Spanish Mandala: Create Your Own Sun!

My new Mandala design is here! And it’s in overlay crochet again! I wanted to create a very thick piece, heavily covered with overlay stitches, so that background is not visible at all. And it worked! Let me introduce a Spanish Mandala to you!

Add this pattern to your Ravelry Queue

Spanish Mandala pattern is available for purchase in my Ravelry shop HERE and on Etsy HERE. And there is a giveaway running on my Instagram HERE till 9:59pm, May 28 – feel free to enter to win your free copy of the pattern. UPDATE: giveaway is closed and winners were announced on my Instagram page.

Quite often I am asked what inspires me to create mandalas… so here is a story behind Spanish mandala design. Several months ago I occasionally saw a picture with ceramic plate in one of the Facebook groups. Oona Lynnett (another group member) posted it with a caption “If only I was clever enough to turn this into a pattern...” Well… I can’t even explain what I felt at that moment. This pattern, those colors! It was one of the hundreds handmade plates available in numerous gift shops in Cordoba (Spain) where Oona goes every winter to see her parents. Did I hesitate for a moment? Not really. I dived into my stash immediately, picked the colors and started to crochet at once.

Photo credit: Oona Lynnett

I have never been to Spain myself and I don’t have any knowledge about Spanish traditional art, so if you are from Spain, please correct me. I was trying to dig over internet to find more pictures with ceramics, and plates in particular to see more examples of this art and to recreate my own “collective” image of a Spanish plate. Nowadays handmade tiles, vases and dishes are very popular among tourists visiting this country. But for Spain it is more than that – it is a very old tradition that has been cultivating over the centuries.

“The typical colors used in the decoration of ceramics are those associated with the sunny Mediterranean coast: cobalt blue, deep yellow, red, purple, pink, and white. Since a good deal of the ceramics made in Spain are individually hand-spun on a wheel or molded by hand, and then fired, glazed, painted and fired again, you will often find that although common in resemblance, no two pieces are exactly alike. Their lively bright colors - which are trademarks of Spanish ceramics - mask these “imperfections” and make these artworks great for table use or simply as decoration!” (Sourсe)

So this is how my mandala was born. Surprisingly, the design was finished in two days… And then I decided to recreate it with plain, pastel colors and turn it into a round pillow cover. I chose Soft Fun yarn by Scheepjes, because the range of its shades is very wide, and I could pick exact colors I wanted.

The color possibilities of this (and any) mandala design are endless! During the test I was so much inspired by work of Cindy Douglass, and felt like “stealing” her color palette for my third mandala. So yes, the full credit for “catching” the right shades goes to her!

Photo credit: Cindy Douglass

You will need 1 ball of Soft Fun yarn in each shade – and it will be enough for making the pillow. You can purchase Soft Fun via Wool Warehouse* (international shipping),  Deramores* (on sale till May 30), and in your local Scheepjes shops. You will also need a 4mm (G) crochet hook to go together with this yarn (I used Clover Soft Touch*), though it might be needed to change to a smaller size in the middle of the mandala to prevent it from curling. Everything depends on your personal gauge.

And then you will need a tapestry needle to weave yarn tails in and a zip in matching colors and long enough to create a comfortable opening for a round pillow form. Oh yes! You will of course need a round pillow form! You can purchase it or make it yourself. Next week I will publish a tutorial to show you how to do that (and you don’t even need a sewing machine!).

My two bright mandalas are made with scraps of blend wool yarns from different brands. I am not even able to name them all. I bought them in Belarus several years ago and I am not sure they are available for purchase worldwide. But if you would like to recreate one of these two Spanish mandalas, you can use Soft Fun as well. I looked into the chart to give you an idea of shades (though of course you can always choose your own).

So, mandala 1 (blue and orange): C1 (2427 or 2449), C2 (2518), C3 (2401), C4 (2432), C5 (2511), C6 (2492), a bit of 2426 or replace it with C5.

Mandala 2 (purple and green): C1 (2449), C2 (2518), C3 (2491 or 2532), C4 (2511), C5 (2531), C6 (2515)

The colorway for pastel version is given in the pattern.

There are many ways to use this mandala. I turned mine into a round pillow cover with zip. You will find instructions for the back part in the pattern and also tutorial about how to put your cushion together. But this mandala can also be used as a separate flat piece – for example as a wall hanging, front decoration for a fabric pillowcase (round or square). You can turn it into a stool cover. And you can also square it up using Dandelion Border pattern (check it HERE) which will perfectly work with Spanish Mandala’s stitch count! If you would like to keep this mandala round but to enlarge it, you can add a Joana’s border (the pattern is HERE). But please, be aware that Spanish Mandala has quite a thick fabric while Joana’s Border is more pliable…

Lisa Kasper wrote on my Facebook page: “I love almost anything with colors. Mandala patterns are my latest obsession. I am no longer content to make "granny" afghans. I like to create pieces of art. The mandala is the perfect art form for bringing the old, but respectful, utilitarian workmanship of crochet into the 21st century. I love all of your creations!”

I used this quote because I wouldn’t say better myself. Mandalas are my huge obsession, too. And I do think each and everyone is a small piece of art (crochet, ceramic, fabric or painted).

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