Granny Mandala & Tea Cozy

Hello! For some reason I have felt starved for colour lately (perhaps the non-existence of Spring round these parts...) so I finally made a couple projects that I've been wanting to do for a while. Alice over at Crochet with Raymond has some nice tutorials for her own designs, focusing on wonderful, colourful granny designs. I have been salivating over her Spring Explosion Tea Cosy ever since I saw it a couple of months ago, but decided to start small & work up :) First, I had to discover the US equivalent for New Zealand 8-ply wool, which is DK weight. Then, since I usually work in fingering, lace, or worsted weight yarns, I had to order a rainbow of DK weight yarn (I went for KnitPicks' Swish DK superwash wool, dunno why superwash, I ordered it about a month ago...). Then, I had to find my 4.0 mm hook (in a basket of Noro sock wool, go fig...). Then I was ready!

So, of course, I started with one of Alice's Granny Mandalas in Knitpicks Comfy Cotton sport weight with a size F/3.75 mm hook.

I like the chromatic progression of colour up to & including the dark green, but then I just didn't have the right shades to pull it off. It was good practise though, & I'll probably make a smaller one in wool to go under the tea cosy.

For the Granny Tea Cosy I used the DK weight wool & 4.0 mm hook. I adapted Alice's pattern a bit as I went along, making 2-row stripes instead of one-row (gives it a rick-rack look :) and I also did it in the round at the bottom (she fastens it with a button), which fits over my tea pot just fine (this is one of my larger tea pots, too). You can see the knob on top just peeking out here, which is one of the details that sold me on this pattern. I like the chromatic progression of this yarn much better. It just took me an evening to make, so it was a very quick & rewarding project! And colourful!!!