Ocean Time Mandala Rug: playing with jute yarn

The life of a crochet designer is nice and creative, but sometimes also challenging. My biggest challenge is to organize my stash and keep track on all yarns and colors I have. We moved the house half a year ago. To be honest, it was scary even to think of packing all those tiny balls. I even joked with my husband, that I pack just my yarn, and he does the rest of the stuff. It all went well though, and I even bought a new IKEA cabinet to fit everything I kept in boxes before.

One day I will make a virtual tour in my brand-new studio for you. But this post is about yarn. With every new Scheepjes release I am getting a few test samples to try. And today I would like to tell you about Mighty*. This is how my space looks now. You can see it on the upper shelf of my central cabinet :)

First I need to say, I have never seen or come across anything like Mighty before. It is a natural fiber blend with 32% Jute and 68% Cotton. And jute is what it makes Mighty yarn unique, in my opinion. Just to add, Mighty yarn comes in 50g balls with 80 m each. And 4 mm (G) hook is recommended.

Making a jute rug has been my dream forever. I have been looking at jute “yarns” in building and DIY stores for ages. You know those ropes you used to tie together packages? I even bought two of those, and even tried to crochet with them. My hands hurt terribly. It was all scratchy and itching. I think I managed to finish a small potholder but didn’t move any further.

So you can imagine my happiness when I first heard about release of Mighty yarn! My happiness doubled when first samples landed in my box. I made a quick flower to see how it’s worked up. And, wow, it was so soft. I must say I fell in love. The only disadvantage I can see at the moment is limited range of colors. But fingers crossed new colors will be added over the time.

You can purchase Mighty yarn in Scheepjes local shops and via online retailers:

Wool Warehouse* (UK, international shipping)
Caro’s Atelier* (NL, Europe)
Taemombo* (US and Canada)

 I didn’t plan any rug designs at that time, but because I had perfect yarn for a rug I just had to design something for it. And today I am happy to introduce it to you! My Ocean Time Mandala Rug.

Ocean Time Rug pattern is available HERE on Ravelry and HERE on Etsy, and is offered with 20% discount through Monday, March 30th, 2020. The discount was already applied, the price you see is final, and no codes are needed. 

Ocean Time Mandala Rug is using very popular technique – mosaic crochet. If you have never tried it before, you can polish your skills with two free patterns: Nya Blanket and Infinity version of Nya blanket.

Usually, mosaic crochet uses stand-alone charts or charts together with written instructions. But because my new mandala is worked in flat rounds (and I have not seen anything done like this before), I decided to include round-by-round written instructions together with progress pictures. Due to multiple increases on every round, the chart would look confusing. And I thought that progress pictures would make a better job.

My rug is approx. 90 cm/ 35.5" across. My lovely testers Laura Jackson, Lisa Marlow, Esther Schippers and Faye Pike made fantastic job testing the pattern. Faye decided to use Scheepjes Secret Garden yarn, and I am simply in love with how it turned out. It has both vintage and boho touches. Check Faye's Ravelry project page for all details about yarn and color changes.

And just to remind you, the pattern for Ocean Time Rug is available HERE on Ravelry and HERE on Etsy, and is offered with 20% discount through Monday, March 30th, 2020.

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