African Flower Mandala

I read about Lucy’s “Mandala Wheels for Yarndale” a month or so ago (click the link to read her post.) I was immediately inspired to crochet one myself. After all, who doesn’t love a colorful crochet circle, even if it doesn’t have any particular use? The world would be boring if everything had to be useful!

I was browsing along, looking for nice free mandala patterns, when I happened upon the “African Flower Square” from Made in K-Town.  I found it interesting that the African Flower actually started out as a hexagon, but the tutorial was for converting it into a square. It made me wonder what else an African Flower could become…and then I realized it would make an awesome mandala!

I think it could use some steam blocking later, but I was eager to share it with you guys. If you know how to make an African Flower, this will be super easy for you, all I did was add three rounds to the flower motif to make it into a circle. It’s really nothing fancy, I wanted it to turn out Lucy-size (7 inches), and it only took a few rounds to get there. But if you want to make your own flower mandala, I have included the modifications below.

For my mandala, I used:

• Worsted weight yarn (I used I Love This Yarn) in three colors: I did gray, yellow, and cream. Because of my dwindling yarn stash, I did not have a plethora of colors to choose from, sadly.
• An H (5.00 MM) crochet hook

First of all, make an African Flower. As I mentioned, I followed ~THIS TUTORIAL~ on Made in K-Town. It has step by step pictures and very good directions. Stop after Round 5, where your flower should be complete.

Round 6: Join yarn to 4th stitch between spike single crochets. Ch 1, sc in same st and in next st. Hdc in next 2 sts. Dc in next stitch (which should be the spike single crochet from the previous round.) Hdc in next 2 sts. *Sc in next 3 sts, hdc in next 2 sts, dc in next (spike) stitch, hdc in next 2 sts* around. One stitch will remain, sc in that stitch. Sl st to first sc to join. Fasten off if you wish to change color, I kept going with the same one.

Round 7: Ch 4, dc in same st. *Sk next 2 sts, (dc, ch 2, dc) in next st* around until there are 3 sts left. Sk next st, (dc, ch 2, dc) in next st, sk last st, sl st to 2nd ch of beg ch-4 to join.

Round 8: Sl st in next ch-2 space. Ch 1, make 5 sc in the same space. (5 sc in next ch-2 space) around. Sl st to first sc to join. Fasten off, weave in ends. (I like to crochet over my ends as I go, otherwise it’s a real nightmare at the end of a mandala!)

Here’s a chart for the modified last rounds, in case that helps any. You’ll notice the symbol on Round 5 is a half double crochet (T) where it should be a single crochet (t or X). Sorry about that. I’m still very new to charting, but I thought this was a good time to practice.

Have you made any mandalas? If not, I would totally recommend it. Usually they’re a fairly quick project (unless you pick something massive like the Starflower Mandala, which, if I get enough yarn, I am so trying.) You get to experiment with colors, and have something pretty at the end…what could be better? Sales pitch ended. 🙂

There are so many awesome mandalas I want to make ~ HERE are a few patterns to choose from on Attic24. I have caught the mandala bug, have you? If not, it’s not too late…:)

Have a great day filled with mandalas!