Crochet mandala earrings

I've already told you about making mandala for Yarndale 2014 festival in my previous post. Crocheting mandalas is so pleasant and inspiring, that I decided to make a few more, but in a smaller size and create an earrings. At the same time I didn't want to send an envelope with a single mandala to Lucy, I wanted to put a little handmade present for her. I have been reading Lucy's Attic24 blog for several years already and I'm so thankful that she writes it, it's so cozy, colorful and inspiring, it's like a sunshine in blogland that warms hundreds of grateful readers. Thank you Lucy for what you do!

So that's how this two pairs of crochet mandala earrings appeared. I used the pattern for cup coasters from here - it's a reworked crochet circle motif pattern from 1893 and it reminds a flower a little bit.
First pair of earrings is mono-color - in gorgeous blue.

And another one is in a combination of grey, purple, light blue and darker blue. I adore each of these colors. The colorful one of course goes to Lucy as she is the queen of colors :) and another one will stay in my crochet jewelry collection. Hope she will like it.

By the way, do try this cute easy pattern.

Crochet mandala for Yarndale 2014

Are you making mandala for Yarndale 2014?

I couldn't stay away from this beautiful event. After reading Lucy's post about mandalas and her great idea of mandala wall installation I was sure I'm participating. I took the box of my yarn leftovers, picked up the colors and choose the pattern. I've looked through a lot of inspiring colorful mandala patterns on pinterest, but I decided to stop on this one - it has like a wheel motif in the center and something floral.

I have to say that crocheting mandalas is very quick, easy and so addictive.

Do try making one or more.

Exploring Barcelona p.4

And here is the last part of the Barcelona story. Previous parts can be found here: part 1, part 2 and part 3 about Sagrada Familia. I won't be talking a lot, just enjoy the sea and boats view with beautiful sky above.

Pictures below were taken from the roof of the old port building were Museum of the History of Catalonia (Museu D'Història De Catalunya) is located now. There is a nice restaurant with great views on the roof, where we enjoyed our cappuccino.

This is a picture of an ordinary street in the historical center of the city.

One of the cathedral hidden in the narrow streets of Gothic Quarter.

We also visited Picasso museum. He was born and worked in Barcelona. The museum is located in the old stone building. This is the yard inside it.

That's it for Barcelona trip! Thanks for joining.
Will be back soon with new stories from Italy, as we've recently been there. Yes, I was writing about Barcelona so long, that we've managed to have another journey already.

Exploring Barcelona p.3. Sagrada Familia

This is the third part of our Barcelona trip story. Previous two parts are here and here. This part is about the greatest Gaudi's creation - Sagrada Familia Cathedral. It's been building since 1882 and is expected to be completed by 2026. The reason of such a long building process is the financing - it is being built only on the anonymous donations.
We visited Basilika and the towers (entrance ticket costed us 18 euros per person). You also can buy a ticket online and avoid very long queues.
Sagrada Familia is really huge. I mean REALY big and beautiful.
This is how it looks in the panorama of the city (the picture was taken from the top of the hill in Park Güell).

The sculptures on the facade are gorgeous and very detailed.

Now let's go inside.
The ceilings are so high. People look like tiny ants here. Columns are of a different forms, textures and made of different materials. The main idea that Gaudi wanted to implement is to make them look like trees.

Just look at the ceilings, so graceful.

Now the mosaics.

They are also in progress, some windows have only simple glass. But those windows that already have the mosaics installed are stunning. The color mixture of lights creates a special atmosphere and feelings.

I felt very special inside, realizing all this huge work, that been done with stone to create such a monumental building, this is really very impressive. I would say that Sagrada Familia is the cathedral that impressed me the most among other cathedrals and churches I've seen. The project itself is very huge and complicated. Gaudi didn't like to use usual forms in his creations, no straight lines, no flat surfaces. He tried to reproduce natural shapes and forms with parabolic, hyperbolic, spiral lines and surfaces - and this is a very difficult task in construction, especially if using stone.

After our amazement calmed a little bit and we could breathe normally again, we went to the elevator that picked us to the towers of the Sagrada Familia. The towers are very tall, and those that are open to the public and finished are not the tallest. The tallest and largest tower will be in the middle and it is not done yet.

A great panoramic view of the city opens from the towers.

The construction is going all the time. The large cranes and technical buildings are installed on the roof. This looks impressive - a large crane at the large cathedral building it large and larger, higher and higher. There are a lot of workers, construction noise is heard everywhere, Sagrada Familia keeps growing.

And few more views.

Hope you enjoyed our Sagrada Familia journey. Sorry for so many photos, there were so many things I wanted to show you. This is definitely a much visit place in Barcelona.

Discovering Craftsy

Have you heard about Craftsy?
I've discovered this new community some time ago. It looks very nice, with lots of craft classes, patterns and so on. And a lot of them are free. You can buy or sell patterns, attend classes, etc. I have already tried a free Bag Making class - it shows how to make a reversible tote and a zipper pouch. I liked the quality of the video, detailed explanations, bunch of features like video notes, ability to ask questions, everything is on a high level.
I was surprised to know that they have no fees for sellers - no listings fees, no selling fees, no other fees, you don't need to renew your item in the list paying the fee every half of the year. Wow, that looks attractive! As far as their main activity is selling courses, yarn, etc., they've created that selling featured to get more people to their resource. And that works. I have already added my crochet heart earrings pattern to my Craftsy store. Another advantage of thier pattern store is that they handle the download process, so there is no headaches with emails and so on. People buy and download your pattern from the website. I think that's a good alternative to Etsy and other websites.
What do you think about it? Have you tried any courses or created your store?

Crochet earrings with pom-poms

This earrings are my new spontaneous creation. I was walking by the jewelry furniture store, of course I entered and bought some cute details for future creations. When I came home I've already had a clear idea of this colorful ethnic earrings in my mind. And finally I've got an opportunity to use those super cute tiny pom-poms.

The earrings turned out pretty charming, very bright and warm, reminding about summer and sun during this cold rainy days.

Do you like the colors? Hope you do :)
Such earrings are really easy and quick to make. Just 4 rows of single crochet, joining different yarn each row. After that sew the pom-poms and beads to the 4th row.

Crochet red ball earrings

I started working on these earrings quite a long time ago. I've made the balls, bought the furniture and they were laying on the shelf for a while. Then one day I've come across them and decided to complete this work immediately. Here is how they turned out.

Here is the pattern for the crochet balls.
Take a bead and use it as a basis. Beads are especially good for earrings as they keep the form unlike soft fillers.

1 row: make a magic circle and 6 sc (single crochet) into it (6)
2 row: increase* in each stitch (12)
3 row: increase in each 2 stitch (18)
4 row: increase in each 3 stitch (24)
5 row: 1 sc in each stitch (24)
6 row: 1 sc in each stitch (24)
7 row: 1 sc in each stitch (24)
8 row: decrease** in each 3d stitch (18)
9 row: decrease in each 2nd stitch (12)
10 row: decrease in each stitch (6)
11 row: continue decreasing in each stitch to finish the ball without a hole. (0)

* increase means make 2 sc into one stitch
** decrease means merge 2 stitches

Enjoy making your earrings!