My Attempt with Joana's Mandala

Finding 'Joana's Mandala' has been the highlight of my week. It is such an interesting pattern and a challenging one at that. The pattern was created by Tatsiana Kupryianchyk (LillaBjörnCrochet Design). It is for sale on Ravelry for $5.50. She also offers an additional pattern/border to make this even bigger. This post will be for the main mandala. I will have a separate post for the addition. 

I absolutely love this artist's patterns. Check out her website: http://www.lillabjorncrochet.com/. If you sign up for her Newsletter, they send you a Free Macaron Pin Cushion- all you need to is confirm thru email.



The website states, "This mandala is designed in overlay crochet with lots of front post stitches. But it is not so stiff as many other projects made in this technique. This time I decided to use double crochet (US term) stitches instead of single crochet – for the background. And the mandala turned out to be soft and pliable." - I agree.



Here is my experience with this creative pattern:

1. Keep track of your count! I have a bad habit of not checking my completed rounds, so they end up not being uniform. This pattern is very specific so the count needs to be on point.
2. Pay attention to where each stitch is going. It is safe to say that you should automatically put your stitches as Back Loop Only, unless stated otherwise. It does explain this in the instructions, but it is not stated every single round. So default to Back Loop Only (BL). You will have BL stitches for almost every round- they make the back design of the project.
3. Yarn- 
1. I spent a bit of time in Micheal's looking for a good yarn for this project. No yarns were labeled ‘Sport’, which is what is called for. Other names for this yarn fall under #2, Fine or Baby. I didn’t like any of those options so I opted to find another yarn similar in thickness. I ended up choosing Loops & Threads Woolike, which is actually classified as Super Fine. I didn’t mind a thinner yarn. My last mandala overlay project taught me that thinner yarn is a bit easier to maneuver for these types of projects.
2. I chose 3 colors that are easily able to substitute for those in the pattern. I selected Dark Grey over Brown, Teal Lake and Beige instead of Cream. The colors are close enough that I can clearly interpret the photos in the pattern. This is important for me when I first try out a new pattern. It makes it easier.
4. Hook-

1. Before I began I tried 3 different hook sizes (3.75, 3.50 and 3.25). I started with the biggest, thinking that it would take less time if the stitches were bigger, however I only needed to do 2 rounds to see the issues. Because I chose a thinner yarn, if I used a bigger hook, there would be a lot more open spaces than I wanted. So I settled with the 3.25, as the pattern calls for.

My first attempt:

1. The first few rounds were simple enough. After round 8, I saw that the back of the mandala was sloppy and not as uniform as it should, so I stopped and started from the beginning. This goes back to the BL stitches. They are pretty important for the back of your mandala.
2. After starting the first time. I admit I stopped fastening off and looping in. Instead I chose to do the ‘Magic Knot’ (https://youtu.be/7pr6n4kEFgY) to switch off colors. It didn’t work very well. I couldn’t seem to get the knot in the right spot, so the colors didn’t stop and start exactly where they needed to be. Also, you could feel the knots, seeing as the yarn is so thin. Stick to the pattern’s way of switching and joining colors-trust me.

My second attempt:

1. This time it worked much better. By the time I got to round 8, I saw that I had made a big mistake in round 6 of my first try. I mistakenly did “tr(FP)” [FRONT POST] when the pattern calls for “tr(FL)” [FRONT LOOP]. Instead of putting the stitches in the Front Loops, I put them in the Front Posts. This caused the whole series of rows that are overlaid, to no longer be uniform. Be careful as to where you have to put your stitches. For the most part, it won’t say it everywhere, but assume all stitches are in the back loops only, unless stated otherwise.

In the end:

1. With this part of the mandala, (before the added extension (see the next pattern))- I couldn’t keep a total count on each round. I get too distracted. Instead I made sure to end at the correct spot. This one had an extra rotation. So instead of repeating a given set of stitches 8 times, I repeated it 9 times. I just adjusted the stitches as I went along. It seemed to work. I am not pleased with the back of this attempt. I will continue on to make the bigger size, but will reattempt this pattern after, to make it more uniform.