Japanese crochet book and my mandala
I love Japanese crafting. Their flair for design ... it's so stylish, but it's also quirky.
This book is all about motifs ... circles, squares, hexagons, triangles and flowers, and each motif has its own beautiful graph to show how the motif is made. I may not be able to read Japanese, but I can read crochet graphs 😄 and the graphs in this book are easy to follow. Each row is printed in a different colour which makes identifying each row at a glance easier. The last section in the book shows ways to join motifs together to make larger pieces for scarves, tablecloths etc. Something else I really like about the book is that each motif is shown in another two colour ways which helped me visualise other possibilities.
This book - I'm sorry I can't tell you the name of it, was given to me to play with by Mandy O'Sullivan whose work at CrochetbyREDAGAPE inspires me to the moon and back. I always come away from her Instagram feed feeling better than when I started. Mandy has a magical way of putting pretty colour combinations together. I reckon she crochets with a magic wand instead of a hook.
I don't think it matters what yarn or hook size is used to make the motifs in the book
- as long as they are kept consistent if you're doing a larger project. My go-to yarn size is DK and the label on the yarn suggested a 4.00 mm crochet hook. The yarn I chose to use is hand dyed, 100% cotton, Vinnis Colours - Nikkim which I buy here from lovely yarn-stash-enabler and super-crocheter Robyn at Yummy Yarn and Co .
Ooh, and while I was there I picked up a two new crochet hooks for my collection.
Efficient use of postage cost I think! 😉
I was dying to try a motif from the book, as well as wanting a small gift for a friend, so decided to use circular motif #17 from the book, then add rows of my own design from there to create a doiley/ mandala. And before you think I might be clever in any way, the ideas for the extra rows came from other graphs in the book that appealed to me.
The finished mandala ... ta- da!
I'm already imagining new projects created with another motif graph in the book, and some flowers, lots of pretty flowers! I can't wait to see the other Japanese craft books Mandy is stocking in her soon-to-be-open shop.
Would I buy another book written in a language I can't read? Absolutely yes !
Thank you for keeping me company today, it's been a treat,
Kellie
xo
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