Mandela Madness

Having been a member of the Official CCC Social Group on facebook for several months, seeing everyone's beautiful work, I've decided to try the Mandela Madness. It uses a lot of techniques that I've not tried before so it presents a great learning opportunity. Furthermore, there are videos which are very thorough in explaining every detail. Although my mother taught me to crochet initially, I'm mostly self-taught and make things up as I go so I'm not sure exactly where I'm supposed to put the hook for some stitches. I hope that I'll be able to improve my technique and produce better finished items.

Materials

I'm using the Scheepjes Colour Crafter Purple Passion pack which I bought from Wool Warehouse. They send your order in lovely bags so it's a delight to open them and a nice way to store the yarn. This isn't my favourite colour palette but I'm treating this as a challenge and way to improve rather than thinking about the finished product. I don't want to use expensive yarn on something that I will probably look at when I'm done and say "I could do better now".

Tools

For the moment, all I need is a crochet hook, scissors, and a darning needle. I'm using my favourite KnitPro Symfonie hook. They're silky smooth and lovely to work with, as well as being pretty to look at with bands of colour. The scissors I'm using are some that were going to be thrown in the bin at the hospital as they are single use only scissor. They're very sharp and convenient. They have a cardboard sleeve so they don't stab me when I take them out and about with my crochet or knitting.

And we're off …

The Mandala Madness is now on the hook. After frogging 3 times, I now have the first two rows done. Why did I frog it? The first time because the initial chain was too big, the second because I miscounted the stitches, and the third because I ended up with a loose stitch on the first round. I'm not completely satisfied by the version I have now as the tension is a bit off on the first couple of stitches of the first row but I hope it will be ok. We'll see.