Mandala simply means circle, but in the crochet pattern world, it’s become big, bold, bright colors in ever-changing rounds of crochet stitches.
Very popular in the internet crochet pattern world right now is the use of bright colors and making Mandalas. This gorgeous afghan block has been designed by Carolyn Christmas of Pink Mambo. Carolyn has used Hobby Lobby “I Love This Yarn” for her sample project.
This square started out as a circle and you can certainly keep it as a circle, if you like. There are many uses for circles in crochet: pillows, round afghans, seat cushions and even the start of the trendy circle vests that start with a circle at the back.
Carolyn has taken her Mandala and turned it into the square as well, making your creative possibilities grow even more. Both pattern instructions, for the circle and for the square, are available at her website.
I also learned something new and clever while pursuing crochet beauty today. Someone had mentioned in my Free Crochet Patterns facebook group something about “innings” and “bases”. At the time, I had no idea what she was talking about, but when browsing this gorgeous design, I figured it out!
There was a crochet-along started in July at Keito Palette, another crochet website. The purpose of the crochet-along was to take your favorite square and make it the center of an afghan. Instructions are given for the extra rounds on the outside of the square. The parts of the crochet-along were referred to as innings and bases. So clever! If you would like to find out more about this crochet-along, click HERE.
In the meantime, pick up your free crochet pattern for the Dream Circle Square, complete with lots of photos in the tutorial, at Carolyn’s Pink Mambo website HERE.
Enjoy!