Garden Mandala: a floral blanket that can be made 4 ways

I am pleased to present my newest pattern: Garden Mandala! I have written this pattern up to be made using the overlay mosaic crochet technique from the center-out or bottom-up, and also the interlocking crochet technique from the center-out or bottom-up.

It is a bit floral, with a few dainty notes, but mostly it is bold and uncomplicated. Most of the lines are thick with gentle curves.

The “wow” in my photo mostly comes from the amazing color gradient in my yarn. It definitely doesn’t come from my garden unless you are stunned by the amount of weeds in there. (That is mostly round leaf mallow – technically edible, but considered an invasive weed around here; I was too busy with crochet to worry about all the weeds).

I really wanted an excuse to use one of the big cakes of yarn from Scheepjes. Typically, I use cheap acrylic yarn because it is inexpensive and readily available.

Most of my yarn stash has been given to me over the years as friends of my grandmother or mother-in-law have destashed. I have a lot of tightly hand-rolled balls of old acrylic yarn with no labels. Every now and then there would be full skeins with labels included in the bags.

Now that I consider myself a proper designer I decided it was time to try some new-to-me yarns.

I used Scheepjes Whirl and Whirlette for my Garden Mandala. It is a fingering weight yarn (1 – super fine, on the Craft Council’s chart).

You can find more details on my project page on Ravelry if you’re interested: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/ashleeslint/center-out-mosaic-garden-mandala

I had planned on using a worsted weight yarn ( 4 – medium) for this project when I was drawing it. It was supposed to cover a queen size bed. Nancy Foster used worsted weight and her blanket just about covers her king size bed (but no drape down the sides) as shown in the photo below.

Her measurements came to 65″ square, as expected.

Using the thinner yarn has (as expected) resulted in a much smaller blanket. My very tall 8 year old daughter is showing the size in the photo below. You can also see a very sad tomato plant that I had to pull away from the rest of the garden because I was scared there was something attacking it – but it turns out it was blossom end rot and was because I didn’t water it enough. And there are some weeds drying on the walkway (proof that I did pull some weeds!).

I used a 3 mm hook with this fingering weight yarn instead of the 5 mm I would have used with worsted weight yarn and my final piece is 40″ / 101cm square.

The kids really like the size and the drape and the colors. While working on this one, at one point or another, each person in my house has tried to claim it as their own. It was nice to have that compliment from them but I felt bad that I had to tell each of them no.

Multiple times: “No, you can’t have it, I haven’t finished it.”

To my son, Remi, “oh, you like the blues and greens? There will be more colors later. It isn’t finished yet.”

To my husband, “you love the weight of the cotton but I don’t think this is going to be big enough to cover all 6’3″ of you.”

To my eldest daughter, Alice, “no, I can’t let you use it as a cape, I need to take some photos of it for the pattern listing..”

To my youngest daughter, Melody, “no, I can’t let this one be only yours because everyone seems to love it and they all want a turn.”

I make plenty of blankets, but this one has captured everyone’s eye! The colors, the design, the feel of the yarn – my only complaint is that it took me a really long time to finish because I kept doing small projects in between.

You can do this pattern from the bottom-up or the center-out in both interlocking crochet or overlay mosaic crochet.

No matter which way you do it, the results are spectacular!

And, as always, I’ve included all 4 options in one listing. I don’t want anyone to be disappointed with their purchase (by purchasing the wrong version of the pattern). Whether you use Ravelry or Etsy you will receive all four options.

Each of the four options comes with a written pattern and an appropriate chart. There are slight differences between the charts as well.

The interlocking crochet chart has mesh dots all over it, and the edges are locked together with solid lines. This is how all of my interlocking crochet charts look.

The center-out method has the mesh dots (because it is a natural byproduct of the interlocking technique) but it doesn’t have the edges locked the same way. This makes the chart a few squares smaller but doesn’t have a big impact on anything else.

The overlay mosaic version of “Garden Mandala” does not have the mesh dots, it is solid mosaic crochet. Yardage estimates for the center-out version do not include an envelope border because there are no cut ends to hide with that technique.

I did post a few teasers on Instagram showing this blanket at various points. Here are a few:

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For Interlocking Crochet

• Chart is 249 x 249

• Gauge: 8 (dc, ch) x 8 rows = 4”

• 62” / 158cm square

• 4.5 mm hook (US7)

• Worsted weight yarn (4400 – 4700 yards total)

  • Main color (MC) (black on chart) – 2200 yards plus 300 for optional border

  • Accent color (AC) – 2200 yards

For Interlocking Crochet from the Center-Out

• Chart is 245 x 245

• Gauge: 8 (dc, ch) x 8 rows = 4”

• 61” / 156cm square

• 5 mm hook (H-8)

• Worsted weight yarn (4400 yards total)

  • Main color (MC) (black on chart) – 2200 yards

  • Accent color (AC) – 2200 yards

For Overlay Mosaic Crochet

• Chart is 245 x 245

• Gauge: 14 sc blo stitches x 15 rows = 4”

• 65” x 70” / 166cm x 178cm

• 5 mm hook (H-8)

• Worsted weight yarn (4800 – 5500 yards)

  • Main color (black) – 3000 yards

  • Contrasting color – 2900 yards

  • Plus, optional envelope border – 700 yards

For Overlay Mosaic Crochet from the Center-Out

• Chart is 245 x 245

• Gauge: 14 sc blo stitches x 14 rows = 4”

• 65” / 166cm

• 5 mm hook (H-8)

• Worsted weight yarn (5700 yards)

  • Main color (black) – 2900 yards

  • Contrasting color – 2800 yardsor

• Gauge: 28 sc blo stitches x 28 rows = 4”

• 40” / 101cm

• 3 mm hook

• Fingering weight yarn (2750 yards)

  • Main color (Scheepjes Whirlette, Bilberry) – 1400 yards

  • Contrasting color (Scheepjes Whirl, Sherbet Rainbow) – 1350 yards