Flower Mandala mug rug

 This is my wee mandala that I posted off to Yarndale on Friday 27th, fingers crossed it will still make it on time...

 Town is looking lovely with floral balls suspended everywhere: splendid petunias.

 And celebrating with a shop bought- Coop and delicious!- lemon meringue pie.

 As this was part of the oven heating element that was removed this week so no baking until it was fixed.

 Thought is looked marvellously organic? But it's all metal?

Was hooked on'' Tigers in the House'' from BBC 2 this week: catching up on i-player before it was taken off. It was absolutely BRILLIANT! And so CUTE!

and I'm not even a cat person, but I got totally smitten by these two.

And while watching I made a mandala, my first floral one but I got the pattern wrong due to watching tv and not paying attention: so here follows my adaptation for a 10 petal one instead of 16 petals?

It weighs about 30 g in DK cottons , made with a 4 mm hook and you need at least 5 colours.

For a small 8'' or smaller one you need the above but you could make it bigger.

Here was the call for Mandalas from Lucy at Attic 24:

http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2014/05/mandalas-for-yarndale.html

And this is the FREE pattern from Ravelry that I did not manage to follow properly: but maybe you can?

Thanking Jennifer Martin for the free pattern.

 And Jennifer gives a link to a Scandinavian blog with pictures that I also looked at but didn't quite follow exactly. It helped with doing the petal outlining though.

This was the one sent away, before petal outlining.

 After outlining: the front:

 And the back:

 And a petal up close just before posting.

 So here it goes: for your central colour: chain 4 like this:

 The working into the first chain you made, that is the 4th chain away from the hook: work 14 Trebles.( UK terms if USA work 14 dc)

 So it looks like this? I prefer this to the magic circle method, if your first loop is made correctly you can open up that first stitch easily : like this:

 See? It stretches right open and you can pull it tight to close with the yarn end at the start?

Close with a slip stitch into the 3rd treble at the start( the 3ch counts as a Treble)
Then in your petal outlining colour- mine is royal blue- you put a loop on the hook and attach to a Treble, then chain 3 and work a treble into the same stitch, now work 2 TR into each Tr below and slip stitch to close: 30 sts.

I'm sorry there's no photo as I was racing ahead, got watching ''EPISODES'' and kept going too fast, sorry.

Then ss into the space between a twin of trebles and chain 3, work a TR into same space, 1 ch, 2 Tr, * miss 2 sts, work ( 2Tr, 1ch, 2Tr= a shell) and then repeat this all around from * and close with ss. - 10 shells.

Change colour, again I was distracted as Episodes was so very funny but for the Yarndale one I repeated the centre colour but for this mug rug I chose an orange colour by mistake, missing out the turquoise row.
Put loop on hook and attach new colour to the 1 ch space in a shell.
Episodes by the way it's season 3 but I missed it and it's very funny! I also now have received series 1 and 2 from Amazon to catch up. I just love Tamsin Greig and a greyed and ironic Matt leBalnc is not so bad either?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0444xbn/episodes-series-3-episode-1

Ok so with orange work the same row as just done in blue but add a 1 ch between the shells as well as in the middle of a shell. Work loose as the work needs to stretch and lie flat?

 Then with Coral repeat but the shells are ( 3Tr , 1ch, 3Tr) with 1 ch between them, starting with a 3ch to replace the very first Treble as usual.

 Then in red: here I show how to start with a loop on the hook to fasten on.
Now red is my final colour on this one so choose your final petal edge - before edging- colour?

Put the loop on the hook ready made.

Then insert the hook into a shell centre 1 ch space and yarn over and pull through in one.

Voila all attached, now chain 3:

 The work 9 Tr into that same space. this becomes a 10 Tr scallop or petal top.

 after the Tr, ch 1 and repeat by working 10 Tr into each shell centre all around, separated by 1 ch.
In my Yarndale mandala I had worked an extra row of 2tr shells so I needed to space these scallops by a 2ch. See how you go, make sure it still lies flat and doesn't ''bowl up''?

 Then finally it's the outlining to do: fasten on the outlining colour: royal blue in my case.
Work 10 dc ( USA sc) into those 10 Tr scallop tops and a dc around the 1 ch spacer as seen below:

Then after the dc around the 1 ch, work a ch going down in the spaces between the shells working towards the centre, work a dc around each coloured row ch spacer and a ch before you work around the next colour. work into the royal blue shell space and continue to the first royal blue row, ss or surface chain, then turn and work back up again to the outer edge repeating the 1 dc around a 1ch in a colour row and a ch in space as it were.Then work dc around the next 10 Tr petal and so forth.

 I was so enjoying  these sea views I forgot to take step by step photos again....
Courtesy of Episodes series 1 or 2.... This was such fun it was like a mini holiday and made me laugh.

Oh what a place, what a VIEW?!!!

And here is the completed mug rug mandala:

 Finish with a ss and sew in all yarn ends. It's perfect for my cup of tea!

 This one is only 23 grammes in weight and is 7'' across.

 It's also ideal for grabbing the handle when I've reheated a forgotten tea in the microwave...

Hot sunny days of summer and Bournemouth/Sandbanks visit

 The above image creeps into your mind when the sun shines hot in England doesn't it?

 Being in Oxfordshire it was far far from the sea but very hot and the dogs were sunbathing.

 Miss E studies in her room for those pesky GCSEs and Miss Y  does homework in the garden.

 I had a great many work  visits to hot clammy London but the one below was fantastic: The London Healthy Schools Awards and the view over the Thames was amazing...It was also a really energetic and inspiring event so actually I hardly noticed it most of the time!

 Then JJ decided a visit to the sea was imperative at the weekend and the girls chose Bournemouth...

 But they were so not impressed with this that we travelled onwards and found Sandbanks much more to our liking!

 One one side the harbour....

 And the other side the SEA!

 I missed the dogs though as JJ doesn't allow them in his (new) car?

Remembering last Easter when we went to Bridgeport and the coastline there?

Over to the right and round the corner of that cliff in the photo.

 Hours of fun paddling and collecting shells.

 Loved this rusty chain for a textiles project? And the textured sand patterns too.

When we were hungry we found a lovely restaurant at the harbour side...

 JJ relaxed and happierthan many a long day with his 'French Martini'' and delicious it was too.

 Time to go home, Bye bye white cliffs of the Isle of Wight?