Sunburst Mandala Cushion CAL (Crochet-a-long)

Sunburst Mandala Cushion CAL

I will be hosting a CAL (crochet-a-long) for this lovely cushion I have created

The pattern utilizes a lot of back and front post stitches, as well as some front and back loop work. Knowledge of overlay crochet will be helpful

What is Overlay Crochet?

From http://www.lillabjorncrochet.com/p/overlay-crochet.html

"Overlay crochet is a relatively new technique. It was developed by an artist and fantastic jewelry maker Melody MacDuffee in the United States and first introduced in 2003. Melody MacDuffee started to spread her inventions and conducted lots of workshops for hundreds of crochet lovers.

Overlay crochet has its roots in Aran crochet. Though it may look a bit complicated and quite often is offered to advanced crocheters, in fact it uses ordinary crochet stitches, and only few special ones. To master this technique it is necessary to already know how to make a slip stitch, a chain, single, double and treble crochet stitches, how to increase the number of stitches, how to make a long stitch.

What is interesting about this technique is that with changing colors on every round it is possible to achieve an effect as if the colors are actually changed after every few stitches."

This cushion starts with a mandala created to look like a sunburst.

It is then encircled with a border, then changed into a square with a similar border

The back is made as a square with very simplified rays made with overlay crochet

The pattern will be available in sections. There will be 11 sections, a new one available each week, starting on February 13^th. A new file will be added to the original file each week (Ravelry will send you a notification), at the end of the CAL, the whole CAL can be downloaded as one file

Clue 1: Monday, February 13th
Clue 2: Monday, February 20th
Clue 3: Monday, February 27th
Clue 4: Monday, March 6th
Clue 5: Monday, March 13th
Clue 6: Monday, March 20th
Clue 7: Monday, March 27th
Clue 8: Monday, April 3rd
Clue 9: Monday, April 10th
Clue 10: Monday, April 17th
Clue 11: Monday, April 24th

The pattern will be half price while the CAL is going. After the CAL is finished, the pattern will be available at full cost

Buy it here:
Sunburst Mandala Cushion Pattern   This pattern will be active on 13th February, 2017

Please join my Ravelry group http://www.ravelry.com/groups/craft-cove-crochet for help and conversations

Created by Jenny Lawson

http://craftcove.weebly.com/

http://flowercove.weebly.com/

For any questions, email me at: craftcove@gmail.com

More tutorials can be found at: Jewellery from Craft Cove http://craftcove.blogspot.com/

and Craftsy: http://www.craftsy.com/user/50761 and

Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/stores/craft-cove-designs

Please do not distribute, lend or copy this pattern.

Do not mass produce articles made with this pattern. 

Freeform Crochet

Freeform crochet is so amazing.  I've never done it before, and procrastinated starting it.

For anyone who doesn't know what is.  Here's a description from wikipeadia:  ” a seemingly random combination of crochet… and possibly other fibre arts to make a piece that is not constrained by patterns, colours, stitches or other limitations….” 

Prudence Mapstone does some of the most amazing freeform work I've seen: http://www.knotjustknitting.com/

Having carpal tunnel syndrome made it difficult to use fine threads, so my doily went on to the backburner for a while (of course I have other works in progress as well, but we won't mention them now)

So I finally got to the freeform.  But what could I make with it?  That's it, I need new cushion covers for the loungeoom, maybe something to match the kitchen chairs, one of which sits in front of the keyboard.  So I would need a bunch of greens, and some wood browns, and other browns to match the couch.

I found a bit of a pattern online, and made the first one.

Then I just started and continued on, and came up with this other scrumble.

Then I saw Prudence Mapstones Project on 50 Years of Flower Power. and decided to make a scrumble for that. 

I came up with this scrumble

So now back to my cushion covers.  I was feeling a lot more confident with freeform now.

I made another four scrumbles and put them together to see how they'd look.  They need a contrasting colour just to bring it all out a bit.  Some red grapes and other shapes added made the world of difference.

But then I had to have the carpal tunnel surgery. That put me out of action for a while.  I'm just starting to be able to crochet again, so more scrumbles are coming up.