Set of Chunky Mandalas for our Bedroom

Monday I was feeling the need to make a quick and easy project.  I grabbed some Bernat Maker Home Dec yarn from my stash to make a few mandalas/doilies for our bedroom.  The yarn is a chunky knitted hollow tube of material, somewhat like tee shirt yarn, but more even and without seams in the way.  It's incredibly soft, and I am definitely going to make some more projects with it.  I like how the chunky yarn keeps them feeling fresh and modern, rather than fussy & old lady.

The large mandala is made from the Bloom Mandala Centerpiece pattern.  I did the first 6 rounds as written, and since it was getting pretty big, I did an amended version of the 2 border rows.  (If you want to do what I did, then for the first round of border, sc between each group of 5 dc, then 6 ch. For the second border row, sl st, sc, hdc, dc, picot, dc, hdc, sc, sl st in each ch 6 space around.) 

This one took my just one evening, watching tv after dinner.  It's amazing how fast this yarn hooks up!  It's about 16" across and a bit over 1/4" thick.  Hhere it is on the chest of drawers in our room.  It fits just right under the antique pitcher & bowl my parents gave us.

The smaller pair was made from the medium size pattern in the Aunt Aggie's Trivets pattern.  I did the first three rounds as written, then as it was getting close to the finished size I wanted, I improvised a new round 4.   (sc, picot, sc in the dc's in the points, sc in next 4, repeat)

These are about 7" each, and took just a few hours yesterday morning.  I made them to go under the lamps on our night stands, and like how they soften up the look of the room. 

Magenta Sun & Phoenix Mats

After finishing my Charming Mat I decided to use up some more of the sari yarn in my stash by making a few more mats/trivets/doilies.  I started off with the large sized trivet from the Aunt Aggie's Trivets pattern, made from a magenta sari silk.  I didn't have enough yarn to do it exactly as written, so I did Rounds 1-6 as written, then a row of 8 single crochets per chain space.  I like how it looks like a primitive sunburst.  It measures 13" across, and I think it would be nice under a plant or under a decorative bowl on a table.

Finally I had a few balls of a red-orange silk that had some breaks in it when I balled it, so I decided to try some of the smaller trivets in the pattern. I started the size small, but it looked awful in such a busy yarn, so I frogged it and went with two of the medium sized trivets instead.  They are each 9.5" across.  Due to the thick & thin nature of the yarn, the final round of the pattern was a bit too bulky, causing a wavy edge to them that I didn't like, so I ended up skipping two of the single crochets per petal in the final round.  (Specifically in the first and last sc of the previous rounds.) 

Not exactly sure what I'm going to do with all of these, but they will either go into my shop, or into my stash of handmade holiday gifts.

Silk Sari Charming Mat

Last week I was looking for a quick project to take on the go with me, and saw a post on Instragram from Darn Good Yarn, about a mat made with their banana fiber.  I had some pretty Red Heart Boutique hand spun Silk Sari yarn in 'charming' that had been languishing in my stash for want of a project and decided to give it a go.  I downloaded the free pattern, and started hooking.  Sadly it just wasn't working for me as written, with this particular yarn.  I ended up frogging the whole thing (not easy with this yarn!), and starting over.

I increased the number of stitches in Round 1 to 12, and in Round 2 to 24.  This led to more loops in the finished piece, but I compensated by reducing the number of chain spaces between double crochets in later rounds.  Finally, I didn't have quite enough yarn to do all the rounds, so I ended up doing the first 7, then doing a round of picots & slip stitches.  It was a bit more frustrating that I had hoped for when I picked the pattern to take out with me, but I'm happy with how it came out, and plan to try it again with another sari yarn in my stash.