Squaring the circle - Mandala Madness blanket

So, it is finally complete. The last of the four blankets that I started just over a year ago is the first one that has been completed to the end of the squared up design. I really liked the blanket when it was just a circle but I love it now that it is a square. I think that it completes it somehow, especially with the choice of wool and colours that I have used.

The squaring up was so much easier to do than I first thought that it would be. The one thing though that I did have to concentrate on was getting my stitch count right when working on the corners pieces as I knew that if they were wrong that I would end up with a rather wobbly shape rather than a square! The other thing that I have found really hard to do is completing it in this very hot weather that we have been having. The thought of having this big blanket on me to work on feared me with dread but I managed to somehow get the majority of it to one side so only the very bare minimum was on me. A very different scenario to earlier on in the year when we had snow and I was so keen to snuggle under it to do a few more stitches.

The pattern for the whole blanket is by two different designers, Helen Shrimpton and Ineke Mooijenkind, and they flow seamlessly. Helen wrote and designed the inner circle and Ineke wrote the latter part of how to square the circle. The latter part is so very similar in style that it works so very well. I have loved doing both sections and have learned so much. I used in total 14 of the Stylecraft Batik swirls and limited myself to using just 4 of the different colourways in their cakes. This wool is so soft and an absolute dream to work with. I was really unsure of how the variegated style of the wool would look especially when the blanket got bigger as I knew that the different colours would not make it all the way around and I would have to just live with that fact rather than trying o control where the colours would fall. I was also unsure of putting the blue and green cake in against all the purples and pinks. I think choosing the cake that had a lot of greys and lilacs really helped to bridge the gap between these two and helped soften what would have been quite an abrupt change. I do like however that it is the blue and green cake that finished off both the circle and the square. A very happy accident. There is only so much you can plan out in your mind!

I love this blanket pattern. Now to finish the other three.............