc after any FpSc, (ch1, sl st in next st) repeat around skipping all the FpSc in between. Join with sl st to first st. Fasten off – 198 sl st.

You can use either spray starch or liquid starch to stiffen the mandala. I have used Revive Liquid starch . Took 2 capfuls of the liquid starch and added 300 – 500 ml of water . If you add more water the stiffness will be less. Squeeze the excess liquid. Block the mandala. The outer petals can be left to have a slight overlap or can be blocked aggressively to make them stand separate.

Hope you enjoy making this mandala just as much as I enjoyed designing this!